READING AND CONVERSATION SERIES: GERRI BRIGHTWELL Recorded Thursday, May 25, 2023 | 6-7pm via Zoom Gerri Brightwell is a British writer who lives in Alaska. She is the author of the novels Dead of Winter (Salt, 2016), The Dark Lantern (Crown, 2008), Cold Country (Duckworth, 2003), and Turnback Ridge (Torrey House Press, 2022). Her short …
LIVE FROM STORYKNIFE SERIES: MAY 2023 Recorded Tuesday, May 23, 2023 | 7-8pm via Zoom Kara Roanhorse, Diné, is a Ph.D. student in American Studies at the University of New Mexico. She is working on multiple projects focused on Critical Indigenous youth studies, Indigenous/Black feminist critique, and liberation movements. Her creative writing explores radical relationality, …
Do characters need to be likable? This is an age-old question that frequently comes up in fiction writing. Does your narrator or main character need to be likeable? If he or she is not likeable, will readers turn away from your story, or at best find it less appealing than they otherwise might? The short …
Guest Blogger Nancy Lord | Do Characters Need to be Likable? Read More »
This is the final post from our December guest blogger Meagan Macvie. 49 Writers was pleased to sponsor Meagan’s southcentral Alaska book tour this month. I was nearly forty when I got serious about writing creatively, and once committed, I did so with a fierce urgency. I left full-time employment, joined writing groups, attended conferences, …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | Publishing (and Learning) with Ooligan Press Read More »
The first time I visited New York City, people asked me (after I revealed I was from Alaska) if I’d ever lived in an igloo. The truth disappointed them. I’d never even seen a real house made of ice. An igloo would’ve been much more exciting than our unremarkable middle-class house on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | A Certain Necessary Faith Read More »
There are so many reasons I chose to quit my full-time job, start writing fiction, earn my MFA, and complete a novel. In part, I was frustrated by inequalities I observed in the world and angry about how helpless I felt to change them. I wanted to talk about racism and sexism, ask questions, challenge …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | Wading Into Deeper Water Read More »
I was a teen in 1990s Soldotna, Alaska—the setting for my debut novel—so people often ask me if The Ocean in My Ears is a thinly disguised memoir. The short answer is no. Sure, I was probably every bit as frustrating, angsty, and confused as Meri, my teen protagonist. She attends a high school that …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | The Fabricated Truth Read More »
Sure, language always changes. And, the fiction writer—the poet and essayist, too—needs time to process.
Thanksgiving’s just two days away. The calendar will flick that domino into the year’s remaining days, triggering the ol’ chain reaction. It would be easy to let time slip right by till the New Year ball drops. Don’t let it. On the cusp of the holidaze, I’m chiming in with a friendly reminder to take …
One thing that can be easily said about writing—there’s no shortage of resources to help writers hone their craft. In general, that’s a good thing. But this abundance also adds to confusion as writers try out different rules and formulae, determining in one way or another that there are “have-tos” involved in this enterprise. There’s …
