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 »
Anchorage, AK – Rasmuson Foundation has named artist Gertrude Svarny of Unalaska its 2017 Distinguished Artist. The award recognizes one Alaska artist annually for a lifetime of creative excellence and contributions to arts and culture in the State. It is accompanied by a $40,000 award that she can use to further immerse herself in the exploration …
2017 Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Awards Read More »
. Family. Community. Support. 49 Writers, where Alaska’s writers gather. It has been a privilege to be among you, to speak to you each Monday and to help create opportunities for learning and communing. Thank you for your warm support. Thank you for being amazing writers, and more importantly, thank you for being amazing people. …
We Alaskans tune into weather, seasons, subtle shifts in light, and most recently, the dramatic arrival of Spring. Change is in the air – you can smell, see, and feel it. What will you do with your extra hours of light? Here at 49 Writers, summer is a time to plan, reflect on our past …
I am heading to the Associated of Writers and Writing Programs conference this week. It’s in Los Angeles this year which doesn’t bode well for this Alaska acclimated girl, but we’ll see. The conference is the largest annual meeting of writers, teachers, editors, and publishers. I think this year is my fifth or sixth time …
Publishing is one of those topics that brings out strident opinions. When I’m asked advice about where and how to publish, I always turn the question around. I ask: Who do you want to read your work? Are you thinking you want to earn money from it? How much? Is prestige important to you? How …
Wendell Berry wrote, “The impeded stream is the one that sings,” and I have to admit the first time I read that I thought it was a bunch of hooey. After all, one of the things that lead me to write poetry in the first place was the fact that I could ignore grammar and …
This April, Great Harvest Bread Company is sponsoring a second poetry broadside invitational in honor of National Poetry Month. Broadsides are a traditional form that pairs the written word with a visual presentation. Broadly defined, a poetry broadside combines the words of a poem with visual imagery. Though often printed on a letterpress or in …
Savor the Rising Words! Second Annual Poetry Broadside Invitational Read More »
Welcome to your extra day. What will you do with it? I will be standing by to register to you for any of the amazing March or April classes 49 Writers is offering. Maybe you want to learn how to write good endings and achieve closure, or learn about writing through the work of Anna …
Happy Leap Year! – some suggestions for what you can do with that extra day Read More »
It’s such a fraught topic, writing rules. Some writers are adamantly against them, feeling that establishing such guidelines is unnecessarily restrictive. Others clasp their writing rules to their chests as if they’ve been stipulated by a burning bush; they need those sideboards to give structure to their writing practice. My writing rules tend to boil …
