First published in 2004, Tidal Echoes is an annual Southeast Alaskan literature and arts journal administered by the University of Alaska Southeast. Although it originated as a university-specific journal only accepting submissions from students at UAS Juneau, the journal now publishes work from all over the southeast region. Over the last 17 years, Tidal Echoes has grown exponentially, receiving 300+ submissions annually.
Tidal Echoes was founded by Professor Alexis Easley and Professor Emily Wall in 2004, though it did not include its featured artist and writer sections until 2008 with Nora Marks Dauenhauer as the featured writer, and 2010 with Jane Terzis as the featured artist. The idea of including featured artists and writers was first introduced by Emily Wall after she took over the mentorship in 2007, and has since been a regular inclusion. To this day, Emily Wall oversees and advises the production of Tidal Echoes, and remains an editor.
The 2022 edition of Tidal Echoes is set to feature writer Kersten Christianson, who has been published in Tidal Echoes several times before, and artist Kaasteen Jill Meserve. Kersten Christianson is a poet and high school English teacher from Sitka, Alaska who serves as poetry editor of the quarterly journal Alaska Women Speak. Kaasteen Jill Meserve is a Tlingit beader from Hoonah who currently resides in Juneau, Alaska whose work has recently been featured in the Hulu show Reservation Dogs. Both Christianson and Meserve will be interviewed by the fall Tidal Echoes intern Shaelene Moler.
The Tidal Echoes staff is regularly composed of UAS student interns, faculty, staff, and sometimes community members from each of the university campuses. Usually, there are three student interns who take part in this process whose positions are senior editor, junior editor, and fall editor. The senior editor serves as leader in the production process, overseeing the junior editor; the fall intern is primarily responsible for gathering submissions and conducting the featured interviews. Each year, the previous junior editor assumes the position of senior editor.
This year’s senior editor will be Emily Bowman, who is a junior at UAS from Juneau with ambitions to pursue a career in editing and publication. The junior editor, Shaelene Moler, who is the first indigenous person to serve in the position, as well as the first to take on each of the Tidal Echoes student intern positions, will be overseen by Bowman during the spring semester. Faculty members who regularly participate in the publication are Jeremy Kane, Math Trafton II, Liz Zacher, Rosemarie Alexander, and of course, Emily Wall.
After the roles and positions are decided, the Tidal Echoes staff does a “blind read,” reading an anonymous collection of the submissions, and reviews them. After the blind read is complete, the editors assemble the final manuscript for publication. From there, the release event that is traditionally held on campus is planned, although in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been held virtually with an online ordering option for those interested in purchasing a physical copy.
Another tradition of Tidal Echoes is the Mac Behrend Creative Writing Award, which is given annually to the UAS student with an emphasis in creative writing who exhibits the strongest work of that year who will be returning the following semester. The award of $500 is then dispersed on that student’s account the following semester for their tuition.
Tidal Echoes is currently seeking submissions from all over Southeast Alaska, the deadline being December 1st every year. They welcome submissions of all writing and art forms, including: prose, poetry, paintings, drawings, photography, woodwork, ceramics, etc..
For more information, or to ask questions regarding Tidal Echoes, you can visit the Tidal Echoes website at: https://uas.alaska.edu/arts_sciences/humanities/english/tidal-echoes/index.html or email them at uas.tidalechoes@alaska.edu. You can also keep up with Tidal Echoes on their Facebook (@TidalEchoes) or Instagram (@uas.tidalechoes).