This blogpost, in slightly different form, appeared on the blog in 2016. The author has since resettled back in a northern clime, in Canada. A person very close to me is dying. But that is personal, and hard to discuss, even parenthetically.So I begin – I must begin – with ants. Not one but three […]
The Ants but not Only Ants, By Andromeda Romano-Lax Read More »
As the pandemic worsened in early 2020, Juneau’s Burn Thompson Writing Group, like so many others, shifted from in-person to ZOOM meetings. Our routine had been that each of the 6-10 attendees at twice-monthly gatherings passed out copies of their work, then read it aloud. The others then offered suggestions and asked questions, often marking
Writing in a Time of Pandemic: Richard Stokes and Juneau’s Burn Thompson Writers Read More »
The poet and memoirist Carolyn Forché joined the book club in the Copper Valley via Zoom on January 30 to talk about What You Have Heard is True, her experiences in El Salvador careening toward its 12 years of civil war. Her grace in spending time with us, and what she shared, will be with us
Truth From Poets: A review of Carolyn Forches’ “What You Heard is True” by Mary Odden Read More »
Two weeks ago, a gang of angry folks followed the request of our out- going president and broke into the U.S. Capital Building. They trashed the place, attacked police, killed one. Others were injured. Brave guards slowed them down long enough for congressmen and senators to be moved to safety. As the smoke cleared and
Carrying Forward our Family Love: By Dan Branch Read More »
Last month, I wrote about things you can do—like developing relationships with other authors and engaging authentically on social media—one to three years before your book is published. Today I’m going to talk about a narrower yet still significant opportunity window, up to a year before pub date and for many months after. Obviously as
Debra Gwartney is the author of I am a Stranger Here Myself, a memoir published in 2019 for which she was awarded the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize. Last year she won the WILLA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction from Women Writing the West. She has also been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pacific Northwest
Review by Dan Branch Tom Sexton has always seemed pretty Alaskan to me. But, he grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts. He served in the Army at Anchorage’s Ft. Richardson, and eventually obtained an MFA from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Then he established a Creative Writing Program at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Twenty-four
Cummiskey Alley, a new book of poems by the Alaskan Tom Sexton Read More »
REMEMBERING TERRENCE COLE Terrence Cole died on December 12, 2020. He was 67. A lover of family, friends and Alaskan history, he served thirty years as a professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. In May of 2018, Dan Branch and I encountered Terrence at the North Words Writer’s Symposium in Skagway. By then,
Remembering Terrence Cole by Doug Pope Read More »
Before sifting through today’s blog photographs, I put the kettle on to boil and drop a bag of Barry’s Irish Breakfast Tea into a mug. Then I start the music from the Chieftains first album playing on the stereo. Aki follows me around the kitchen after the water boils. Something about the smell of Irish
A Long Way from Ireland at Christmas: By Dan Branch Read More »
Many of my book coaching clients are currently seeking agens for finished manuscripts or, in the case of some pursuing hybrid publishing, already in the pipeline with pub dates set for their work. The most common comment I hear, whether a new author hopes to be published in 2022, 2023 or later, is “It’s so
Andromeda Romano-Lax: Making the Most of the Wait, Part I: Relationships and bridges Read More »
