Literary Roundup | April 7-20, 2017

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 EVENTS and ANNOUNCEMENTS

Alderworks Alderworks Alaska Writers and Artists Retreat announced their 2017 summer residents:
– X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell, a Tlingit originally from Skagway/Dyea and now assistant professor of Alaska Native languages at University of Alaska Southeast. He will be completing his dissertation on a project that is vital to the heritage and people of our region. (Mary Jane Cabin)
– Gaylord Brewer, a poet, professor of English, and director of the writing program at Middle Tennessee State University, who will be working on a new poetry collection. (Mary Jane Cabin)
– Mary Catharine Martin, currently editor of the Capital City Weekly in Juneau, who is working on her second novel. Alderworks will be her first stop on a journey to the Klondike. (Bea Cabin)
– Jeanette Morrisett, a high school English teacher and writer from Fort Yukon, Alaska, who is at work on her first novel. (Bea Cabin)
– Jessica Rader, a former math teacher who is now immersed in the world of poetic forms through the graduate writing program at the University of Southern Mississippi. (Margaret Cabin)
– Kristen Phipps, an artist from Kansas who earned her painting MFA from the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design. Using camera obscura techniques, she combines fragments of memory and nature into beautiful, unique pieces of art. (Margaret Cabin)

First place-winners of the Fairbanks Arts Association’s 23rd Annual Statewide Poetry Contest talked with KUAC’s Lori Neufeld about what inspires them and then offer a reading of their works. Neufeld’s interviewees include, in this order, this year’s judge, Jeremy Pataky; elementary school winner Darcy Misel; high school winner Sasha Gorda; and adult winner Kersten Christiansen. Stream the story here.

We wrapped a second year of Danger Close: Alaska, a special partnership with the Alaska Humanities Forum. Events included a public Crosscurrents event and a Juneau writing workshop and public Reading and Craft Talk at Mendenhall Valley library. All events featured Brian Castner, author of The Long Walk and All the Ways We Kill and Die. This program falls under AKHF’s Duty Bound initiative. The latest issue of Forum, the magazine of AKHF, includes an interview with Castner (as well as an excerpt from Ernestine Hayes’s new book, and tons of other great content). Go down to the AKHF offices and get a copy (they’re beautifully designed and are now printed perfect-bound by the same shop that prints Edible Alaska), or read up online here.

We are so grateful for your support, Alaska! Thank you for investing in our work through Pick.Click.Give.! 

ANCHORAGE | April 11, 2017, 6:30-8 pm | Anchorage Public Library hosts I Read What I Want Book Club at Mexico in Alaska.

EAGLE RIVER | April 12, 2017, 7 pm | The final Living Room Reading Series reading of the season, Jitters in Eagle River.

ANCHORAGE | April 20, 2017, 7 pm (come early for tea or snacks) at Indigo Tea Lounge (530 East Benson). 49 Writers Reading and Craft Talk Series presents Julie MeMay, “An Alchemy of Words: Mystery and Clarity in a Poem”. The best poems create a sense of mystery without being obscure or unfathomable; they provide a sense of discovery for both the writer and the reader. As a writer what can we do to foster this in our own work? This lecture will discuss the use of imagery, metaphor, and other poetic techniques that can help balance the abstract and concrete. Julie will also discuss methods for generating new poems and honing one’s writing strengths. Brief reading, craft talk, Q&A, and signing. FREE. More info about this series. 

ANCHORAGE | April 27, 2017 at 7 pm, at Great Harvest Bread Co. (570 E. Benson) | National Poetry Month reading featuring poets participating in the 3rd Annual Savor the Rising Words Poetry Broadside Invitational Exhibit. More info about the exhibit and reading.

The 2017 Mat-Su Young Writers Conference, April 29, sponsored by Publication Consultants and the Mat-Su School District, seeks speakers to present on a number of writerly topics. To apply as an author speaker, contact Evan Swensen at evan@Publication Consultants.com.

Registration is open for a Screenwriting class in ANC with Douglass Bourne on May 6, 2017.  Learn more and register now! Also, Doug’s screenplay The Mountain in Alaska won an Honorable Mention at the 2017 Mountain Film Festival and also won the Feature-Length category in The West Field Screenwriting Awards (WFSA), who describe this season as being “WFSA’s largest competition to date, with scripts from four continents and over twenty countries!”

3rd Annual Alaska Audiobook Narrator’s Workshop, presented by Basil Sands. “This could be your ticket to making a good living as an audiobook narrator. Thousands of new audiobooks are being produced every year and the demand keeps growing. And with modern technology, narration work that was once only available if you lived in LA or NYC is now available even here in Alaska!” Friday, May 26, 2017, 9 am until 5 pm, Alaska Communications Business Technology Center, Anchorage. $150. If you are interested email to basil at basilsands dot com with your name and an indication of your experience level, if any, in the following areas: audiobooks, stage acting, on camera acting, radio work. https://www.facebook.com/alaskanarrators/

INTERIOR 

 

FAIRBANKS | Fairbanks Statewide Poetry Contest winners will read in the Bear Gallery, April 14, 2017, 6 pm.

DREDGE at CHATANIKA | April 2, 2017, 2-4 pm, Mile 29 Steese Highway | Fairbanks Arts invites you to an open air, open mic celebration of poetry and lyrics! Bring poetry to read or an instrument to accompany your song lyrics, a picnic lunch, a cushion or camp chair for comfortable seating, lots of warm clothes, and maybe a blanket or two. Fairbanks Sketchers will also be drawing at the event. Wrap up National Poetry Month in a beautiful outdoor setting. More

SOUTHEAST

                                                                   SOUTHWEST

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ARCTIC 

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CONFERENCES, RETREATS, and RESIDENCIES

Break Up & Break Out of Writer’s Block Retreat for Writers and Illustrators | SCBWI and Alaska Writers Guild, May 5-7, 2017 at Knik River Lodge. More info and registration.

North Words Writers Symposium will be May 31-June 3, 2017 in Skagway, Alaska. This year’s keynote speaker is world world travel and fiction writer Paul Theroux. After writing nearly fifty books of nonfiction and fiction set in the most exotic of locales, America’s greatest travel writer is finally headed for one of Alaska’s most notorious: Skagway. Paul Theroux will lead a faculty of seven acclaimed authors at the 8th annual North Words Writers Symposium. A maximum of 50 registrants at the 2017 North Words Symposium will also engage with a faculty of Alaskan writers that includes John Straley, Sherry Simpson, Deb Vanasse, Tom Kizzia, Andy Hall, and Lenora Bell. Learn more and sign up soon; 50 participants max. northwordsinfo@gmail.com

2017 Kachemak Bay Writers Conference will occur June 9-13, 2017 in Homer, Alaska. Keynote speaker will be Jane Smiley. Details and more. SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE: May 1st.

2017 Writers Tutka Bay Writers Retreat will occur September 10-12, 2017. Faculty to be announced very soon. Details.

OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS

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