It’s always a pleasure to round off the week by sharing news of the accomplishments of members of the Alaskan literary community.
First of all, two poems by Alaska writers have been selected for installation on permanent signs in Alaska’s state parks as part of Poems in Place, a collaborative project to install poetry outside in state parks throughout Alaska. The steering committee recently selected two winning entries from a diverse outpouring of poems written by Alaskans. Tom Sexton’s poem, “Independence Mine, August”, will be placed in Independence Mine State Historical Park near Palmer. Tim Troll’s poem, “ The Wisdom of the Old Ones”, will be installed at Lake Aleknagik State Recreational Site/ Wood Tikchik State Park near Dillingham. Local creative writing workshops will accompany the installation and dedications to be held in late summer or early fall 2014.
The Poems in Place project will be seeking poems by Alaskans in 2014-2015 for Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park in Kodiak and Caines Head State Recreational Area in Seward. Information will be posted later this year in local newspapers and on the Alaska Center for the Book website. The Poems in Place project is supported by the Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Humanities Forum, the Usibelli Foundation, the Alaska Poetry League, Alaska Center for the Book, and numerous generous individuals.
Congratulations go to this year’s Contributions to Literacy in Alaska (CLIA) award winners: Honorees include former Alaska writer laureate Nancy Lord, of Homer; Palmer bookstore owner David Cheezem; and the Alaska Native Language Archive at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The CLIA awards are presented annually by the Alaska Center for the Book, Alaska’s liaison with the U.S. Library of Congress Center for the Book. The awards go to people and institutions who have made a significant contribution in literacy, the literary arts, or the preservation of the written or spoken word in Alaska. Nearly 70 people and organizations statewide have been honored over the past 22 years.
Sunday, July 13, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Reading Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents Rebecca Solnit, keynote writer for this year’s residency.
Monday, July 14, 4-6pm, UAA Campus Bookstore: Award-winning author Melinda Moustakis will read from her story collection and discuss her writing. Born in Fairbanks, Melinda captures the sense of Alaska in her acclaimed book Bear Down Bear North: Alaska Stories, which won the Flannery O’ Connor Award and the Maurice Prize.
Monday, July 14, 8pm, Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Readings Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents readings by Ed Allen, Eva Saulitis, and Valerie Miner.
Tuesday, July 15, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Contributions to Literacy in Alaska (CLIA) Awards followed by a staged a staged reading of Zack Rogow’s “Tangled Love: The Life and Work of Yosano Akiko,” part of the Northern Renaissance Arts and Sciences Reading Series of UAA’s summer low-residency MFA program. Rogow, an associate faculty member of the MFA program, is the author, editor or translator of 20 books and plays. Steven Hunt, director of the performance, is a director, playwright, and assistant professor of theater at UAA. Free and open to the public.
Wednesday, July 16, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Readings Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents readings by this year’s graduating students.
Thursday, July 17, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Readings Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents readings by Guest Poet Susanna Mishler, Andromeda Romano-Lax, and Linda McCarriston.
Saturday, July 19, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Readings Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents readings by Elizabeth Bradfield, Carolyn Turgeon, and Sherry Simpson.
Sunday, July 20, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Readings Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents readings by Rich Chiappone, Nancy Lord, and Jo-Ann Mapson.
Monday, July 21, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Readings Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents readings by Distinguised Guest Fiction Writer Padgett Powell and Craig Childs.
Tuesday, July 22, 8pm, UAA Arts Building, Room 150: Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Readings Series, in conjunction with UAA MFA Summer Residency, presents readings by David Stevenson, John P. O’Grady, and Anne Caston.
July 6, 7pm, Denali Education Center in McKinley Village, AK. Charles Sheldon Center: “Over the Hills: The Wilderness Act Turns 50” – Join Seth Kantner, Marybeth Holleman, Sean Hill, Erica Watson, and Christine Byl in celebrating the birthday of the Wilderness Act. Free and open to all.
July 13-27: Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Creative Writing Class. Two weeks of writing with master teachers and a lively group of participants. Experience welcome but not necessary. Click here for more information.
July 20-26: The Island Institute hosts the Sitka Symposium at Sheldon Jackson Campus in Sitka. This year’s theme, “Radical Imagining: Changing the Story With Stories of Change” will explore dominant narratives of our culture in relation to the challenges of our time, and consider empowering stories of transformative change initiated by people in communities large and small. Leading the Symposium will be Winona LaDuke, Luis Alberto Urrea, Alan Weisman, and Molly Sturges.
July 22-28: The Wrangell Mountain Writing Workshop in McCarthy presents: True Story, with Tom Kizzia, Frank Soos, and Nancy Cook. During this five-day workshop, writers will explore the craft of creative nonfiction: drafting compelling narratives that tell true stories. Click here for more information.
August 22-24, Center for Alaska Coastal Studies‘ Peterson Bay Field Station (across Kachemak Bay from Homer): Line by Line in Kachemak Bay: a writer and artist retreat led by Marilyn Sigman and Marilyn Kirkham. Join them for tidepooling and forest walks guided by CACS naturalists, followed by guided exercises to help you transform natural history and scientific information into creative nonfiction and visual art that combines lines of text and line sketches. Registration $225, including water taxi transportation, food, two nights lodging, and a journal. For more information and to sign up, contact info@akcoastalstudies.org or 907-235-6667.