Have news, events, or opportunities you’d like to see listed here? Email details to info (at) 49writers.org, preferably with “Roundup” as the subject. Items might get edited for length. Your message must be received by close of business the Wednesday before the roundup is scheduled to run at the latest. Unless your event falls in the “Opportunities and Awards” category, it should occur no more than 30 days from when we receive your email. Thanks! 49 Writers Statewide Roundup appears biweekly, on the first and third Friday of each month. If your short-notice event occurs between a missed deadline and an upcoming Roundup, email us a heads up anyway, and if we can help spread the word in other ways, we will.
EVENTS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
The application period closed and a cohort was selected and notified for our 8th Annual Tutka Bay Writers Retreat this September, led by Louise Erdrich. Thank you to everyone who applied; there was a great deal of interest. In the event of any cancellations, we will activate the waitlist. Other opportunities for the public to meet Erdrich will include a ticketed event in Anchorage on Wednesday evening, Sept 6, and a free public reading in Homer on Thursday, Sept 7. Details to come. Erdrich is the author of fifteen novels as well as volumes of poetry, children’s books, short stories, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel The Round House won the National Book Award for Fiction. The Plague of Doves won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her debut novel, Love Medicine, was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Erdrich has received the Library of Congress Prize in American Fiction, the prestigious PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and more. She lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.
We’re putting together our upcoming season of workshops, classes, Reading & Craft Talk Series and Crosscurrents events, and special events. While much of our instructional calendar is penciled out, we remain receptive to last minute course proposals… if you’re keen to teach this coming term or in the spring, shoot us a proposal through our website.
ANCHORAGE | Monday, July 24, 2017 from 4-6:00 pm at the UAA Campus Bookstore
Kate Partridge and Alyse Knorr return to Anchorage to read from and discuss their new poetry collections, Ends of the Earth and Mega-City Redux. Poet Alyse Knorr is the author of the Mega-City Redux (Green Mountains Review 2017), Copper Mother (Switchback Books 2016), and Annotated Glass (Furniture Press Books 2013) and the non-fiction book Super Mario Bros. 3 (Boss Fight Books 2016). Poet Kate Partridge is the author of the Ends of the Earth (University of Alaska Press 2017) and the hybrid chapbooks Guide to Urban Reindeer (Essay Press 2017) and Intended American Dictionary (MIEL Books 2016). Both Alyse Knorr and Kate Partridge have taught at the UAA. Today, Alyse teaches English at Regis University and Kate is pursuing a PhD as a Dornsife/Graduate School Fellow at the University of Southern California. Free and open to the public. Free parking for this event in the South Lot, Sports Complex NW Lot, West Campus Central Lot, and Sports Campus West Lot.
ANCHORAGE | Friday, July 28, 2017 from 4-6:00 pm at the UAA Campus Bookstore
The Defiant Voice of Sandy Kleven: Poet, Writer, Editor, and Filmmaker ~ Sandy Kleven is an extraordinary woman whose open and honest nature has enhanced the lives of Alaskans. Editor of Cirque, a Literary Journal, she is also author of the short film “To the Moon,” an homage to poet Theodore Roethke, and the poetry collections Defiance Street and Holy Land. Her writings have been published in Alaska Quarterly Review, Oklahoma Review, F Magazine, Stoneboat and in the anthology, Cold Flashes (University of Alaska Press). Raised in Seattle, Sandy spent much of the last 33 years working in Alaska’s village communities. Her early writing focused on the prevention of child sexual abuse throughout Alaska and led to her two children’s books The Right Touch and Talk about Touch. Sandy Kleven works as a clinical social worker. In 2011, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from UAA. In 2015, she was inducted to the Northshore School District Wall of Honor for her contributions to the community and the world. Free parking at UAA on Fridays.
ANCHORAGE | Friday, August 4, from 10:00 am to 11:15 am at the UAA Campus Bookstore
The Power of Words: ASD Multilingual Students Read Original Poetry and Prose ~ Approximately 20 multilingual Anchorage School District students, grades seven through 12, will read original poetry and prose they have written during this summer’s ASD/UAA Summer Academy. The Summer Academy is a partnership between ASD’s English Language Learner Program and UAA’s College Preparatory and Developmental Studies Department. Through this exciting collaboration, over 200 students have spent three and a half weeks on campus. They are earning high school math and English credit from team-taught courses by ASD teachers and UAA faculty. Students are also earning UAA credit for a University Studies course. Everyone is invited to attend. Free parking at UAA on Fridays.
ANCHORAGE | Friday, August 4, 7:30 pm at Anchorage Museum
Live in the Planetarium: Music and Words with Nat Baldwin ~ Immerse yourself in words and sounds of Nat Baldwin. Nat will read from his new book of fiction, The Red Barn, and perform with double bass. Nat’s acclaimed music combines musical arrangement with potent lyrics. Audience advisory: Adult subject matter. $10. Nat Baldwin is a writer and musician living in Portland, Maine. He has released several solo albums and plays bass in Dirty Projectors. The Red Barn is his first book. Buy tickets | More
INTERIOR
Denali National Park | July 21 – 23 – My Wilderness: Storytelling Workshop, a field course offered by Alaska Geographic through the Murie Science and Learning Center. Do you have a story to share about an experience in Denali or another wild land? Join expert story coaches from Anchorage storytelling program ARCTIC ENTRIES as they reveal the secrets to capturing and keeping an audience’s attention just by talking about yourself! Your story can be funny, inspiring, humbling, or something else entirely. Immersed in the wilderness of Denali, we will explore storytelling principles, share our own stories, and learn how to make our story the best it can be. The workshop will culminate with a group storytelling performance — starring you — on the final evening of the course, on the theme of “In the wilderness: stories of being outside, finding yourself, and the trail less traveled.” Course will stay at a field camp located 29 miles inside Denali National Park along the Teklanika River. The Field Camp includes rustic tent cabins and a common dining tent. All meals, accommodations, transportation, and instruction are included in the $400 course fee ($360 for Alaska Geographic members). Professional development credit is available through UAA. For more information or to register, go to http://akgeo.org/field-
SOUTHEAST
WRANGELL | Flying Island Writers & Artists group meets every other Monday 6:30-8:00 pm. Contact Vivian Faith Prescott for more information doctorviv@yahoo.com
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CONFERENCES, RETREATS, and RESIDENCIES
The Wrangell Mountains Center presents Writing on the River: RiverSong from July 26-31, 2017, a six-day, five-night adventure in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This year’s workshop will feature river sprite and musical poet David Grimes, songwriter and journalist Brad Warren, and workshop director Nancy Cook. Together we will explore the ways wilderness can help inspire songs, stories, poems, and essays. Activities include an opening reading/performance and craft sessions in the comfort of the Wrangell Mountains Center’s facility in McCarthy, followed by three nights and four days of creative inquiry along the Kennicott, Nizina, Chitina, and Copper Rivers. Space is limited to nine student writers/ songwriters. More info
2017 Writers Tutka Bay Writers Retreat with Louise Erdrich will occur September 10-12, 2017. Application period is closed. More.
OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS
Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Alaska Arts & Culture Foundation present The Alaska Literary Awards, established in 2014 through a generous gift from Peggy Shumaker and Joe Usibelli. The awards recognize and support writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, and mixed genres. Any Alaska writer over the age of 18 who is not a full-time student is eligible to apply. Quality of the work submitted is the primary consideration in determining who receives the awards. There are no restrictions on the writer’s use of the award and no formal report is required. A select number of $5,000 awards will be awarded annually. The Application Deadline is Friday, September 1, 2017 at 9:59 p.m. AKDT. Learn more and apply here.
Alaska Women Speak is accepting submissions for Fall 2017: Berry Picking/Cherry Picking. Deadline for Submission: August 15, 2017. Guidelines: http://alaskawomenspeak.org
The Alaska Writers Guild will award three separate $500 awards in this year’s Lin Halterman Memorial Award grant program. Deadline: August 15, 2017. More info
Alaska Humanities Forum launches new social practice grant, called HUMAN:ties, offering $10,000 to activate the imaginations of creators statewide to build an advocacy project that defines and illuminates the fabric of homelessness in our state. The application for this grant opportunity is now open and available to all Alaskans. Please visit www.akhf.org/
Alaska Book Week will be October 1-7, 2017. Authors interested in participating are encouraged to contact Elizabeth Waetjen at akbookweek@gmail.com.
September 30, 2017 is the deadline to apply for a 2018 artist residency at Denali National Park. Visual artists, writers, and composers are eligible.
What’s missing? Submit your event or announcement by May 30 to appear in the next Roundup, scheduled to post June 1. Send an email with “Roundup” as the subject to info@49Writers.org.
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