Also starting on April 4 is Larry Weiss’s Historical Research Sources class in Anchorage. Get the low-down on fleshing out your stories with vivid and accurate details.
Register for classes at 49 Writers.
Happy Writing!
Morgan
EVENTS IN ANCHORAGE
- Historical Research Sources for Writers with Lawrence Weiss, April 4, 9-12pm.Explore online and local sources for historical research of narrative material and images. The focus will be on Alaska materials, but many of the resources are national in scope. We will review national newspaper archives, UAA and State of Alaska historical holdings, federal holdings, community museums and historical societies, interview techniques, and other sources for historical material for writers. Our priority will be free and low-cost resources.
- How to Publish Your Book on Kindle with Lawrence Weiss, April 18, 9-12pm. A practical review of how to format a book for publishing on Kindle, how to submit the book for publication, and how to monitor the book once published. We’ll start with a brief overview of the world of electronic publishing. We will also discuss how to format for Smashwords and how to submit. Smashwords is kind of a “middleman” broker that then gets your book onto itunes, Barnes and Noble, and several other sites world-wide. Finally, we will spend a little time discussing marketing your ebook.
- Writing in 360 Degrees with Don Rearden, April 23, 6-9pm. No one lives in a setting, a life doesn’t happen in a setting. Learn how to advance your fiction andn non-fiction to the next level by giving your writing a 360 degree transformation. In this workshop you’ll be guided through a series of fun writing prompts that will help you understand and see the world your characters live in a new light. Learn how to craft complex and detailed environments and watch your characters come to life within their new realm of existence.
- April 8, 5-7pm. Gretchen T. Bersch and Carole Lund present No Small Lives: Handbook of North American Early Women Adult Educators, 1925-1950.
- April 14, 5-7pm. Linda Dunegan, author of The Price of Whistleblowing and one of the highest ranking female officers in the Alaska Air National Guard, presents Scandal of the Military.
- April 15, 5-7pm. UAA Undergraduate English Students: Reading and Writings
All UAA Campus Bookstore events are informal, free and open to the public.
49 Writers & Great Harvest Bread Co. invite you to the SAVOR THE RISING WORDS Poetry Reading in Honor of National Poetry Month. Thursday, April 16, 7-8:30pm. Great Harvest Bread Co. 570 East Benson Blvd. Poets and artists from across Alaska have submitted original works to the Savor the Rising Words Poetry Broadside Invitational Exhibit on display at Great Harvest through April. Come enjoy this unique opportunity to view the broadsides on display and hear the poets read their work. Broadsides will be available for purchase.
Poetry Parley: Join Dorothy Parker & Friends for “A Night at the Algonquin.”
Thursday, April 16th, 6:30-9pm, at the Hugi-Lewis Studio (1800 W. Northern Lights Blvd.), Time Travel Literary Club will join forces with Poetry Parley to celebrate the iconic wits and wisecrackers associated with 1920s and the Algonquin Round Table. FREE! A red-carpet limousine arrival in a vintage Bentley will start our evening. Performance of an excerpt from “Park/Bench,” a play by Jocelyn Paine, introduces Dorothy Parker and her dear friend, Robert Benchley. Appearances by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edmond Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, Amy Lowell and others, reading selections from their works will cap the party. Dress in period costume if you wish—or not. Just share your favorite Algonquin writer and come for the fun! They are looking for a few volunteers to play these characters. Contact poetryparley@gmail.com for more info.
Beyond the Stacks fundraiser at Loussac Library
The Friends of the Library is looking for authors to be VIP waiters for our annual Beyond The Stacks fundraiser on April 17, 2015. Contact Anna Breuninger (907-301-1233).
EVENTS AROUND ALASKA
ONLINE CLASSES
SOUTHCENTRAL, MAT-SU, KENAI PENINSULA
SOUTHEAST
Woosh Kinaadeiyí Open Mic and Poetry Slam to feature the Legendary Black Ice
Woosh Kinaadeiyí will host this month’s open mic and poetry slam on Friday, March 27th at 6:30pm at Suite 907, located above Donna’s Restaurant. There will be a special appearance by the Legendary Black Ice, a Tony, Peabody, and Emmy Award winning spoken word poet visiting from Atlanta, Georgia.
Both events are open to the public, and poets of all ages and abilities are encouraged to perform. Sign up to read at 6pm. Anyone under 21 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. There is no charge Friday night. Saturday’s entry fee is $10.00 per person to contribute to travel expenses.
INTERIOR
Scholar and fiction writer Rob Davidson will visit UAF as part of the Midnight Sun Visiting Writer’s Series. Davidson is the author of three books–two collections of stories and one collection of literary criticism–and has been awarded a Camber Press Fiction Award, judged by Ron Carlson; an AWP Intro Journals Project Award; and two Pushcart Prize nominations. He will be reading from his work on Friday, March 27 at 7pm in Murie Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact emparker2@alaska.edu.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS
PUBLICATION & PRODUCTION
2015 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) Artist Fellowship. Deadline: April 6, 2015, 5pm PST. The coveted NACF national award includes support ranging up to $20,000 per artist. Awards will be made in six artistic disciplines, including: performing arts, filmmaking, literature, music, traditional arts and visual arts. To apply, artists who are members of federally and state-recognized U.S. tribes, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities can review criteria and complete an application at http://your.culturegrants.org. The foundation will announce award recipients in August 2015. For questions and technical support, contact Program Officer Andre Bouchardat andre@nativeartsandcultures.org or (360) 314-2421.
Call for Submissions: Brandish, a collection of essential writing about life and work in rural Alaska. Projected publication, Summer 2016.Submit your writing of Rural Alaska: memoir, poetry, essay, social commentary, bright ideas, and system critique, (and if you can’t say it straight), try fiction, to: wild.blue.darling@gmail.com
CONTESTS & GRANTS
2015 Public Invitation for a Poem in Place: For the third and final project year, Poems in Place 2015 seeks one poem to place in Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park in Kodiak, and one poem forCaines Head State Recreation Area in Seward. Submission deadline: April 1.
Win $500 to Attend a Writer’s Conference, Festival, Center, Retreat, or Residency. AWP offers three scholarships of $500 each to emerging writers who wish to attend a writers’ conference, center, retreat, festival, or residency. Enter via Submittable by March 30, 2015 deadline.
2015 AWG & SCBWI Annual Writer’s Conference, September 19-20, Anchorage. Two solid days of breakout sessions, keynotes, and panels, plus optional manuscript critiques and workshops. Early registration starts May 2015. www.AlaskaWritersGuild.com
CONFERENCES, RETREATS & RESIDENCIES
The Sitka Fellows Program, which awards six residency fellowships to the most promising national and international applicants under the age of 30. Did you know that an Alaskan has never participated in this terrific program? Applications are strongly encouraged from Alaskans, so if you or someone you know is a visionary thinker under 30, please apply! The deadline is March 29th. As posted on their web site: The Sitka Fellows Program brings together some of the most exciting, promising talent across all fields and disciplines to spend a summer residency at the Sheldon Jackson Campus in Sitka, Alaska. We look for visionaries of all stripes: frame-busting, independent thinkers who wish to immerse themselves in their work alongside smart, enthusiastic young people from radically different backgrounds. Residents will live for seven weeks on Sitka’s 137-year old Sheldon Jackson Campus, a National Historic Landmark. Residents receive studio and research space, food, and a community environment in which they can interact with each other as well as with Sitkans. In sum, residents will be free to dedicate themselves to their work and their ideas. This year’s residency will run from July 15-August 30. To learn more and apply, go to:http://www.iialaska.org/programs/sitkafellows
Going to AWP in Minneapolis? Please make room in your schedule for an exciting reading. On Thursday, April 9 at 5pm, The Great Land: Alaskan Writers & Presses, offsite reading, featuring Linda Martin, Jeremy Pataky, Adam Tavel, Sherry Simpson, Eva Saulitis, David Stevenson, and Deb Vanasse. At the Minneapolis Community & Technical College on 1501 Hennepin Avenue, Room L3000. Free and open to the public. What a great way to start your AWP off with a flourish. Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference: Minneapolis, April 8-11. Imagine 12,000 writers in one place!
North Words Writers Symposium, May 27-30, Skagway. Keynote speaker is Mary Roach, plus a bevvy of Alaska’s best authors. North Words Symposium offers a unique opportunity for writers to nurture interrelationships with other writers and thinkers in a spectacular place. They aspire to build upon a tradition of literature that reflects language and life on the frontier.