Perhaps you’ve heard how this statewide organization, 49 Writers, got started. Two people who’d never before met—that would be Andromeda Romano-Lax and me—joined forces to encourage and promote the work of Alaska writers. North Words Writers Symposium followed a similar trajectory although, in truth, their origin story is even cooler than ours. Years ago, Skagway’s […]
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“You’re a person who can handle shades of gray, aren’t you?” Judy had her hands in my mouth, probing and scraping, so I could only nod in response. “I thought so. Me, I can’t stand gray. Black or white. That’s how I like it.” A self-professed voracious reader, Judy knows I’m an author. She
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I’ve warned you before—I’m obsessed with gardening. Especially this year, when after thirty-six years in Alaska, I moved to the Oregon Coast, where people informed me that everything would grow bigger and faster than I ever expected. It does. For the connections with writing, I blame Natalie Goldberg, whose wisdom I shared most recently when talking
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It’s been almost nine years to the day since Deb Vanasse posted the very first post on this blog. 49 Writers was not yet a nonprofit organization back then, we had not started offering classes and events, and the blog still had its original name—49 Writers, No Moose. Deb’s first sentence in that first post
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Excerpt: An exceptional and complex woman, Kate will prove herself neither angel nor demon. Her perspective—and indeed the perspective of all Native people—will be overlooked time and again in the plethora of books that will be written about the Klondike, popular accounts of the gold rush that emphasize the values and accomplishments of outsiders. But
Spotlight on Alaska Books: Wealth Woman, by Deb Vanasse Read More »
The excerpt that follows tells of events leading up to the marriage of Shaaw Tlaa (Kate) to prospector George Carmack, who took credit for the discovery of gold in the Klondike. …both [Shaaw Tláa’s husband] Kult’ús and her daughter fell sick, most likely in the late summer or early fall of 1886. As with each
Alaska Shorts: An Excerpt from Wealth Woman by Deb Vanasse Read More »
Short Editions vending machine dispenses a story. Image: www.travelandleisure.com I’ve become rather notorious for reading the latest sensation, the must-read pick of the season, a good ten to fifteen years after everyone else does. I could try to convince you that I do this on purpose, in order to savor the story after the furor
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I’ve been at this publishing game for a while now—twenty years, seventeen books, six different publishers. From a writer’s perspective, it’s a complicated business. You may think your contract spells out everything related to your book deal, when in fact many details that can make or break your publishing experience won’t be covered in your
Book Deals: What Authors Don’t Ask Their Publishers Read More »
Forgive me if I seem a bit obsessed by dirt. In December, we moved into a newly built house on an acre of land situated three-quarters of a mile from the Pacific Ocean, along the north coast of Oregon. It’s a splendid setting, a coastal plain wedged between expansive forests of Douglas firs and Sitka
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Spring is in full swing across much of Alaska, full of reminders that the world is rife with beauty and detail to apprehend. While the season presents so much to observe, it can also be a time when slowing down to reflect becomes harder as we shift into summertime go-mode and rev our photosynthetic engines.
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