Happy Memorial Day Weekend! We’re on the road like many of you. Do you ever find travel to be a good trigger for your writing? Maybe its similar to the way walking stimulates the ruminating brain. I think car trips and plane rides can have a similar effect–of course seeing new things and new places helps too. If you are going to be at North Words in Skagway, next week, you’ll likely bump into 49 Writers board member, Katie Bausler, and me. We look forward to saying hello.
In Juneau–still a couple of spaces left for the 49 Writers Workshop with Nicole Dieker: Getting started as a Freelancer class. And we’re now just a month away from the application deadline for our Tutka Bay Writers Retreat with guest author Hannah Tinti.
As always, our round-up is built by you letting us know what’s happening in your area. Feel free to submit your announcement for the next Roundup. Send an email with “Roundup” as the subject to 49blog@gmail.com. Thank you!
–Amy
SOUTHCENTRAL
ANCHORAGE | June 2018 | The University of Alaska Campus Bookstore is holding a couple literary events in the coming weeks:
- Thursday, June 21 from 1-3 PM | Tim Kennedy presents “Skyriver Project: Where the Rivers Meet the Sky: A Collaborative Approach to Participatory Development.” The event will highlight how the Lower Yukon Project used film-making as a vehicle for their participatory development goals. Kennedy was the director of the Lower Yukon Project, in Emmonak, in the early 1970s. This experience was the subject of his book, Where the Rivers Meet the Sky: A Collaborative Approach to Participatory Development.
- Thursday, June 21, from 5-7 PM | Craig Childs presents his new book, Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America. The book chronicles the last millennia of the Ice Age, the violent oscillations and retreat of glaciers, the clues and traces that document the first encounters of early humans, and the animals whose presence governed the humans’ chances for survival. Childs has won the Orion Book Award (among several other awards), holds a BA in Journalism from Colorado University, is a commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition, and has taught writing for the UAA MFA Program.
SOUTHEAST
JUNEAU | June 11, 6:30 pm | 49 Writers Workshop – Getting Started as a Freelancer
How do you get started as a freelance writer? Is it possible to turn freelancing into a full-time job? Nicole Dieker is in her sixth year of full-time freelancing, and she’ll teach you everything she knows about how freelancers make money; how to pitch (even when you don’t have clips); how to build a freelancer schedule that combines writing, pitching, networking, and administrative work; and how to grow your earnings over time. Register online.
WRANGELL | Flying Island Writers & Artists group meets every other Monday 6:30-8 PM. Contact Vivian Faith Prescott for more information doctorviv@yahoo.com
HOONAH | June 30 – July 6, 2018 | Environmental Rhetoric: A 3-credit course through University of Alaska Southeast. Join professor Dan Henry at Inian Islands institute for this intensive course on environmental Rhetoric and become a stronger, more persuasive environmental leader. 12 participants. Fee: $400. Meals, lodging, and transport from Juneau provided. For more info please contact professor Dan Henry at mudbase@gmail.com and include a short paragraph on what the class could do for you.
CONFERENCES, RETREATS, and RESIDENCIES
SKAGWAY | May 30 – June 2, 2018 | North Words Writers Symposium in Skagway is now taking registrations for its 2018. Pico Iyer is the keynote writer. Other faculty include Juneau Writer Laureate and Ernestine Hayes, Portland novelist Willy Vlautin, Juneau poet Emily Wall, Ketchikan writer-artist Ray Troll, Washington writer Colleen Mondor, and Fairbanks writer Frank Soos. Features include author panels, writing workshops, and outdoor activities. Limited to 40 participants. Organizers include Buckwheat Donahue, Jeff Brady, Daniel Henry, and John Straley. For more information, click here.
HOMER | June 8-12, 2018 | Registration is open now for the 17th annual Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference. Held in Homer, Alaska, this nationally recognized writing conference features workshops, readings and panel presentations in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and the business of writing. Keynote presenter Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize winner and National Book Award finalist, will be joined by fifteen other writers, poets, and publishing industry professionals. Optional post-conference workshop at Tutka Bay Lodge and boat cruise. All information and faculty bios at the website: http://sites.kpc.alaska.edu/writersconf/. Registration deadline: June 6
McCARTHY | July 26-29, 2018 | Women and the Frontier: Memoir writing workshop. Participants will discover some of the women who traversed Alaska’s frontiers, with artist-in-resident Marianne Monson, the author of Frontier Grit. Through a variety of writing exercises, discussion, and on-location prompts, participants will explore the concepts of wilderness and frontiers in our own lives. Meals and lodging included. Fee: $445. More info and registration here.
TUTKA BAY LODGE | The 9th Annual 49 Writers Tutka Bay Writers Retreat with Hannah Tinti will take place September 7-9, 2018. This generative writers retreat blends craft talks, in-class writing, readings, and discussion with unstructured time to experience the immersive natural environment or concentrate further on writing. Your weekend of instruction and inspiration will take place at Tutka Bay Lodge, named by Fodor in 2012 as one of the World’s Top 100 places to stay. Tutka Bay is a remote and rugged fjord characterized by soaring mountains, secluded beaches, old growth forest, and dramatic tidal fluctuations. To get there you fly or drive to the fishing community of Homer on the Kenai Peninsula (225 miles south of Anchorage) then take a 20-minute water taxi ride across Kachemak Bay. On the way you will observe a variety of shore and water birds, and there is always the possibility of sighting sea otters, orcas, and humpbacks. Apply now! Hannah Tinti is the author of three books of fiction. Her short story collection, Animal Crackers, has sold in sixteen countries and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. Her best-selling novel, The Good Thief, is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, winner of the The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, was published in March 2017 by The Dial Press (U.S.A.) and Tinder Press (U.K.), and has been optioned by director Matt Reeves/6th & Idaho, producer Michael Costigan/Cota Films & Endemol Shine. It has been nominated for an Edgar Award, and was named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, The Washington Post and Paste Magazine. Apply now!
OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS
Alaska Writers Guild‘s quarterly writing contest, open to members and non-members alike, is open to fiction submissions through May 25, children’s lit through August 24, and poetry through November 16, 2018. More details: https://www.alaskawritersguild.com/writing-contest Hometown Reads is in Anchorage! A website dedicated to locating authors near you, Hometown Reads has a section for Anchorage. Sign up to have your book displayed and join the Facebook page to brainstorm ways to advertise and sell books locally. Check it out at https://hometownreads.com.
Anthology publication Black Coffe & Vinyl is accepting submissions for its current theme, “Ice Culture.” The publication will accept literature, visual art, and music, and be available both online and in print. Submission deadline is May 31. Details here.
What’s missing? Submit your announcement for the next Roundup. Send an email with “Roundup” as the subject to 49blog@gmail.com
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