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| Photo by Sean Mattison |
We are thrilled to announce that acclaimed poet Carolyn Forché will teach at this year’s Tutka Bay Writers Retreat, Sept. 5-7, 2014. Do consider joining us for an intensive, generative weekend workshop, “Writing on Tutka Bay: New Poems, New Passages.” This year’s retreat is designed for poets and memoirists who want to write new work and learn new techniques for revision. Poets will write poetry and memoirists will write new passages of their memoir, with much sharing and maybe a little crossing over! Early registration opens to 49 Writers members at the Kobuk level and above on Saturday, Mar. 1, when eligible members will receive email notification that registration is open. General registration will open on Monday, Mar. 10.
Congratulations to Judy Kesler of Anchorage, who as our 200th current member wins a $45 tuition voucher in recognition of that distinction!
We have two great emerging authors on our program in the next couple of weeks – this is your last chance to sign up for “Flash Fiction in a Flash” with Katey Schultz on Saturday, Mar. 8, 9am-4pm. For more information about the class and to register, visit our website. Katey will also give a Reading & Craft Talk at Great Harvest Bread on Thursday, Mar.6, 7pm entitled “Why Alaska?” She will also make appearance in the following communities:
- Monday, Mar. 3, 6pm, Homer Public Library: Reading & Talk, “Where Research Meets the Imagination”3 March • Homer
- Friday, Mar. 7, 6pm, Girdwood Library: Reading & Discussion
- Monday, Mar. 9, 2pm, Fireside Books, Palmer: Reading & Discussion
The following weekend, Sitka author Brendan Jones will teach a weekend class, “Submitting Your Book: The First 20 Pages,” Friday, Mar. 14 to Sunday, Mar. 16. He will also take part in a Meet the Author event for members on Thursday, Mar. 13 – be sure to RSVP to your invitation if you plan to attend.
It’s happening in Juneau and Southeast! We have a slew of events coming up in March for local writers and lovers of literature. Big thanks to our Juneau board members Katrina Pearson and Joan Pardes for organizing these activities on the ground. Our growing membership in Southeast helps to make this possible–if you’re not yet a member and would like to join, click here for more information.
- Monday, Mar. 3, 6-9pm, Metlakatla editor Ali McCart will teach a fiction intensive, “Fantastic First Impressions,” at the JAHC Gallery. Click here to register for for Juneau classes.
- Wednesday, Mar. 12, 6-7pm, Sitka Library: Don Rearden Reading and book signing
- Thursday, Mar. 13, 7-9pm, Coppa: Don Rearden Meet-the-Author event in Juneau for 49 Writers members.
- Friday, Mar. 14, 4-6pm, Haines Library: Don Rearden reading and book signing
- Saturday, Mar. 15, 1-4pm, Egan Library, UAS Juneau Campus: “Complex and Conflicted Characters” with Don Rearden
Wednesday, Mar. 12, 7-8:30pm, Anchorage Museum: Don’t miss “Essaying Alaska,” a Crosscurrents conversation featuring Sherry Simpson (Dominion of Bears) and Christine Byl (Dirt Work).
AWP BOOK SIGNINGS
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| Signings at the Cirque, UAA Creative Writing Program/VP&D House booth, 725 |
The most elusive events on the schedule, I find, so here’s a roundup of signings at the AWP Bookfair today Friday, Feb, 28, by Alaskan authors:
10:30am, 1904 (Milkweed Editions): Sean Hill, Dangerous Goods
10:30am, 1802/1804/1806 (Red Hen Press): Peggy Shumaker, Toucan Nest
11am, 1802/1804/1806 (Red Hen Press), Susanna Mishler, Termination Dust, and Melina Draper, Later the House Stood Empty
3pm, 100, 102 (AWP): Joan Naviyuk Kane, Hyperboreal
3pm, C34 (UA Press): Carolyn Kremers, Upriver
3:30pm, C34: Mei Mei Evans, Oil and Water
4pm, 2007/2005 (University of Pittsburgh Press): Joan Naviyuk Kane, Hyperboreal
4pm, C34: John Morgan, River of Light
4:30pm, C34: Holly Hughes, Sailing by Ravens
Saturday, March 1
10:30am, 1802/1804/1806 (Red Hen Press), Susanna Mishler, Termination Dust
11am, 725 (Cirque/UAA/VP&D): Christine Byl, Dirt Work
12:30pm, 1802/1804/1806, Eva Saulitis, Into Great Silence, Many Ways to Say It
1:30pm, C11 (Cascadia Artist in Residency Network): Peggy Shumaker, Toucan Nest
1:20pm, 1802/1804/1806 (Red Hen Press), Melina Draper, Later the House Stood Empty
Monday, March 3, 5-7pm, UAA Campus Bookstore: “Bi-lingual Expressions, Parents and Poets.” At this event, Vered Mares and Melina Draper discuss their unusually close relations with their parents, their life and poetry. Melina Draper is author ofLater the House Stood Empty (2014). She and her mother, Argentinian poet Elena Lafert, are authors of the acclaimed book of poetry Place of Origin~Lugar de Origen–winner of the 2009 International Latino Book Award for Best Bilingual Poetry Book. Vered Mares is publisher of VP&D House. Her father, E.A. Tony Mares, is professor at University of New Mexico and renowned poet and translator. His books include Ode to los librotraficantes and Astonishing Light: Conversations I Never Had With Patrociño Barelo.
Thursday, Mar. 6, 5-7pm, UAA Campus Bookstore: “Among 10,000: The AWP Conference and Literary Alaska.” At AWP Conference 2014, Cirque Literary Magazine, VP&D publishing house and UAA’s MFA Creative Writing Program shared a booth and represented Alaska. Why is this mega-writing conference important? How can an Alaska writer engage with AWP in the future? And what happens when students of Theodore Roethke share stories? Join poet and Cirque editor Sandy Kleven and literary colleagues to find out.
All UAA Campus Bookstore events are informal, free and open to the public. There is free parking for bookstore events in the South Lot, the West Campus Central Lot (behind Rasmuson Hall), the Sports Lot and the Sports NW Lot. For more information call Rachel Epstein at 786-4782 or email repstein2@uaa.alaska.edu. Visit iTunes U (search UAA or UAA Campus Bookstore) to find great literary events!
Friday, Mar. 7, 5:30-7:30pm, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 427 D Street, Anchorage, there will be a First Friday opening reception for the exhibition Alaska Quarterly Review’s “Afghan Americans,” a photo essay by acclaimed documentary photographer Andrea Bruce, The exhibition runs through Saturday, March 29th. In this compelling work, intimacy and familiarity pervades Andrea Bruce’s exploration of how Afghan-Americans living in Afghanistan define themselves, and at how they bridge the two very different cultures that they love but often find to be at odds. “Afghan Americans: Diptychs,” published originally in AQR, was subsequently recognized and excerpted by The New Yorker. Friday, April 25 at TapRoot: Save the date for the AQR launch party for the next issue of this distinguished literary journal.
A reminder from Cirque that the equinox deadline for submission approaches (March 21). Send your best work! Send your art (1 mg or larger)! New submission address is cirque.submits@gmail.com.
Call for Interested writers, actors and directors for One Minute Play Festival in Anchorage! Perseverance Theatre is partnering with Dominic D’Andrea, Producing Artistic Director of the One Minute Play Festival to produce the Alaska One Minute Play Festival April 14 & 15 in Anchorage, Alaska. If you are a writer, actor and/or director who would like to be involved in working on this community building project, please email ASAP to Bostin Christopher at Perseverance Theatre: bostin@perseverancetheatre.org. Please note: you do not have to be a professed playwright to participate as a writer in this venture. Click here for more information.