A big thank you to everyone who participated in last Sunday’s AlaskaPoets in Late Winter Web-chat organized by Sandra Kleven and Andromeda Romano-Lax. Featured poets Tom Sexton, Gretchen Diemer, Kelsea Habecker, and Nicole Stellon O-Donnell talked about how the season heightens their awareness, where they find inspiration, and some of the events that have shaped their lives. Other voices joined in from around the state, including participants in Kodiak, Homer, Sitka, and Fairbanks, In all, a thoughtful and inspirational way to pass a Sunday afternoon in the waning days of winter. Special thanks go to Sandra Kleven for her fine facilitation. To catch up on the discussion, click here.
On Tuesday this week we were treated to a joint reading in the Alaska Landscape gallery at the Anchorage Museum by G.C. Waldrep from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, the award-winning author of four collections of poetry, and Alaska poet Joan Kane – our last Synergies event until August. Joan read from The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife, recently republished by University of Alaska Press, and from Hyperboreal, her upcoming book of poetry. G.C. Waldrep graciously made the stop in Anchorage to share some of his work with us en route to Fairbanks, where he is participating in UAF’s Midnight Sun Visiting Writer Series.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Robin Romm is no longer able to lead this year’s Tutka BayWriters Retreat. Our new retreat leader will be Robin’s friend Pam Houston, who is excited to return to Alaska. You will know Pam as the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, the novel Sight Hound, and a collection of essays called A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, and The Evil Companions Literary Award and multiple teaching awards. Pam is the Director of Creative Writing at U.C. Davis and teaches in The Pacific University low residency MFA program, and at writer’s conferences around the country and the world. She has been touring this year with her new book, Contents May Have Shifted. We are delighted to be able to offer you a weekend of learning and writing in the company of Pam, and hope you will take advantage of the Early Bird registration rates for members and non-members before May 15.
Participation in this year’s Write-a-thon fundraiser on April 13 is growing, including a team in Homer who will be writing at the Homer Council on the Arts building on April 13, starting at 4 pm. 20 people have created fundraising pages so far and raised $1,748. If you have been thinking of registering but not done so yet, now is the time! We need your help to meet and exceed last year’s record of 40 participants who raised $5,667. Remember to tell your supporters that donations are tax-deductible – see the website for tips on soliciting donations. 49 Writers volunteer Lucian Childs currently leads the field with $415 raised by 20 supporters. The top fundraiser will receive a prize on the night of the event, and there will be prize drawings throughout the evening. Look for details of the after-party soon.
The community of Anchorage writers is invited to come read and discuss Russian literature in English translation. In the fall semester, UAA will be offering an experimental class, “Survey of Russian Literature.” Taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 7:15PM, the class will introduce students to the Russian literary tradition, starting with Pushkin’s witty and sparkling novel Eugene Onegin and ending with contemporary prose and poetry. Olga Livshin, a poet and UAA professor of Russian, teaches the class. Registration opens on March 30 (priority registration for current students) and on April 16 for the public.
Tonight, Friday March 30, 7 pm, poet G.C. Waldrep will read in the University of Alaska Fairbanks English Department’s Midnight Sun Visiting Writer Series. Wood Center Ballroom, UAF Campus.
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 31, 10 am, a writers’ critique group will meet at Title Wave Books, Northern Lights Mall, Anchorage. Open to any type of writing and genre; all levels welcome. For more information, call Mary (907) 569 5075.
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 31, 11.30 am, Moose Jaw Seims will be at Fireside Books to perform poems from his book The Ballad of Moose Jaw Seims. 720 S. Alaska St., Palmer.
On Sunday, April 1, 1 pm, Jeff Brown will be signing at Hearthside Books, Nugget Mall, 8745 Glacier Hwy, Juneau.
Sunday April 1, 11.59 pm is the deadline for the Radical Arts for Women short story contest. Open to all women living in Alaska, the contest is named for Nicole Blizzard, a local lesbian writer and editor who passed away in December 2009, the author of Love and Other Mishaps: An Accidental Anthology and editor of the local LGBT literary journal “Naked Ptarmigan.”
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On Monday April 2, 5-7 pm, the UAA Campus Bookstore presents Joan Kane, Don Rearden, Eskimo Bob and Zebadiah Kraft in a discussion on Literature, Suicide and Community. Focusing on the theme of suicide in literature is one way to raise awareness of the emotional toll sorrow has taken in many people’s lives.
On Tuesday, April 3, 6.30 pm, Colleen Mondor will be presenting The Map of My Dead Pilots at Hearthside Books, Nugget Mall, 8745 Glacier Hwy, Juneau.
On Wednesday April 4, 5-7pm, Colleen Mondor will present her book The Map of My Dead Pilots. UAA Campus Bookstore.
On Wednesday April 4, 6pm, Kachemak Bay Campus, KPC/UAA presents Steve Almond in a craft talk, “Funny is the New Deep,” followed by a reading. Campus Commons, Kachemak Bay Campus, Pioneer Ave, Homer. Free and open to all.
On Thursday April 5, 7 pm, poet Joan Kane will read from her collection The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife, poems of adaptation and resilience inspired by her Alaska Native heritage and the Arctic landscape. Book-signing to follow. Anchorage Museum, 625 C St., Anchorage. Free and open to all.
On Thursday April 5, 6.30 pm, there will be a Poetry Omnibus Winners Reading and Reception, Downtown Library, Juneau.
Next Friday, April 6, 7-10 pm, the Homer Public Library presents a celebration of lifelong learning, featuring guest speaker Ray Troll. tickets $25, available at the library.
ONE WEEK UNTIL DEADLINE! Presenters sought by April 6 for Oct. 5-7 “Writers on the Sound” in Edmonds WA (200 max participants.) There is an honorarium (2011: $134 for 75-minute, $161 for 90-minute workshops), and a stipend is available to those traveling more than 100 miles. Please submit a current resume, including other courses/lectures you have given and where; 2 or 3 references; and a description of one or more classes you would like to teach (75 or 90 Min). Information about the conference and a click-through to the PDF flyer for this Call for Presenters is at http://bit.ly/xd5vSX . If you are interested in presenting at the event, please send email to wots@ci.edmonds.wa.us or write to WOTS Presenters, 700 Main St, Edmonds, WA 98020, or call 425 771 0228. Possibility of accommodation for one in private home. View a copy of the 2011 brochure at: www.writeonthesound.com
Next Friday, April 6, Alaska Quarterly Review presents the First Friday series at Jitters, 11401 Old Glenn Highway, Eagle River. This month will feature Jeffery Oliver reading selections from AQR, and musical guests the UAA Jazz Combo.
Alaska Quarterly Review’s Spring and Summer 2012 edition is the first of two 30th anniversary issues. In it you will find the compelling work of five fiction writers and twenty-two poets. You will also find the special feature, “Liberty and Justice (For All)” A Global Photo Mosaic.”
Fairbanks Arts Association and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Art Center will be offering a Teaching Artist’s Training Academy in four sessions from April 25 through May 5. Cost $50. For full details and registration information, contact education@fairbanksart.org; (907) 456 6485 x227