To those of you who attended last Sunday’s “Evening of Conversation and Song” with Pam Houston and Emma Hill, thank you for braving the elements to be there! The event proved to be an enjoyable blend of talent, with our guest artists having just as much fun as the audience. We are most grateful to Pam and Emma for donating the proceeds to 49 Writers and Out North, to David Cheezem at Fireside Books for providing Pam’s books to sell and donating those proceeds to 49 Writers, and to Out North for hosting.
Tonight we are excited to celebrate the young writers whose work was published in our first WYAK anthology earlier in the summer with a reading at Great Harvest Bread Company at 6:30 pm. You can purchase the print anthology online for $6.00 or email us at 49writers@gmail.com for more information.
Our first Reading & Craft Talk of the fall season will take place on Monday, October 1, 7:00 pm at Great Harvest Bread Company and feature local author Kris Farmen talking about crafting a story from history. Don’t miss “Twisted History” and some insights into the process of writing a historical novel about the lives of ordinary people. Mark the following dates for the other two fall Reading & Craft Talks: Kaylene Johnson on November 14 and Kirsten Dixon on December 3, also at Great Harvest Bread. Our thanks to volunteers Lucian Childs and Lorena Knapp for organizing these events and to Great Harvest Bread for hosting them.
There is only one more week left to register for our two fall apprenticeships – Fiction with Martha Amore and Children’s Literature with Deb Vanasse. Apprenticeships provide a unique opportunity to receive individualized, in-depth feedback on your work – regardless of where you live! Also, don’t miss the chance to sign up for “Writing Your Alaska,” a place-based writing workshop series in Palmer with Douglass Bourne scheduled to begin on October 4. More information on the 49 Writers website.
Calling all Juneau-area writers! We are pleased to offer a workshop series in Juneau in November with Amy O’Neill Houck called “Writing in the Rain.” Dates are November 3, 10 & 17, 10:00 am-1:00 pm, and the workshop will take place in the field and at The Canvas. Click here for more details and to register.
This fall 49 Writers has partnered again with the Alaska SCWBI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) to offer a webinar and a virtual critique of your work in progress. Members of 49 Writers can register at the SCWBI member rate. The webinar takes place on Sunday, September 23 at 7:00 pm and the deadline for submitting your work for the virtual critique is October 11. The critique workshop will take place on November 3. Click here for more information and to register.
Plans for Alaska Book Week, October 6-13 are progressing. Several authors have offered to speak to a community group about their work – just email us at 49writers@gmail.com if you are interested in inviting a writer to speak to your club or group. You can help us promote Alaska Book Week by downloading the 2012 poster from the ABW website and ordering bookmarks for your event, class, library or bookstore. If you are a writer, reader, teacher, librarian, publisher or bookseller and would like to participate, just complete the online form and our ABW coordinator will be in touch with more information. Thanks to our sponsors University of Alaska Press and Epicenter Books.
On October 13, 7:00-8:30 pm, join 49 Writers at Out North for the latest event in our Synergies series. Workaday: New Poems, New Play will feature distinguished poet Linda Gregerson, who will read from The Selvage, her fifth collection of poems, and local playwright Arlitia Jones, who will debut The Children of Light, an one-act play from her new production company Toss Pot. Admission free but donations to the 49 Writers Poetry Fund are welcome. A book signing and no-host after party will follow the event.
The Great Talkeetna Festival of Books takes place today and tomorrow, September 21 and 22. Check out their Facebook page for details.
Submission deadline today, September 21! Cirque, an Anchorage-based regional journal, invites emerging and established writers living in the North Pacific Rim (Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Hawaii, Yukon Territory, Alberta, British Columbia and Chukotka) to submit short stories, poems, creative nonfiction, translations, plays, reviews of first books, interviews, photographs, and artwork for Cirque’s Winter Solstice 2012 Issue. Click here for submission guidelines.
The UAA Campus Bookstore hosts a variety of literary events this September, all free and open to the public. Free parking available in the South Lot, right across from the bookstore. Author David Shipler presents “Poverty and Aging” on Monday, Sept. 24, from 2:30-3:45 pm. Shipler, is a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Working Poor: Invisible in America and Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America and The Rights of the People: How our Search for Security Invades our Liberty. Dr. Lyn Freeman presents Research in Action: The Behavioral Medicine Lecture Series on Monday, Sept. 24, from 5-7 pm.