Our latest episode was recorded with the keynote speaker for the 2025 Northwords writers conference in Skagway, Alaska. Pulitzer prize nominee Eowyn Ivey talks with guest host Summer Christiansen about her writing discipline, the challenges and joys of writing from rural Alaska and why her latest book, Black Woods, Blue Sky, is her most personal yet. […]
AVP 28: Eowyn Ivey, Author, Black Woods, Blue Sky Read More »
I’m a current public radio volunteer DJ and former journalist and producer, so when the idea came up to create a 49 Writers podcast, I thought it was fantastic. We decided the podcast would be a series of interviews with writers sparked by their response to the effect of the 2016 election on our psyche. The
Katie Bausler | An Active Idea: 49 Writers Active Voice Podcast Read More »
If you’ve been following the news lately about Alaska’s poor salmon returns, you may have heard of a phenomenon with an unassuming moniker but potentially devastating consequences: The Blob. A mass of warm water in the Gulf of Alaska that biologists are linking to this summer’s weak salmon runs. But we are still only learning
Active Voice | An Interview with writer Jessica Shepherd Read More »
You know the old saying: federal decision-makers who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in rural Alaska. (Wait, maybe that’s not quite it.) In our latest installment of Active Voice: Writers Respond, essayist Erica Watson does not hold back as she examines the actions of the current federal administration to move
Active Voice | Bursts & Craters, Past & Present by Erica Watson Read More »
Our series, Active Voice: Writers Respond, is back for 2018. We ask Alaska writers to reflect on the current state of democratic values in our society and to answer the question: How are current events shaping your work as a writer? At a time when national news seems to move at the speed of the
Active Voice | Our Greatest Hope by Jessica Shepherd Read More »
This piece was originally published in Anchorage Daily News and is reprinted here in our Active Voice series with permission. In the wake of World War II, as the extent of Nazi atrocities came to light, many nations of the world came together to articulate the basic rights of all human beings. The Universal Declaration
Active Voice | Barbara Hood: Stand in the Cold for Human Rights Read More »
Sure, language always changes. And, the fiction writer—the poet and essayist, too—needs time to process.
Active Voice | Bradford Philen: Trumping Linguistics Read More »
One year into what for many Americans is a bewildering change in the leadership of our country, we gathered around Thanksgiving tables to share food and gratitude. At many gatherings was a heightened sense of thankfulness for community and family in tumultuous times. In 2017 we lost good people standing for what they saw as
Active Voice | Katie Bausler: Hate and Love, Power and Privilege Read More »
Merton’s coming to Alaska in that beast of a year, the “year of everything horrible” as he referred to it, is a little-known, under-told story. The publication of my book, We Are All Poets Here, coincides with the 50th anniversary of Merton’s Alaska journey, which also happens to be the 50th anniversary of his death. Alaska was one of the last places on earth he saw.
As summer turns to winter in Alaska, with a brief interlude long enough to weigh three-quarter ton pumpkins in Palmer that some might call fall, we are excited to announce the return of the blog series Active Voice: Writers Respond, a forum for Alaska writers to respond to current events and controversies on the national
Active Voice: Writers Respond | Erin Coughlin Hollowell Read More »