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| The Governor’s Official Proclamation of Alaska Book Week |
Remember that tonight, Sept. 30 at 7pm you can help officially launch our fall literary season by attending the 49 Writers Student Reading and Celebration at the 49 Writers Café at Out North (3800 DeBarr Rd). All are welcome to celebrate with us as former students read short selections from their work. Thanks to the generous folks at Great Harvest Bread Company, you’ll have a chance to win a gift card if you attend.
Remember, too, that we’re recruiting instructors for our WYAK Write Young Alaska effort. If you’re a writer who’d like to help kids get excited about writing, we want to hear from you by October 1 . We’re working to secure funding so that we can offer payment to workshop instructors.
Have you made your Alaska Book Week plans yet? Alaska Governor Sean Parnell has made our Alaska Book Week official. Beginning in only 8 days (October 8), Alaska readers, writers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, and teachers are joining in a statewide celebration of Alaska’s authors and books. Panel discussions, book displays, author visits, and book club events are among the activities planned from Barrow to Sitka. (Here’s a tip: if you check the Authors Page, you’ll find that acclaimed author Heather Lende is available for electronic Alaska Book Week appearances.)
Communities throughout the state are encouraged to come up with their own unique Alaska Book Week events, all featured on the Alaska Book Week website, thanks to incredible Alaska Book Week volunteer Cheryl Lovegreen. Time’s running out to order free Alaska Book Week posters and bookmarks; the last shipment will be October 4. From October 8-15 we’re offering giveaways of Alaska books to those who comment on our posts at www.alaskabookweek.com .
In Anchorage, Alaska Book Week festivities include a 49 Writers Crosscurrents onstage conversation on “Fictional Truth” featuring Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction winners Melinda Moustakis (Bear Down Bear North) and Frank Soos (Double Moon, Under Northern Lights) on Oct. 14 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.
To wrap up the week, on Oct. 15 Moustakis, whose work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, and the New England Review among other journals, will teach a three-hour course “Writing and the Creative Spark” at the 49 Alaska Writing Center. Registration is required at www.49writingcenter.org. Don’t wait too long to register: Andromeda’s Time in Narration course that begins Oct. 4 is already full, though we’re still taking registrations for other courses, including Leslie Hsu Oh’s Truth or Dare Nonfiction Workshop that begins Oct. 7.
In addition, if you bring your membership card (yes – we now have membership cards) to our new 49 Writers Café at Out North for our first open studio session on Sunday, Oct. 9, 1-4 pm, you’ll receive a free cup of Raven’s Brew coffee. So don’t delay – join or renew today. Even if you’re renewing, please fill out the membership form so we can make sure our contact information is current. Membership is a great way to support all of our work at 49 Writers – plus you get discounts and invitations to special members-only events.
Congratulations to C. Wehde and Kailey Witrosky, winners of the WYAK Zombies Invade Alaska contest. We’re thrilled to have had so many wonderful entries, including many from outside of Anchorage. Our awesome WYAK volunteer contest coordinator Jen Walker has already teamed us with 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.
Remember, too, that we’re recruiting instructors for our WYAK Write Young Alaska effort. If you’re a writer who’d like to help kids get excited about writing, we want to hear from you by October 1 . We’re working to secure funding so that we can offer payment to workshop instructors.
Have you made your Alaska Book Week plans yet? Alaska Governor Sean Parnell has made our Alaska Book Week official. Beginning in only 8 days (October 8), Alaska readers, writers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, and teachers are joining in a statewide celebration of Alaska’s authors and books. Panel discussions, book displays, author visits, and book club events are among the activities planned from Barrow to Sitka. (Here’s a tip: if you check the Authors Page, you’ll find that acclaimed author Heather Lende is available for electronic Alaska Book Week appearances.)
Communities throughout the state are encouraged to come up with their own unique Alaska Book Week events, all featured on the Alaska Book Week website, thanks to incredible Alaska Book Week volunteer Cheryl Lovegreen. Time’s running out to order free Alaska Book Week posters and bookmarks; the last shipment will be October 4. From October 8-15 we’re offering giveaways of Alaska books to those who comment on our posts at www.alaskabookweek.com .
In Anchorage, Alaska Book Week festivities include a 49 Writers Crosscurrents onstage conversation on “Fictional Truth” featuring Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction winners Melinda Moustakis (Bear Down Bear North) and Frank Soos (Double Moon, Under Northern Lights) on Oct. 14 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.
To wrap up the week, on Oct. 15 Moustakis, whose work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, and the New England Review among other journals, will teach a three-hour course “Writing and the Creative Spark” at the 49 Alaska Writing Center. Registration is required at www.49writingcenter.org. Don’t wait too long to register: Andromeda’s Time in Narration course that begins Oct. 4 is already full, though we’re still taking registrations for other courses, including Leslie Hsu Oh’s Truth or Dare Nonfiction Workshop that begins Oct. 7.
If you’re a 49 Writers member
, there’s a good chance your membership expires tomorrow (Oct. 1) unless you’re among those who answered last week’s call to renew. And remember that thanks to Barb Hood of the Great Harvest Bread Company, the first 100 people who activate or renew a 49 Writers membership between Sept. 23 and Nov. 1 will receive a coupon for a free loaf of delicious Great Harvest Bread along with their membership cards.In addition, if you bring your membership card (yes – we now have membership cards) to our new 49 Writers Café at Out North for our first open studio session on Sunday, Oct. 9, 1-4 pm, you’ll receive a free cup of Raven’s Brew coffee. So don’t delay – join or renew today. Even if you’re renewing, please fill out the membership form so we can make sure our contact information is current. Membership is a great way to support all of our work at 49 Writers – plus you get discounts and invitations to special members-only events.
Congratulations to C. Wehde and Kailey Witrosky, winners of the WYAK Zombies Invade Alaska contest. We’re thrilled to have had so many wonderful entries, including many from outside of Anchorage. Our awesome WYAK volunteer contest coordinator Jen Walker has already teamed us with 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.
The Alaska Quarterly Review’s Fall/Winter 2011 Issue will be released on Thursday October 6: it will be available in paperback or as an e-Book. Come out for First Friday, October 7, 7pm at Jitters, 11301 Old Glen Highway, Eagle River, for the debut of Alaska Native writer David Singyke and for the music of the UAA Jazz Quartet. The Alaska Quarterly Review may be purchased in an electronic version through amazon.com or from local bookstores around the state. For more information, please see the website (subscriptions can be purchased here too).
Today, Friday September 30, at 3pm, Jonathan Engelhardt, Acquisitions Editor for the UAF Press will give a craft talk titled “Like an Off-Tempo Waltz: Writers and Editors” in the Kayak Room of the Fairbanks Arts Association, Fairbanks.
Also Today, Friday September 30, 4pm, J.A. Jance, “Amazing Mystery Writer,” will be reading and signing books at the UAA Campus Bookstore. Free and open to all (free parking also).
In Fairbanks tonight, Friday September 30, 7pm, the UAF Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series presents Dr Johnny Payne and James Englehardt. Wood Center Ballroom, UAF.
On Saturday October 1, 1pm, Christie Lonie will be signing “Life by the Lynn,” a new book about the shrine to St. Therese, at Hearthside Books and Toys, Nugget Mall, 8745 Glacier Hwy, Juneau.
On Sunday, October 2, 11am, the fourth meeting of the “Young Writer Venue Development Committee” will take place in the Meeting Room of the Downtown Kaladi Brothers. Their aim is to promote the Anchorage community of young writers by working with them to develop a circuit of venues for young writers to perform poetry and spoken word projects. Please bring your ideas!
On Monday October 3, 6pm, the UAA Student Union hosts Viva La Poem!–a community-centered poem-sharing. Read a poem of your own, or a poem you love. Free admission, free participation. UAA Student Union, 3211 Providence Drive. Email StudentUnionPoetry@gmail.com for more information.
The Alaska Center for the Book monthly meeting will take place at Loussac Library, 3600 Denali St, Anchorage, on Wednesday October 5 at 6pm.
Also at Loussac Library on Wednesday October 5, also at 6pm, Nancy Pearl will speak on “The Pleasures and Perils of a Life of Reading” as part of the library’s 25th Anniversary Celebrations. Wilda Marston Theatre.
The featured poet for October’s Poetry Parley (October 19, 7pm) will be May Swenson. If you’re interested in reading one or some of Swenson’s poems, please contact DC McKenzie, who has taken over the reins, asap. The local poet of the month will be Kima Hamilton.
The Fourth Edition of the Delmarva Review has been released. Fiction writers are encouraged to enter the “Delmarva Review Short Story Prize” contest, offering cash prizes up to $500 for first place, plus publication in the 2012 issue. The nonprofit competition, open to all writers, will end on November 1, 2011. See the website for “Contest” details.Writers interested in submitting their work for consideration in the next issue should consult the Review’s website for submission dates and guidelines.