In my family, I’ve developed a bit of a reputation of going into a bookstore “real quick,” only to disappear so long that a family member has to come in after to me. When I was younger, I was usually found sitting cross-legged on the floor in the horror section, having found a new all-consuming […]
Ali McCart: Fantastic First Impressions for Fiction Read More »
Katey Schultz will be teaching the 49 Writers workshop “Flash Fiction in a Flash” on Saturday, March 8. Register today! “There’s a child’s toy in the kitty litter box. You have 500 words. Figure it out.” That’s just one definition among many that I’ve used over the course of my six-years-and-counting love affair with flash
Katey Schultz: Flash Fiction in a Flash Read More »
I love poems. I love reading them aloud. When the New Yorker comes, I flip to the poems first. (Okay, after the comics.) I love memorizing poems and hearing them read by their authors and sharing them with friends. I love studying poems and posting poems inpublic places. And, though I’ve only had one poem
Christine Byl: Lyric Tinkering Read More »
I’ve spent the past few months outside Talkeetna, an area I’ve loved visiting but always wanted to explore in more depth, especially in the winter. Throngs of summer tourists, fishing nuts and international summit seekers are nowhere to be found in January, and Talkeetna shows its true colors as a scrappy, artsy village that manages
Christine Byl: Writing the Complexities of Place Read More »
John Straley has been a writer and a criminal defense investigator in Alaska for thirty years. In a 49 Writers workshop on Feb. 6 from 1 – 4 pm, he will talk about the practical talents it takes to do both kinds of work and how he has disciplined his life to be able to complete long
John Straley: An Excerpt from Cold Storage, Alaska Read More »
I started writing Fools Gold in 2006. It was published in 2013. Each writer’s journey is different, but mine is one of perseverance, planning, and a little luck. During those years, I revised, listened to critiques, revised, learned about publishing, queried, revised, then queried again. And even that long sentence leaves out a few steps. When people
Lynn Lovegreen: Journey of a Novel: How I Got from Unpublished to Published Workshop Read More »
The very first workshop ever offered through 49 Writers was called “Finding Your Voice.” With funding from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, Andromeda Romano-Lax and I taught the class in a packed room off a coffee shop. We had to turn students away. Voice is tough to teach, and we knew that going
Deb: Writing Style, Writing Voice Read More »
So you’ve written that memoir. Or novel. Or story. Or that non-fiction piece that almost says what you want, but not quite. Maybe what you’ve written is a big sprawling mess and you know it needs work but you can’t imagine where you would start. Maybe you’ve written only a quarter or half and you’re
Deb: Revision Intensive Read More »
Hang on to your laptops and pens, folks. I let you off easy last week, but today we’ve got lots to share. First off, thanks for the great response to our 49 Writers workshop “Power Writing: Description that Works,” April 24 and May 1 the Kaladi Brothers on Brayton. We’ve filled all ten spots, but
Deb: 49 Writers Weekly Round-Up Read More »
A quiet week, this. Spring break? Or maybe we’re all deep in our projects. I for one am thrilled to be almost through my last revision before submitting my latest novel. More on that later. For now… Whether you’re an emerging or an established writer, you know adage “show, don’t tell.” But how do you
Deb: 49 Writers weekly round-up Read More »
