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
Our upcoming season of workshops, classes, Reading & Craft Talk Series and Crosscurrents events, and special events is mostly up on online. Registration is open for classes in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau!
It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Nora Ḵeixwnéi Dauenhauer, who will be sorely missed and well remembered. Read more in the Juneau Empire.
SOUTHCENTRAL
ANCHORAGE | Origin Myths and Memories: 35 Years of Alaska Quarterly Review | Sunday, October 1, 2017 at 7—PM, at the Anchorage Museum | Introduced by UAA’s Ron Spatz, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Alaska Quarterly Review. Features include: Shaawatke’e’s Birth, a short film of the bilingual poem in Tlingit and English by Alaskan poets’ Xh’unei Lance Twitchell and Emily Wall; and the presentation of In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man, a special feature by Carol E. Mayer of the University of British Columbia exploring the memories, myths, and contemporary art of a land of extremes not so different from Alaska—the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinua.
ANCHORAGE | Monday, Oct 2, 2017 from 5—7 PM at the UAA Campus Bookstore | Fantasy authors M. Cote Warner of The Stratus Estate and L. S. Goulet of Sword of Dragonblood read and discuss their books. Warner’s The Stratus Estate follows Phillip Stratus who lives in the very distant, utopian future with his large, quirky, adoptive family, all of whom are powerhouse players in the City of Tarkenwore. His friend Vive Tarkenwore is the conceptual child of Queen Nacthelian and King Hasamelis—very tall supernatural beings who have ruled Earth for almost 2,000 years. Warner was born and raised in Anchorage. She graduated from the University of Hawaii at Hilo where she began to create the world of Tarkenwore featured in The Stratus Estate. Returning to Anchorage, she pursued a career in human services, however, in 2010, she was diagnosed with a devastating chronic illness. Goulet lives in Alaska with her family. Free, with free parking in the South Lot, Sports Complex NW Lot, West Campus Central Lot, and Sports Campus West Lot.
ANCHORAGE | October 3, 2017 at 6 PM, Cynosure Brewing Co. Nancy Lord will share passages from her new book, pH: A Novel, and talk about oceans and the environment in this outreach event hosted by Trustees for Alaska. Snacks, beverages and books available. Facebook event
ANCHORAGE | Wednesday, October 4, 2017 from 5—7 PM at the UAA Campus Bookstore | Nancy Lord presents her new book, pH: A Novel, with Darcy Dugan, director of Alaska Ocean Acidification Network. The event will highlight how the science of ocean acidification can be communicated effectively to the public and how connections between the arts and sciences can illuminate the natural world. pH: A Novel investigates what happens when toxic academic forces collide with scientific inquiry and performance art. The story involves marine scientists working on ocean warming and acidification issues while getting into conflict with one another. Nancy Lord was Alaska writer Laureate from 2008-10. She is a faculty member of the Low-Residency M.F.A Program in Creative Writing at UAA and teaches at the UAA Kachemak Bay Campus. Lord also authored Beluga Days, Fishcamp, and Early Warming, among others. Darcy Dugan received a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in the Earth Systems program, and a Masters of Environmental Science at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She has worked with scientists to ensure ocean data and information is available for safe marine operations, environmental stewardship, and decision-making. Free. There is free parking for this event in the South Lot, Sports Complex NW Lot, West Campus Central Lot, and Sports Campus West Lot.
ANCHORAGE | Thursday, October 5, 2017 at 7—8:30 PM | Anchorage Public Library is hosting Meet the Author: Mike Dunham. Longtime Alaska reporter and author of The Man Who Sold Alaska and The Man Who Bought Alaska, Dunham takes a concise, fresh look at the lives of two important and powerful statesmen in the 19th century, Tsar Alexander II and William Henry Seward, who arranged the United States acquisition of Russian America in 1867.
ANCHORAGE | Friday, October 6, 2017 at 4-6 PM | Poems for Alaska is an ekphrastic poetry exhibit sponsored by CIRQUE and 49 Writers to commemorate Alaska’s Sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary. Original and history Alaskan images will be exhibited with corresponding poetry at the Great Harvest Bread Co. Submissions ended on September 23, but questions can be sent to Sandy at skleven@ak.net or Barbara at middlerockraven@gmail.com.
HOMER | October 6, 2017 at 6:30 PM | Kachemak Bay Campus presents Alaska State Laureate Ernestine Hayes performing a free public reading.
HOMER | Writing a Container of Stories | Saturday, October 7, 2017 from 10 AM – 3 PM plus Sunday, October 8, 2017 from 10 AM – 2 PM | Also led by Hayes at Kachemak Bay Campus, Alaskans are invited to tell stories of people they knew or heard of who might not otherwise be heard. Registration deadline on October 5, 2017. Fee $75.
GLENNALLEN | Writers Workshop: Publishing 101, October 13, 2017, 5:30-7:30 PM, is open now for registration at Prince William Sound Community College. Authors Chantelle Pence, Mary Odden, and Alana Terry will be covering topics such as marketing, means of publishing, and craft develoPMent. There is no fee, but space is limited and registration is required. Details and registration here.
ANCHORAGE | Friday, October 13, 2017 from 1 PM-2:30 PM at the UAA Campus Bookstore | Gina Apostol presents Gun Dealer’s Daughter. She will read from her novel, set in martial law Philippines, which explores links between novel writing, history, and our contemporary times and our past (including links between U.S. and Philippine history). Gun Dealer’s Daughter won the 2013 PEN/Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2014 William Saroyan International Prize. Author of three books, many of Apostol’s essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Foreign Policy, Gettysburg Review, and Massachusetts Review. Apostol was raised in Tacloban, Philippines, and currently lives in New York City and western Massachusetts. This event is held in celebration of Filipino American History Month. It is sponsored by Alaska Airlines and Alaskero Partnership Organizers of UAA’s Center for Community Engagement and Learning. Free. Parking is free at UAA on Fridays.
ANCHORAGE | October 25, 2017 at 7 PM, Indigo Tea Lounge | Nancy Lord will present a 49 Writers Reading & Craft Talk Series event called Science in Fiction: It’s Not Only Science Fiction | In recent years we’ve seen a new emphasis in both mainstream and literary fiction, embracing scientists as characters and scientific concepts and practices in storytelling. What opportunities does this trend provide both readers and writers to build interest in science and environmental health? What can realistic fiction do that science (or speculative) fiction or any kind of nonfiction cannot? This craft talk will examine specific examples of science in fiction and help us think about the pleasures and benefits of science-based storytelling. Free. More info
ANCHORAGE | Sunday, October 29, 2017 at 2—5 PM | 49 Writers presents Science Writing for a General Audience with Nancy Lord | The gap between the public’s interest in science (large) and its understanding of it (smaller) has many causes, but writers can help by bringing science-based stories to life through effective storytelling. In this three-hour workshop, we’ll examine some examples of narrative science writing (in nonfiction, fiction, and poetry) and will use them as models for writing exercises emphasizing characterization, scene-building, and metaphors and analogies. This class invites writers of any level, with or without science backgrounds. Advanced registration required
ANCHORAGE | Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 7 PM | 49 Writers Reading & Craft Talk Series presents Writing TIDES: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean with Jonathan White | After nearly losing his 65’ wooden schooner in a large Alaskan tide, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White vowed to understand the tide. He knew the moon had something to do with it, but what exactly? He read a book, then two. Ten years later, he had read three hundred books and crisscrossed the seven seas to see the largest, fastest, scariest, and most amazing tides in the world. With photographs, stories, and short readings, Jonathan will share the enthralling journey of coming to understand–and write about–the surprising and poetic workings of the tide. Jonathan White has written for the Christian Science Monitor, Sierra, The Sun, Surfer’s Journal, Orion, and other publications. His first book, Talking on the Water (Sierra Club Books), is a collection of interviews exploring our relationship with nature. White is an active marine conservationist, holds an MFA in creative nonfiction, and lives with his wife and son on a small island in Washington State. Free. More details
ANCHORAGE | Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 7 pm | 49 Writers Reading & Craft Talk Series presents Writing TIDES: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean with author Jonathan White | After nearly losing his 65’ wooden schooner in a large Alaskan tide, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White vowed to understand the tide. He knew the moon had something to do with it, but what exactly? He read a book, then two. Ten years later, he had read three hundred books and crisscrossed the seven seas to see the largest, fastest, scariest, and most amazing tides in the world. With photographs, stories, and short readings, Jonathan will share the enthralling journey of coming to understand–and write about–the surprising and poetic workings of the tide. Jonathan White has written for the Christian Science Monitor, Sierra, The Sun, Surfer’s Journal, Orion, and other publications. His first book, Talking on the Water (Sierra Club Books), is a collection of interviews exploring our relationship with nature. White is an active marine conservationist, holds an MFA in creative nonfiction, and lives with his wife and son on a small island in Washington State. More info
ANCHORAGE | 49 Writers presents Cutting the River: Poems from Draft Through Radical Revision with Joan Naviyuk Kane. This four two-hour weekly sessions: Nov 25, Dec 2, Dec 9, Dec 16, 2017 | This workshop will create space for writers of all genres to move in and out of the lyric mode. Participants will generate drafts, revise new work, and investigate form (prosody, lyric subgenres, speech acts). We will consider how participants’ poems or lyric moments within narrative pieces work in conversation with each other both on and off the page. Instructor bio: Joan Naviyuk Kane is the author of The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife, Hyperboreal, The Straits, and Milk Black Carbon for which she has received a Whiting Writers Award, the Donald Hall Prize, an American Book Award, and fellowships from the Rasmuson Foundation, Native Arts and Culture Foundation, and the Aninstantia Foundation. She is Inupiaq with family from King Island and Mary’s Igloo and teaches in the low-residency graduate program in creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Details and registration
ANCHORAGE | Ecodrama Playwrights Festival & Symposium is accepting new proposals, deadline November 30, 2017. The symposium, hosted by UAA Theatre Department, is searching for creative and challenging proposals for workshops, roundtables, and a variety of other events centered on the environmental crises. Topics include but are not limited to climate change, animal representation, eco-literacy, and indigenous performances. Submit proposals here. For questions, contact Dr. Brian Cooke at uaa_emosfestival@alaska.edu.
ANCHORAGE | The Anchorage Museum presents a series of readings and discussion on the diversity of languages in Alaska. The event will explore the challenges and possibilities of translation through conversation with local experts, scholars, and educators who will share their work. Presentations include:
- Unbound: Unbound: Mother of Tongues | October 20, 2017 6 pm | a film by Ron Spatz of Shaawatke’é’s Birth; a poem by Emily Wall and Lance X’unei Lance Twitchell (performed in English and Tlingit), a story read in Samoan by Junior Gisa, a reading in Inupiaq by Edna MacLean, and more. Details can be found on the Museum of Anchorage’s website, here. Unbound: Mother of Tongues will moderated by Kathryn Ohle, assistant professor at UAA, and is included with admission, which is half price on Fridays 6-9 PM.
- Unbound: Recollections | Friday, November 17, 2017 at 6-7 PM | Part of Anchorage Museum’s Unbound series, Recollections will be an open mic night with a goal of remembering through words. Writers, poets, readers, and word lovers are invited to share important texts in a lively event of recollecting memories together. Bring a short story, poem or other text of your own creation, or recite a passage you have memorized. Artist Jimmy Riordan will MC the evening. Readings and recitations may be in any language, all ages welcome. Sign up by emailing hmickey@anchoragemuseum.orgwith your name, the title of your text, and approximate duration needed for reading; space is limited. Free with admission which is half price on Polar Nights.
- Unbound: Present Tense | Friday, December 15, 2017 at 5-7 PM | In another part of Anchorage Museum’s Unbound series, Juneau-based author Ernestine Hayes and Anchorage-based scholar Maria Williams will read and discuss their work. Free with admission which is half price on Polar Nights.
ANCHORAGE | 49 Writers presents Fear and Loathing in Writing: How to Write Using Your Primal Emotions as Inspiration with Don Rearden | Saturday, December 9, 2017, 2-4 PM | Prepare to get your blood pressure up and palms sweating in this two hour creative writing workshop designed to get you all worked up. Learn how to tap into your primal emotions and turn that raw energy into something productive and powerful in your creative writing. Author Don Rearden will reveal an innovative way to transform your own anger, fear, sadness, happiness, and other feelings into something useful for your poetry, fiction, or memoir. Bring a laptop or notebook and come ready to write. Instructor bio: Don Rearden spent most of his childhood on the tundra of Southwestern Alaska. A professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, he is the author of the 2013 Washington Post notable novel The Raven’s Gift, a screenwriter, and co-author of the recently released memoir Never Quit. He lives in an undisclosed location somewhere on a mountain outside of Anchorage. | More details and registration
ANCHORAGE | 49 Writers presents I’m Just Being Myselfie: How Young Narrators Come Alive on the Page (Without Seeming Like Posers), a workshop with Meagan Macvie, Satuday, December 16, 3-5 pm | Good stories bring readers close in and make us care about—even feel—what is happening to the characters. Workshop participants will investigate how writers use Immediacy, Voice, and Transformation to accomplish this great feat of sensory and emotional osmosis. This workshop focuses on young adult first-person narrators. Meagan Macvie will share short excerpts from classic and contemporary young adult literature (including Sherman Alexie, Laurie Halse Anderson, Gayle Forman, John Green, Karen Hesse, and J.D. Salinger) to demonstrate techniques writers can use to compel readers to feel along with a story’s teenage main character. Participants will then have the opportunity to write their own compelling paragraphs during guided writing exercises. Instructor Bio: Meagan Macvie was born and raised in Soldotna, Alaska. Her debut novel, The Ocean in My Ears, is set in her hometown. The novel was published in 2017 by Portland State University’s Ooligan Press and was a finalist for the 2016 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest. In their starred review, Kirkus calls The Ocean in My Ears an “unforgettable journey to adulthood.” Meagan is a former government communications director and college composition instructor who now writes full-time and teaches writing workshops through her local schools and libraries. She earned her MFA in fiction from Pacific Lutheran University and a BA in English Literature from the University of Idaho. Her work has appeared in Narrative, Barrelhouse, and Fugue, as well as the regional library anthology, Timberland Writes Together. In 2017, her short story, “Dinosaur Guys,” was awarded second place in the Willamette Writers Kay Snow Writing Contest. Meagan now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter, as well as a dog, two goats, and seven chickens. Find her online at meaganmacvie.com and on Twitter and Instagramas @meaganmacvie. | More details and registration
INTERIOR
FAIRBANKS | Thursday, October 5, 2017 at 7—8:30 PM | Authors Julie and Miki Collins present a slideshow and field questions about their books Riding the Wild Side of Denali: Adventures with Horses and Huskies and Trapline Twins. For more than a half century the Collins twins have lived with their dog teams, Icelandic horses, and a hundred-mile trap line; their contributions to Alaska literature mirror a pioneering lifestyle like no other. Hosted by the University of Alaska Press, UAF Alumni Association, and Epicenter Press, the Collins’ talk will take place at the Murie Building Auditorium on West Ridge at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Free. Parking is free after 5 p.m. For more information, please contact University of Alaska Press at 907-474-5831 or email dawn.montano@alaska.edu
FAIRBANKS | Saturday, October 28, 2017 at 1—4 PM | 49 Writers presents Science Writing for a General Audience with Nancy Lord at the Bear Gallery | The gap between the public’s interest in science (large) and its understanding of it (smaller) has many causes, but writers can help by bringing science-based stories to life through effective storytelling. In this three-hour workshop, we’ll examine some examples of narrative science writing (in nonfiction, fiction, and poetry) and will use them as models for writing exercises emphasizing characterization, scene-building, and metaphors and analogies. This class invites writers of any level, with or without science backgrounds. Advanced registration required
SOUTHEAST
JUNEAU | Friday, September 29 at Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building at 395 Whittier Street.
49 Writers, Inc., in partnership with NEA Big Read, Juneau Public Libraries, Friends of JPL, the Alaska State Library and Museum, and the Friends of the Alaska State Library and Museum, kickoff a series of Big Read programs. 5-5:30: refreshments by the Friends of the Alaska State Library and Museum. 5:30pm: 49 Writers presents a Crosscurrents Keynote event: Crosscurents: Life and Art in the Aftermath | In this NEA Big Read keynote event, playwright Vera Starbard, poet Joan Naviyuk Kane, and novelist Don Rearden discuss the power of art in a colonized, indigenous Alaska. Through an examination of their own work and the Big Read selection, Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, the panel will discuss the notion that “survival is insufficient” in the wake of widespread cultural and social upheaval. Their live onstage conversation will precede a Q and A session and book signing.
JUNEAU | Saturday, September 30, 2017 | 49 Writers writing workshops led by Don Rearden in the morning and Joan Naviyuk Kane in the afternoon will be held in the APK Building classroom at 395 Whittier Street. Details and registration
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
Good news for young writers and musicians: The Northern Pen Young Writers’ Conference has extended its application deadline! If you are interested in how music and prose can be combined into a description of people’s relationship to place, reach out to us at michaelcd7@gmail.com. For more information, see our previous post in this blog, or visit www.thenorthernpen.com. The Northern Pen Conference of Prose and Music helps young writers and composers hone their crafts, develop as collaborative artists, and understand how they fit into the communities and natural environments that inspire them. The primary activity of the conference will be the creation of new works of prose and music. Students will enjoy time dedicated to writing in the beautiful natural environment surrounding the conference center. They will benefit from the personalized feedback of award-winning author Matthew Dickerson and composer Michael Dickerson, and they will gain new skills and perspectives through interactive workshops led by interdisciplinary artist Hollis Mickey. Finally, they will have opportunities to present their work during the conference in collaboration with their peers, as well as after the conference in radio broadcasts, museum performances, and gallery presentations. The Northern Pen will give young artists support as they define and realize their artistic visions. The conference center is nestled in the Matanuska Valley between the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountains, just ten minutes away from the spectacular Matanuska Glacier. There will be various activities and excursions to take advantage of the beautiful surrounding wilderness. Learn more.
OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS
JUNEAU | The Woosh Kinadaeiyí Community is looking to hire and Event Coordinator to manage project tasks. The Event Coordinator would be someone with excellent communication skills and social media proficiency who will work in concert with the Woosh Kinaadeiyí Board of Directors to organize events from beginning to end, while representing and promoting our work to the public. Please send applications (with cover letter, resume, and references) and questions to juneaupoetryslam@gmail.com.
Alaska Book Week will be October 1-7, 2017 with events occurring throughout the state.
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 to appear in the next Roundup. Send an email with “Roundup” as the subject to info@49Writers.org.
Thank You for Your Support! 49 Writers members and donors make this blog, our workshops, Crosscurrents events, Readings and Craft Talk series, and other special programs and activities possible. Not a member yet? Join Us
49 Writers, Inc. is supported, in part, by a grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.