Following Deb’s last post, we had some really good comments building on the idea of creating a sort of “Alaska Critics Circle” to promote the reviewing of Alaska books. I don’t have more to post about this today, but I want to keep the conversation going. What would it take you to become a book reviewer? Do we even need reviews? Comment about this anytime — it’s a conversation we need to keep having as we brainstorm the solutions and network with other litbloggers and innovators out there.
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Since my last comment on this, I’ve also thought engaging teachers of advanced literature classes at the secondary level to involve their best students in an Alaska Critics Circle to promote the reviewing of Alaskan books. And I’d be okay with launching such a project (with the idea that someone else would take the reins after it gets underway), but we need to know that there are readers for these reviews. After all, we can access PW and Booklist reviews for any book they’ve covered through online booksellers.
There’s also the issue that came up when, prompted by Andromeda’s Chinooker Award idea, I asked Sasquatch’s Gary Luke why they discontinued their awards. His response: not enough good books.
Ack! Interesting…I never heard about Gary Luke’s response. You would think, though, that if an award wasn’t annual by genre but rotated (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) and included an entire region, not just one state, that there would be a well-deserving book each year.
I mean reallllly…..
Who were the award’s judges?
Sasquatch sponsored the award – not sure who judged. I didn’t even know they’d had one till Andromeda mentioned it in her Chinooker post, and I only talked with Gary about it for a moment or two last time I same him.
Seems ridiculous to me, the notion that there’s not enough good writing coming out of Alaska — it’s often just so obscure that it can be hard finding it.
My thought is that as long as a book is fresh and I’ve just read it, I would be happy to provide a review. Is there anyone else who doesn’t like to read most books twice? It has nothing to do with the quality of the book, it’s just that there’s so many books, so little time.