Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Alaska Book Week begins tomorrow (October 8)!  Have you made your plans yet?  We’ve distributed 5000 bookmarks and a bunch of posters statewide to honor Alaska authors and books.  Visit our Alaska Book Week site to let us know how you plan to celebrate.  In fact, you’ll want to bookmark the site to visit all next week:  each day we’ll give away a free Alaska book in a random drawing to someone who leaves a comment on that day’s post.

At 49 Writers, our celebration begins early:  tonight (October 7), Leslie Hsu Oh’s Truth or Dare Nonfiction Workshop starts.  Then it’s on to the first open studio session at our new 49 Writers Cafe at Out North Arts House, 3800 DeBarr Rd, where we packed the house last week for our first Student Reading and Celebration.  This Sunday (October 9) from 1-4 pm all writers are invited to chat, work, or just hang out at the Writers Cafe.  49 Writers members get a free cup of Raven’s Brew coffee!

We’ll wrap up the week with our October 14 Crosscurrents onstage conversation on “Fictional Truth” featuring Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction winners Melinda Moustakis (Bear Down Bear North) and Frank Soos (Unified Field Theory; Early Yet) at 7 pm in the Anchorage Museum of Rasmuson Auditorium.  A question and answer session and book-signing will follow.  Copies of the Alaska Quarterly Review featuring a story by Moustakis will also be available.  There is no charge for 49 Writers and museum members; a $5 donation is suggested for non-members. 

The next day (October 15) Moustakis, who was just named one of the National Book Award’s “five under thirty-five” to watch, will teach a three-hour course “Writing and the Creative Spark” at the 49 Alaska Writing Center.  Registration is required at www.49writingcenter.org.  

October is our membership drive month.  We’ve been busy mailing membership cards and coupons for free bread from the Great Harvest Bread Company to all who’ve joined and renewed memberships.  If you haven’t already, please join in supporting our work on behalf of Alaska’s writers and books. Fulltime students take note:  we now offer student memberships for only $20 per year.

Young writers take note:  the first WYAK writers group for writers ages 12-18 meets Monday, October 10 at 6:30 pm at Teen Underground on the third floor of the Loussac Library.  All are welcome; bring writing to share or just stop by to see what it’s all about. And registration is now open for the free WYAK workshop Jumpstart Your Writing on Oct. 28 and 29.  We’ve also teamed with KSKA’s Kids These Days to offer a new contest for young writers.  Aspiring writers ages 10-20 from anywhere in Alaska are invited to write about what it means to be a kid these days.  Two winners (one from each age group) will get to read their work aloud on the air.  The entry deadline is Oct. 21.  Details are at www.wyakcontests.com.  

Today, Friday October 7, 6pm, join authors Jim Misko, Marthy Johnson, John Creed and Susan Andrews, who will present their triple-national-award-winning anthology, “Purely Alaska: Authentic Voices from the Far North.” Barnes and Noble, 200 E. Northern Lights, Anchorage.

Tonight, Friday October 7, 7pm, don’t miss Alaska Quarterly Review‘s First Friday Series, featuring writer David Singyke and the UAA Jazz Quartet. Jitters, 11301 Old Glenn Hwy, Eagle River.

Also tonight, Friday October 7, 6-8pm, join Writer Laureate Peggy Shumaker for a reception and hear her read from her most recent books, including “Just Breathe Normally” at The Hangar, Talkeetna, as the opening of the Great Talkeetna Festival of Books…

which starts Saturday October 8, 8am: The Great Talkeetna Festival of Books will take place at the Talkeetna Public Library–“Well-Behaved Books Rarely Make History.”

On Monday October 10, 5-7pm, Marilyn Forrester will present “Teaching in the Bush” at the UAA Campus Bookstore.

On Wednesday October 12, 7-8.30, Alaska Center for the Book is hosting a discussion about our collective identity through the writings of Alaska authors, particularly as it relates to our (collective) sense of place. Loussac Library Public Conference Room (on the first floor). Refreshments will be served.

On Wednesday October 12, 6pm, artists Jon and Jona Van Zyle will be signing books at Gulliver’s Books, 3525 College Rd, Fairbanks.

On Wednesday October 12, 5-7pm, Alex Hills will present “Dawn of Wi-Fi” at the UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307.

On Wednesday October 12, 6.30-8.30, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators will be meeting at the Starbucks on Dimond and New Seward. Bring 3-4 pages of a manuscript or picture book, if you wish, for group feedback.

Next Friday October 14, 4-5pm at the UAA Campus Bookstore and 6-8pm at UAA ARTS 150, Dr Connie Mariano will present on her recent book, “The Whitehouse Doctor.”

Also Friday October 14, 7pm, fiction writer Andrew Porter will present as part of the Midnight Sun Visiting Writer Series. Museum of the North, UAF Campus.

Anchorage author Bill Sherwonit’s book Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska’s Arctic Wilderness will be featured in the online discussion forum “America’s WILD READ,” starting in mid-October. Begun in April 2011, the WILD READ blogsite connects a community of writers, readers, teachers, students, scientists, activists, and other “nature enthusiasts” who wish to explore and discuss our species’ complex relationships with wild nature. To date it has featured works by such notable authors as Aldo Leopold, E.O. Wilson, and Robert Michael Pyle. Sherwonit will post four weekly entries tied to Changing Paths beginning Oct. 16. To learn more about America’s WILD READ, go to http://wildread.blogspot.com