SOUTHCENTRAL
ANCHORAGE | July-Sept, 2018 | 49 Writers presents Danger Close Alaska: programming meant to build a literary community of civilians and veterans. One night per month for six consecutive months (one remaining), Danger Close will focus on food, drink, discussion, and writing on different topics, shared between veterans and civilians. Click here for more information and registration for September’s event once it opens.
- August 22, 2018: August’s event has passed. Stay tuned for the final event in September!
ANCHORAGE | Wednesday, September 5, 7 PM | 49 Writers presents a reading and book signing with author Hannah Tinti, The Writer’s Block Bookstore & Cafe, 3956 Spenard Rd, Anchorage. FREE
Meet author Hannah Tinti, and hear her read from her latest works. Hannah will also be available for a book signing after the reading. Hannah Tinti is the author of three books of fiction. Her short story collection, Animal Crackers, has sold in sixteen countries and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. Her best-selling novel, The Good Thief, is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, winner of the The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, was published in March 2017 by The Dial Press (U.S.A.) and Tinder Press (U.K.), and has been optioned by director Matt Reeves/6th & Idaho, producer Michael Costigan/Cota Films & Endemol Shine. It has been nominated for an Edgar Award, and was named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, The Washington Post and Paste Magazine.
ANCHORAGE | The UAA Campus Bookstore will be holding several literary events through the month of September 2018. All events are free and open to public. For additional information, see the Campus Bookstore Event Calendar here.
- Wednesday, September 12, from 4-6 PM: Fred E. Woods presents Melting the Ice: A History of Latter-day Saints in Alaska. According to Ross A. Coen, editor of Alaska History, “Alaska has one of the highest per capita populations of Latter-day Saints of any state in the nation, yet no scholarly history has been written about the LDS Church in the Last Frontier. Until now.” Woods has completed a BS in Psychology, MS in International Relations, and PhD in Middle East Studies with an emphasis in Hebrew Bible. Note: Woods will also be a guest speaker at the Alaska Historical Society Conference in Nome.
- Friday, September 14 from 1-2:30 PM: Poets Jon Davis and Joan Kane present “Skills, Prosody, and Wildness in the Academy.” How is everything poetry while nothing is poetry? How does teaching others govern one’s own creative process? Are poets different from writers of other genres? These questions, coupled with poetry readings, are the focus where taking in poems makes poems. Jon Davis is the author of four poetry collections, including Improbable Creatures. He has received several honors including a Lannan Literary Award in Poetry and two NEA Fellowships, and he founded the MFA in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Joan Kane is an Alaskan poet and the author of The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award, the Donald Hall Prize in Poetry, and numerous fellowships. A Harvard National Scholar, she became 2018 Guggenheim Fellow in 2018.
ANCHORAGE | Sept 11, 2018, 6-9 PM | Carr Gottstein building CH2MHill Boardroom | Registration required / seats limited
Alaska Public University, price: $25 / $19 | 49 Writers presents: Cutting the River(s) | A Poetry Workshop co-taught by Jon Davis and Joan Naviyuk Kane. This workshop will invite participants to generate drafts through close observation/recollection. We will ask poets to begin to engage the imagination as they work to distance themselves from the originating impulse of their poems. Poets at all levels are welcome, but this is not the workshop for people who like to say what they mean, mean what they feel, feel what they mean, and then write a poem about it. Instead, it will create space to move in and out of the lyric mode. Participants will generate drafts, revise new work, and investigate form. Enrollment capped at 12. Supported in part by APU. REGISTER.
ANCHORAGE | Sept 12, 2018, 7 pm | FREE, Carr Gottstein building Lecture Hall, Alaska Public University |49 Writers presents: Trading Fours * Live Poetry by Jon Davis and Joan Naviyuk Kane. 49 Writers is pleased to present poets Jon Davis and Joan Naviyuk Kane reading together live. Thereading will be followed with a Q and A and signing. Free parking. Supported in part by APU.
Jon Davis is the author of four full-length poetry collections—Improbable Creatures (Grid Books, 2017), Preliminary Report (Copper Canyon Press, 2010), Scrimmage of Appetite (University of Akron, 1995), and Dangerous Amusements (Ontario Review Press, 1987); five chapbooks; and Heteronymy: An Anthology (LaNana Creek Press, 2016), a limited-edition letterpress book in collaboration with the artist Jamison Chas Banks. Davis also co-translated Iraqi poet Naseer Hassan’s Dayplaces (Tebot Bach Press, 2017). He has received a Lannan Literary Award in Poetry, the Lavan Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Off the Grid Poetry Prize, and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. After teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts for 23 years, he founded the IAIA MFA in Creative Writing and directed it from 2013-2018.
Joan Naviyuk Kane’s books and chapbooks of prose and poetry include The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife (2009), Hyperboreal (2013), The Straits (2015), Milk Black Carbon (2017), A Few Lines in the Manifest (2018), and Sublingual (2018). She is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, has won a Whiting Writer’s Award, the Donald Hall Prize in Poetry, the USA Projects Creative Vision Award, an American Book Award, the Alaska Literary Award, and fellowships from the Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska State Council on the Arts, Alaska Arts and Cultures Foundation, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the School for Advanced Research, and the Aninstantia Foundation. Kane was a Harvard National Scholar, and the recipient of a graduate Writing Fellowship from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Inupiaq with family from King Island and Mary’s Igloo, she raises her children as a single mother in Anchorage, Alaska.
GLENNALLEN | Thursdays, October 4, 11, and 18, 2018, from 6-9 PM | Writing Memoir Using the Windshield and the Mirrors. Join us for Writing Memoir course with Mary Odden at Copper Basin Extension Center. Fee: $100. Located at the Prince William Sound College: Copper Basin, 1976 Aurora Dr. Virtual conferencing option is available. For more information and to register, see their Facebook page and website.
ANCHORAGE | Saturday, October 6, 2018 at 7 PM | Alaska Quarterly Review’s “Here & Over There,” an evening of readings and discussions with Alaskan poets. The event will feature the launch of AQR’s 36th anniversary edition and the Alaska premieres of two new award-winning books of poetry: Tara Ballard’s House of the Night Watch, and Chaun Ballard’s Flight.
ANCHORAGE | Thursday, October 11, 2018 from 7-8 PM | Voices of the Region: The Alaska Women Speak Journal 2018 Fall Reading Series will feature Alaska women reading their own works. Reading to be held at Writer’s Block. For registration to read your work, see the OPPORTUNITIES section below or see their website page here.
ANCHORAGE | Friday, October 12, 2018 from 1-7 PM | Alaska Native Book Fair with panel discussions from 4-6 PM. Located at the ANTHC COB Atrium, 4000 Ambassador Dr.
SOUTHEAST
WRANGELL | Flying Island Writers & Artists group meets every other Monday 6:30-8 PM. Contact Vivian Faith Prescott for more information doctorviv@yahoo.com
JUNEAU | Thursday, October 18, 2018 from 7-8 PM | Voices of the Region: The Alaska Women Speak Journal 2018 Fall Reading Series will feature Alaska women reading their own works. Reading to be held at Hearthside Books. For registration to read your work, see the OPPORTUNITIES section below or see their website page here.
INTERIOR
FAIRBANKS | Saturday, November 3, 6:30-8 PM | Voices of the Region: The Alaska Women Speak Journal 2018 Fall Reading Series will feature Alaska women reading their own works. Reading to be held at the Fairbanks Arts Association in the Bear Gallery. For registration to read your work, see the OPPORTUNITIES section below or see their website page here.
CONFERENCES, RETREATS, and RESIDENCIES
TUTKA BAY LODGE | The 9th Annual 49 Writers Tutka Bay Writers Retreat with Hannah Tinti will take place September 7-9, 2018. This generative writers retreat blends craft talks, in-class writing, readings, and discussion with unstructured time to experience the immersive natural environment or concentrate further on writing. Your weekend of instruction and inspiration will take place at Tutka Bay Lodge, named by Fodor in 2012 as one of the World’s Top 100 places to stay. Tutka Bay is a remote and rugged fjord characterized by soaring mountains, secluded beaches, old growth forest, and dramatic tidal fluctuations. To get there you fly or drive to the fishing community of Homer on the Kenai Peninsula (225 miles south of Anchorage) then take a 20-minute water taxi ride across Kachemak Bay. On the way you will observe a variety of shore and water birds, and there is always the possibility of sighting sea otters, orcas, and humpbacks. A last minute spot has become available. Find details on our web site.
Hannah Tinti is the author of three books of fiction. Her short story collection, Animal Crackers, has sold in sixteen countries and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. Her best-selling novel, The Good Thief, is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, winner of the The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, was published in March 2017 by The Dial Press (U.S.A.) and Tinder Press (U.K.), and has been optioned by director Matt Reeves/6th & Idaho, producer Michael Costigan/Cota Films & Endemol Shine. It has been nominated for an Edgar Award, and was named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, The Washington Post and Paste Magazine.
49 Writers is offering classes this autumn 2018! Held in Anchorage, Juneau, and online. For more information and to register, see our website’s Class Catalogue page here.
- Anchorage | Cutting the River(s) | A Poetry Workshop co-taught by Jon Davis and Joan Naviyuk Kane: Tuesday, September 11 / 3 hours / 6:00-9:00 PM
- Online | This is Your Year to Get An Agent with Andromeda Romano-Lax: Sept 22-30, online, asynchronous, ~ 8 hours
- Anchorage | Found Forms in Fiction: Letters, Tweets, & Beyond with Shane Castle: Thursdays | Oct 4, 11, 18, 25 | 6:00-9:00 PM
- Juneau & Anchorage | Beyond Hooked: What We Can Learn from the First Paragraphs of Compelling Novels and Narrative Nonfiction with Andromeda Romano-Lax. Juneau: October 16, 2018 | 6-9 PM. Anchorage | October 20, 2018 | Hours TBA
OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS
ANCHORAGE, JUNEAU, FAIRBANKS | 2018 | Voices of the Region: Alaska Women Speak is looking for Alaska women writers to read their work. Part of the Alaska Women Speak Journal 2018 Fall Reading. Complete the web registration form here to speak.
- Anchorage form due by Friday, September 14.
- Juneau form due by Friday, September 21.
- Fairbanks form due by Friday, October 5.
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
Wildheart, an Alaskan women’s magazine, is accepting submissions through October 14, 2018 for their Winter issue. The theme will be Change: stories of weather, scenery, mind, mood, and heart. See their website for details 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.
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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