ANCHORAGE | 49 Writers presents, The Situation and the Story with Frank Soos

February 8, 9, 10, 2019
This class has three consecutive sessions (one hour lunch break on Saturday) Anchorage Community House, 3502 Spenard Road, 99503

Members or full time students: $185 | General enrollment: $205
Cap: 12 | All experience levels | Registration: http://49writers.web907.com/soos19

One of the most challenging problems for the nonfiction writer, whether an essayist or a memoirist, is how to bring the unordered mess that is the material of a life into a manageable form that can be effectively shared with readers. Vivian Gornick’s The Situation and the Story is an excellent guide to making meaningful packages from the material every writer has at hand. This workshop will be driven by an exploration Gornick’s ideas both through conversation and through practice as writers make their own stories come into focus. Workshop members should read The Situation and the Story (readily available as a book and an e-book, too) before class. In addition, we’ll take a look at essays by Gornick and Scott Russell Sanders that show the result of their turning situations into stories. These essays will come to participants as PDFs ahead of class.

About the Instructor
Frank Soos has published two volumes of short stories, Early Yet and Unified Field Theory as well as one collection of essays, Bamboo Fly Rod Suite. Unified Field Theory was awarded the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. He is co-editor with Kes Woodward of the anthology Under Northern Lights: Writers and Artists View the Alaskan Landscape. A collaborative work, Double Moon: Constructions and Conversations, combines his mini-essays with the work of his wife the artist Margo Klass. His book of essays, Unpleasantries, was released in summer of 2016 by the University of Washington Press. He served as Alaska State Writer from 2015-16.

We’re pleased to announce that Winter Words with Eowyn Ivey has been rescheduled for Sunday, February 24. While many tickets are already sold, we still have some left. To learn more, and to join us for this special fundraising event, please visit our event page.

Buy Tickets

SOUTHCENTRAL

EAGLE RIVER | Sunday, January 27, 2019 from 2-4 PM | Special Workshop: Winter Poetry with Poet Mar Ka whose collection Be-hooved is being released by University of Alaska Press in February. Mar Ka will be offering quarterly workshops at the Eagle River Nature Center throughout 2019. Bring your nature poems, especially those that evoke winter. The initial winter workshop will be an overview seminar about poetic intention in nature/eco-poetry, followed by writer’s-block-blasting form-specific writing workshops: April / Spring – Haiku; July / Summer – Circling; October / Fall – Ekphrasis. RSVP required. Facebook event. Located at Eagle River Nature Center.

ANCHORAGE | January – February 2019 | The UAA Campus bookstore has several literary events in the coming months.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019 from 4-6 PM: Alaskan Literature for Alaska Generations. Three creative literary artists come together to share their writings and views on Alaska literature.
- Linda Schandelmeier grew up on a160-acre family homestead six miles south of Anchorage. In 1976, she moved to Fairbanks to attend the University of Alaska where she continues to reside, today. Her new collection of poems, Coming Out of Nowhere, Alaska Homestead Poems is part memoir and part historical document.
- Inupiaq educator and teacher Loretta Cox is author of the Alaska classics: The Winter Walk: A Century-Old Survival Story from the Arctic and The Storytellers’ Club: The Picture-Writing Women of the Arctic. She was born in Nome, AK and raised in various villages around the Seward Peninsula. She holds a master’s degree in Educational Administration from UAF and has taught in Western Alaska for twenty-three years.
- Poet Susanna Mishler reads from her collection Termination Dust and discusses her work in progress. Raised and currently living in Anchorage, Mishler teaches workshops and earns a living as an electrician. During her MFA studies at University of Arizona in Tucson, she served as a poetry editor for the Sonora Review.
Monday, February 4, 2019 from 4-6 PM: David Parish presents Facts of the Matter: Looking Past Today’s Rhetoric on the Environment and Responsible Development. His book promotes a fact-based approach toward environmental stewardship, responsible development, improved public health, and the elimination of poverty. Parish is an independent consultant and for over 30 years, Alaska has been home base for his diverse set of local, national and international clients that include energy and mining industry leaders as well as environmental activists and Indigenous leaders.
Thursday, February 7, 2019 from 4-6 PM: Dan Walker presents Letters from Happy Valley, Memories of an Alaska Homesteader’s Son. Fifty years after leaving the family homestead in Happy Valley, Alaska, Walker unexpectedly received a shoebox full of letters penned in 1958 by his parents as they traveled from Sugar Tree Ridge, Ohio, to build a new life on the Last Frontier. In his book, Walker rediscovers and honors his Alaska roots and the life lived before his father’s untimely death. Walker has over thirty years in education and his consulting work has taken him throughout Alaska from Anchorage to Barrow and Perryville to Sitka where he works with principals, teachers, and students. He was named as Teacher of the Year for Alaska in 1999.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019 from 4-6 PM: Translator Andrea Gregovich presents Vladimir Kozlov’s 1987 and Other Stories. The stories in this first translated collection evoke the confusion of coming of age during perestroika (the Soviet Union’s economic restructuring). While Kozlov’s characters are absorbed in their own struggles, their stories are unavoidably political, mirroring their nation’s uncertainties and the existential crisis of their generation’s post-Soviet adulthood. Andrea Gregovich teaches in the Writing Dept. at UAA. She earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from University of Nevada Las Vegas. In addition to 1987, she translated USSR: Diary of a Perestroika Kid. Vladimir Kozlov was born in 1972 in Belorussian Soviet Specialist Republic. His fiction and nonfiction have been long-listed for awards in Russia such as the National Bestseller prize. No prior knowledge of Russian and or Russian history necessary to attend!

SOUTHEAST

JUNEAU | Thursday February 8, 2019 from 7-8:30 PM (doors open at 6) | 50th Governor’s Arts Humanities Awards. The awards are a partnership between Alaska Humanities Forum, Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation, and the Office of the Governor to recognize and honor contributions. Humanities awards include Distinguished Service, Arts Advocacy, Lifetime Achievements, and many others. This event will honor 2019 awardees and feature performances by singer-songwriter Marian Call. Details and tickets at www.akgovawards.org

WRANGELL | Flying Island Writers & Artists group meets every other Monday 6:30-8 PM. Contact Vivian Faith Prescott for more information at doctorviv@yahoo.com

SKAGWAY | May 29 – June 1, 2019| North Words Writers Symposium with keynote speaker Susan Orlean, a previous The New Yorker staff writer and multi-award-winning author. The symposium will include multiple keynotes (including Orlean’s), workshops, and panels with a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Symposium participants enjoy the luxury of small groups and one-on-one access to successful writers. See website for more details.

CONFERENCES, RESIDENCIES, AND RETREATS

Alderworks Alaska Writers & Artists Retreat: Deadline February 15, 2019. Now accepting applications for summer residencies of 4-6 weeks. Owners Jeff and Dorothy Bradys’s idea is simple: give writers and artists a quiet, beautiful spot to create or enhance their works, and wonderful things will happen. Residency located in Skagway. For more details and to apply, see their website: http://alderworksalaska.com/apply/

HOMER | June 14-18, 2019 | Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference is back for 2019 and registration is open! This nationally-recognized conference will feature workshops, readings and panel presentations in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and the business of writing. The keynote presenter Diane Ackerman, an award-winning poet, essayist, and naturalist, will be joined by fifteen other writers, poets, and publishing industry professionals. For many more details and to register, see the conference’s website here.

OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS

Rasmuson Individual Artist Awards: Apply Now

Grants to Alaska artists to support the time, reflection, immersion or experimentation beneficial to the development of their artistry.

Project and Fellowship Award applications opened Jan. 15

Rasmuson Foundation honors the merit and significance of a life dedicated to serious artistic exploration and growth. The Foundation believes an artist’s energy, ideas, and creative drive cannot bear fruit without time devoted to experimentation, education, and personal reflection. We also acknowledge artists need opportunities to explore at various stages of their artistic careers.

UAA-ADN Creative Writing Contest deadline Friday, February 8, 2019 at 5 PM. Held by University of Alaska Anchorage and Anchorage Daily News, this 36th annual statewide creative writing contest will give out over $800 in cash prizes and announcement in ADN print & website. Open to all ages, categories include poetry, fiction, non-fiction as well as story writing. See website for rules and entry.

24th Annual Statewide Poetry Contest

Judge: Vivian Faith Prescott

ENTRY DEADLINE: Friday, February 15th • 11:59pm

Fairbanks Arts is excited to announce the 24th Statewide Poetry Contest and invites participation from authors of all ages elementary school and up. As a celebration of National Poetry Writing Month, this contest aims to encourage, publicize and reward the writing of high quality poetry in Alaska.

This year’s judge is Vivian Faith Prescott, author of a full-length poetry collection, The Hide of My Tongue, four poetry chapbooks, Slick, Sludge, Traveling with the Underground People, Our Tents Are Small Volcanoes, and a short story collection, The Dead Go to Seattle. Vivian is a recipient of the Alaska Literary Award (2017), a Rasmuson Fellowship (2015), and the Jason Wenger Award for Literary Excellence.

The winners of the contest will be announced in April and will share their work at a special literary reading hosted by Fairbanks Arts. Winning poems will also be broadcast on KUAC’s radio station FM 89.9 and its sister stations throughout the state. MORE INFORMATION.

Alaska Women Speak Spring 2019: Call for Submissions. Deadline: February 15, 2019. Currently gathering prose, poetry and cover art possibilities for the spring theme: Trajectories. See their website for details and to submit.

Fairbanks Drama Association call for playwrights! Deadline: March 15, 2019. In partnership with The Looking Glass Group Theater, they invite Alaskan playwrights to submit 10-minute plays for the annual 8X10 Festival of New Alaskan Plays. Eight ten-minute plays will be chosen for staged readings at the Festival April 26 & 27, 2019, at FDA’s Hap Ryder Riverfront Theater, Fairbanks, Alaska. Visit the Fairbanks Drama Association for information on hardcopy submission. For electronic, submit to fairbanksdrama8X10@gmail.com. Questions? Same email, or pegferguson@gci.net.

UAS Essay Contest: Deadline March 15, 2019. The University of Alaska Southeast is holding an essay contest for all UAS students. Essays can be expository, persuasive, academic research, and / or scholarly papers written for a UAS class. Financial aid will be given to the essay that best demonstrates the UAS mission of student learning. Submit to Egan Library 105 or via email at uas.writingcenter@alaska.edu

What’s missing? Submit your announcement for the next Roundup. Send an email with “Roundup” as the subject to 49blog@gmail.com

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