It’s Friday, and roundup time! We have an extraordinary winter fundraiser coming up that we’re excited to share with you. The 49 Writers Board of Directors and Executive Director Jeremy Pataky warmly invite you to Winter Words, a winter tea and celebration with special guest, novelist Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child and To the Bright Edge of the World. Gather, eat, and drink at board member Barbara Hood’s beautiful, art-filled home. We’ll peep at resident wildlife, watch the sunset, and hear from Eowyn and other surprise guests. Make new friends, and celebrate the written word.
ANCHORAGE | Sunday, December 2, 2 PM | 49 Writers presents Winter Words, a fundraiser. $75 suggested donation per person. Attendance is limited. RSVPs are open now.
49 Writers Classes
JUNEAU, CORDOVA, and ANCHORAGE | Human Geography: Putting Words in Their Place with Joanna Lilley
Human Geography: Putting Words in Their Place | What’s the relationship between the poetry we write and the places we write in? How does poetry help us articulate our relationship with the places we’ve lived, dream of moving to, or never want to go back to? Can we write about place and leave ourselves out of it? This workshop will explore our responses to being in Alaska as well as the places we carry with us in our minds and hearts.
JUNEAU: Mon., Dec. 3, 2018 from 6-9 PM |Location: Mother Kathleen Library at Holy Trinity, 415 Fourth Street (and don’t miss her Reading & Craft Talk Series event the following night). Members or full time students: $39 | General enrollment: $48 | Cap: 12 | All experience levels. Register below.
CORDOVA: Wed. Dec. 5, 2018 from 7-9 PM | Cordova Center (following short fireside reading and reception at 6) | Members or full time students: $32 | General enrollment: $39 | Cap: 12 | All experience levels. Register below.
ANCHORAGE: Sat. Dec. 8, 2018 from 2-5 PM | Anchorage Community House, 3502 Spenard Road, 99503 (and don’t miss her 49 Writers Reading & Craft Talk Series Event on Thur., Dec. 6, 2018, 7 PM at the Writer’s Block, 3956 Spenard Rd) | Members or full time students: $39 | General enrollment: $48 | Cap: 12 | All experience levels.
ANCHORAGE | Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018 from 10 am – 4 pm | More Than War Stories: Practical Steps to Write and Publish Your Book with John Straley | Members or full time students: $69 | General enrollment: $78 Cap: 12 | All experience levels. SOLD OUT. In this full-day course, novelist and poet John Straley will break down and address the different kinds of discipline necessary to complete and publish your book. We will work on writing pitch letters, which helps one focus on what the book is really about. We’ll examine the importance of opening paragraphs and query letters. We’ll also discuss research, drafting, revising, working with editors, editing on one’s own, and we’ll touch on finding suitable publishers.
SOUTHCENTRAL
ANCHORAGE | TONIGHT, Friday, November 16, 2018 | The Writer’s Block Bookstore & Cafe, 7 PM, FREE. | 49 Writers presents John Straley celebrating his first Cecil Younger novel in 17 years, and reading from his four-book collection of haiku. ANCHORAGE | November 16, 2018| John Straley has written ten Alaska novels plus several books of poetry. Straley has lived in Alaska forty-two years and was the twelfth Alaska Writer Laureate. Born in Redwood City, California, he grew up in the Seattle area and attended high school in New York City. Straley trained, with encouragement from his parents, to be a horseshoer. He attended Grinnell College before transferring to the University of Washington for a degree in writing. After college and a stint in Eastern Washington, he followed his wife to Sitka, Alaska in 1977. After moving through a number of jobs he became a private investigator. In 1985, he became a staff investigator for the Alaska Public Defender’s office in Sitka, a position he held until 2015. As an investigator, he continued to write. After being turned down by numerous publishers, in 1991 he received a tip from friend and anthropologist Richard Nelson that New York City-based Soho Press was interested in detective fiction novels. Upon submitting his manuscript for The Woman Who Married a Bear, Soho Press expressed interest in his work. His successful run of Cecil Younger mysteries has garnered critical acclaim.
ANCHORAGE | November 2018 | The UAA Campus bookstore is holding several events during the month of November 2018. All events are free and open to public.
- Friday, November 16, 2018 from 4-6 PM: Children’s book authors will talk about the Alaska Native traditions they share through writing modern children’s stories. Topics will range from who “owns” a story, to bridging urban-rural and generational divides, to working with illustrators and publishers. Authors present will be:
- Barbara Jacko Atwater and Ethan J. Atwater (How the Raven Got His Crooked Nose); Barbara was raised in the village of Pedro Bay in southwest Alaska. A retired teacher, she has worked with her son Ethan to share the stories passed on to her by her great-uncle, respected Dena’ina elder Walter Johnson.
- Phyllis Adams (Gingerbread Moose and Alaska Boots for Chelsea). She was born in Fairbanks and raised in Nenana. A retired Anchorage schoolteacher, her first stories were created for her grandchildren, to share traditional values adapted to contemporary settings.
- Cindy Baldwin (Sarah’s Days). She grew up in the Athabascan region of Alaska, with Yup’ik, Aleut, German and Russian ancestry. Her children’s picture book is a cautionary tale about enjoying nature within limits.
- Friday, November 30, 2018 from 4-6 PM: Traversing Monstrosity: Power and Peril upon Shakespeare’s Roads. Sharon Emmerichs examines how Shakespeare uses roads not only as means to get from one place to another, but also as means to go from one state of being to another. Dr. Emmerichs teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, and poetry in the UAA English dept. Everyone is encouraged to come and celebrate this 900th UAA Campus Bookstore special event.
ANCHORAGE | November 16, 2018| 49 Writers presents John Straley Reading & Signing at The Writer’s Block Bookstore and Cafe, 7 pm, FREE. John Straley has written ten Alaska novels plus several books of poetry. Straley has lived in Alaska forty-two years and was the twelfth Alaska Writer Laureate. Born in Redwood City, California, he grew up in the Seattle area and attended high school in New York City. Straley trained, with encouragement from his parents, to be a horseshoer. He attended Grinnell College before transferring to the University of Washington for a degree in writing. After college and a stint in Eastern Washington, he followed his wife to Sitka, Alaska in 1977. After moving through a number of jobs he became a private investigator. In 1985, he became a staff investigator for the Alaska Public Defender’s office in Sitka, a position he held until 2015. As an investigator, he continued to write. After being turned down by numerous publishers, in 1991 he received a tip from friend and anthropologist Richard Nelson that New York City-based Soho Press was interested in detective fiction novels. Upon submitting his manuscript for The Woman Who Married a Bear, Soho Press expressed interest in his work. His successful run of Cecil Younger mysteries has garnered critical acclaim.
ANCHORAGE | Saturday, November 27, 2018, 8-11 PM | Anchorage’s First Annual Zine (fan magazine) show! Come to see a variety of self-published works by various artists. Held at Anchorage Community Works. Facebook page
ANCHORAGE | Wednesday, November 28, 2018 from 1-8 PM | SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) Book Fair held at Barnes and Noble. Event will include book signings, writing & illustration workshops, story time, literary improv, challenges, panels, and fundraisers. Featured authors include Barbara Lavallee, Lucas Elliott, and several others. Companion event to be held in Fairbanks same day & time. See website for details or contact Lynn Lovegreen at lynnlovegreen@gmail.com or 345-5831, or Jen Funk Weber at jen@funkandweber.com or 746-5641.
SOUTHEAST
WRANGELL | Flying Island Writers & Artists group meets every other Monday 6:30-8 PM. Contact Vivian Faith Prescott for more information contact doctorviv@yahoo.com
JUNEAU | November 2018 | NaNoWriMo is here! (That’s National Novel Writing Month.) Every November, writers nationwide use this month as inspiration to start and finish a brand-new novel, and the Downtown Library wants to help! See the Facebook event and website for more information.
JUNEAU | November 23-24, 2018 | APK Marketplace: a venue for authors and artists to sell their work. For more information, visit foslam.org/market or call Sarah at 907-209-5970.
SKAGWAY | May 29 – June 1, 2018 | 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.
INTERIOR
FAIRBANKS | The Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series features prose writer LaTanya McQueen on Friday, November 16th at Schaible Auditorium (on UAF campus). The event starts at 7:00 pm.
LaTanya’s craft talk will take place in Gruening 301 from 3:30-4:30pm on Friday, November 16th.
LaTanya McQueen is the author of the essay collection AND IT BEGINS LIKE THIS (Black Lawrence Press, 2018). She has been published in West Branch, Pleaides, New Ohio Review, The Arkansas International, The Florida Review, Bennington Review, Passages North, Black Warrior Review, Fourteen Hills, The North American Review, Ninth Letter, New Orleans Review, Indiana Review, Booth, Fugue, Nimrod, War, Literature and the Arts, and other journals. She received her MFA from Emerson College, her PhD from the University of Missouri, was the 2017-2018 Robert P. Dana Emerging Writer Fellow at Cornell College, and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Coe College. She is also the Creative Nonfiction Editor of Gigantic Sequins, a print journal of art and comics.
FAIRBANKS | Wednesday, November 28, 2018 from 1-8 PM | SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) Book Fair held at Barnes and Noble. Event will include book signings, writing & illustration workshops, story time, literary improv, challenges, panels, and fundraisers. Featured author will be Tricia Brown (featured from 4-6 PM). Companion event to be held in Anchorage same day & time. See website for details or contact Lynn Lovegreen at lynnlovegreen@gmail.comor 345-5831, or Jen Funk Weber at jen@funkandweber.comor 907-746-5641.
OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS
Alaska Writers Guild‘s quarterly writing contest, open to members and non-members alike, is open for poetry through November 16, 2018. Sadly, submissions for fiction and children’s lit are closed. More details: https://www.alaskawritersguild.com/writing-contest
WGBH Scriptwriting fellowship: learn to write for a TV series! WGBH is a broadcast center in Massachusetts that is seeking out Alaska Natives to use their own experiences to develop narratives. Learn more and apply here. Fellowship will take place in early November 2018. Scripts will be used toward a new children’s animated series called Molly in Denali.
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.
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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