49 Writers CLASSES
ANCHORAGE | Tuesday, 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. Registration is open. 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.
Please note: We’ll also present John Straley in a reading and signing on Friday, November 16, 2018, 7 PM at the Writer’s Block Bookstore & Cafe. See below.
SOUTHCENTRAL
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.
- Wednesday, November 14, 2018 from 4-6 PM | Professor William Schneider presents The Tanana Chiefs: Native Rights and Western Law. The book chronicles the efforts by Alaska Native people to gain recognition for rights under Western law and the struggles to negotiate government-to-government relationships with the federal government and contains the first full transcript of the historic meeting held in Fairbanks in 1915. William Schneider is Professor Emeritus Alaska and Polar Regions Rasmuson Library at UAF. Since 1972, he has worked with Alaska Native elders to preserve traditional oral stories and history through Project Jukebox, Digital Branch of the UAF Oral History Program.
- 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.
INTERIOR
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.
Alaska Women Speak Winter 2018 Submissions: currently accepting prose, poetry and cover art possibilities for the Winter theme “Stoking the Fire.” Deadline November 15, 2018. Visit their website for more information and to submit.
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.
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