At last a preview of our fall workshop schedule, which includes classes in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Palmer. Registration opens on August 31, when you will find full details posted on the website. We are delighted that some of your favorite instructors are returning to teach again, and that we have the opportunity to welcome some new faces to the 49 Writers faculty. We may yet add a workshop or two, so remember to check this Friday news roundup for further developments. All Anchorage workshops will be held at 645 W. 3rd Avenue.
- September 16, 1:00-4:00 p.m. “Thriving in the Writing Life” with Claire Rudolf Murphy in Fairbanks at UAF (classroom to be confirmed)
- October 4 & 18, November 1 & 16, 6:00-8:30 p.m. “Writing Your Alaska” with Douglass Bourne at Palmer Public Library
- October 9, 16 & 23, 6:30-9:00 p.m. “Description and Detail: The Glint and the Squint” with Deb Vanasse in Anchorage
- October 14, 1:00-3:00 p.m. “The Poetic Line” with Linda Gregerson in Anchorage
- October 27, 9:00 to noon “Building a Platform as a Writer” with Lorena Knapp in Anchorage
- November 3 & 10, 9:00 to noon “Writing Wrongs” with Jonathon Bower in Anchorage
- November 6, 13 & 20, 6:30-9:00 p.m. “Character: Fiction’s Master Key” with Andromeda Romano-Lax in Anchorage
- November 17, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. “Unleashing the Screenwriter in You” with Don Rearden in Anchorage
We are also pleased to be offering not one but two apprenticeship opportunities this fall, following our successful Fiction Apprenticeship in spring with author Mattox Roesch. Deb Vanasse will be our mentor for a Children’s Literature Apprenticeship and Martha Amore will work with writers taking our fall Fiction Apprenticeship. The apprenticeships take place over an eight-week period, beginning October 1, with our mentors providing a total of three critiques. If you think you might be interested, check back this time next week for complete details. Feel free too to pass the information on to interested writers!
Our first Crosscurrents event of the fall season takes place on September 6, 7:00-8:30 pm at the Wilda Marston Theatre, Z.J. Loussac Library, Anchorage. Visiting writer Pam Houston, who is also our Tutka Bay Writers Retreat leader, will take the stage with Alaska author Heather Lende to discuss “Fictionalizing Our Lives.” Following the book signing, there will be a reception at 8:30 pm hosted by the Anchorage Library Foundation. Thanks to our sponsors the Anchorage Public Library, Anchorage Friends of the Library, and Anchorage Library Foundation.
Congratulations to Eowyn Ivey, whose debut novel The Snow Child has made the shortlist for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize! To learn more about her book-in-progress, check out “Adventures of an Individual Artist Award winner” on the Rasmuson Foundation blog. We wish her luck on her upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand!
Don’t miss “Write Your Life” next week, August 30, 7:00-8:30 p.m. at Out North, when 49 Writers hosts an evening Q&A with Michael Berk, successful screenwriter and producer of the 2011 feature film Soul Surfer and hit television series Baywatch and The Wizard. Join us to learn what it takes to be a creative and successful writer for television and the silver-screen. Admission free. Brought to you by 49 Writers, Affinity Films, and Out North.
Also next week: Pitchapalooza at the Alaska State Fair, August 27, 2:00-3:30 pm.
Cirque, published in Anchorage, Alaska, is a regional journal created to share the best writing in the region with the rest of the world. Cirque 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. Submission deadline is September 21 (fall equinox). Click here for submission guidelines.
Gray Line of Alaska has just created a blog to help showcase the best of Alaska. A recent post is “17 Best Books Set in Alaska” – we’d love our readers to weigh in on the picks and perhaps even suggest some of their own!
Homer’s Daniel Coyle, bestselling author of The Talent Code, has a follow-up book on the shelves, released August 21 and already climbing the Amazon charts. The official book description reads, “The Little Book of Talent is a manual for building a faster brain and a better you. It is an easy-to-use handbook of scientifically proven, field-tested methods to improve skills—your skills, your kids’ skills, your organization’s skills—in sports, music, art, math, and business. The product of five years of reporting from the world’s greatest talent hotbeds and interviews with successful master coaches, it distills the daunting complexity of skill development into 52 clear, concise directives.”
Kaylene Johnson signs copies of Canyons and Ice: The Wilderness Travels of Dick Griffith at 1 pm Aug. 24 at Fireside Books in Palmer
F Magazine hosts its first fundraiser party Aug. 31 from 7 pm-1 am at Out North, 3800 DeBarr Road. Event includes music, art, poetry, dance, film, food and libations. Cost is $4.
Only one more week left
to nominate a worthy writer for the 2012-2014 Alaska State Writer Laureate. The
nomination
packet should be sent to Alaska State Council on the Arts, 161 Klevin
Street #102, Anchorage, AK 99508 or e-mailed as one PDF to andrea.noble-pelant@alaska.gov by 4pm on or before Friday, August
31, 2012. Nominations for the 2012
Governor’s Awards for the Arts also close on August 31. Click
here for more information on the awards and how to submit a nomination.