49 Writers Weekly Roundup

We were delighted to see so many turn out on a sunny August evening for our Synergies event last Friday. We were treated to a wonderful evening of poetry, prose, and music with visiting writer Dan-Beachy Quick and Alaska musician Emily Kurn, who was accompanied by Lu-Anne Haukaas Lopez and eve read some of her own poems – thank you for sharing the experience with us. The next Synergies event planned will feature poet Linda Gregerson and Alaska playwright Arlitia Jones, and takes place at Out North on Saturday, October 13, 7:00 pm.

If you follow our blog, you will already know that the winner of this year’s Ode to a Dead Salmon contest was the pseudonymous Sam N. Cook for the entry “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, More Red Fish” – a clear favorite with our voters. Congratulations, Sam! A special mention should also go to runner-up Lee Goodman for penning not one but two impressive odes, which came in second and third. Thank you again to everyone who entered the competition, to our intrepid judges Nancy Lord and Bill Sherwonit, and to Ray Troll for donating the prize of a signed fishy t-shirt.

There is still one registration slot available for the upcoming Tutka Bay Writers Retreat with Pam Houston, September 7-9 (the weekend after Labor Day). Just email 49retreats@gmail.com to secure your place.

We are finalizing our fall program and registration will open soon for the next workshop season. Our Anchorage instructors will include Andromeda Romano-Lax (Character: Fiction’s Master Key), Deb Vanasse (Description and Detail: The Glint and the Squint), Jonathan Bower (Writing Wrongs), Lorena Knapp (Establishing a Platform as a Writer), and Linda Gregerson (The Poetic Line). We will also be offering a Children’s Literature Fiction Apprenticeship with Deb Vanasse. Claire Rudolf Murphy will teach a half-day workshop in Fairbanks on September 16 entitled “Thriving in the Writing Life” and Douglass Bourne will lead a four-week series in Palmer called “Writing Your Place.” Additional offerings are still in discussion, and we plan to announce the full schedule this time next week.

Please join us in congratulating Christine Byl, whose book Dirt Work is upcoming from Beacon Press in April 2013. It’s now available for pre-orders on Amazon.

Preparations are under way for Alaska Book Week, October 6-13. We would like to thank the University of Alaska Press for renewing their generous sponsorship and for donating some titles for the week-long book giveaway. This year’s ABW coordinator, 49 Writers volunteer Kirsten Anderson, is pulling all the arrangements together and updates will appear shortly on the Alaska Book Week website.

Remember to check out Pitchapalooza at the Alaska State Fair, August 27, 2:00 to 3:30 pm. Location to be confirmed. If you want to participate in the August 16-18 workshops via videoconference, check the schedule and see if your local library can participate via the AlaskaOWL network or contact Amy Marshall at Craig Library for more information about connecting into these events. In Anchorage, you can go to the Alaska State Library conference room to participate – contact Sue Sherif for more information.

Don’t forget to nominate worthy artists and writers for the 2013 Governor’s Awards for the Arts. Any individual, organization or institution that has made a significant contribution to the arts in Alaska is eligible, with the exception of current ASCA Council members, staff or prior Award recipients. The Alaska Humanities Forum is also taking submissions for Governor’s Awards for the Humanities. Deadline for nominations is August 31. Categories include: Arts Education; Individual Artist; Arts Organization; and Native Arts. Nomination forms available on the Alaska State Council on the Arts website.