Deb: Have you spotted these writers?

While assembling an interview with Alaska State Writer Laureate Nancy Lord, author of our next 49 Writers online book club selection Rock, Water, Wild, I got to wondering:  What has become of some of our former writer laureates?

According to the Alaska State Council on the Arts website, the Alaska State Writer Laureate is an honorary appointment with a two-year term commitment, though it appears that in years past either the terms varied in length, or there were terms left unfilled.  Based on nominations (not yet open for this year's October 1 appointment), the Council facilitates the selection of the writer laureate based on exemplary professionalism, literary excellence and a commitment to the advancement of literary arts in Alaska.

Looking over the list of former laureates, I know what John Straley, John Haines, Richard Nelson, Tom Sexton, and Sheila Nickerson have been up to.  On the others, I'm fuzzy.  Help me out.  If you're a former Alaska State Writer Laureate or you've had a recent sighting of one, leave a comment to fill me in.  The complete list:

Alaska State Writer Laureates


2008 - Nancy Lord
2006 - John Straley
2004 - Jerah Chadwick
2002 - Anne Hanley
2000 - Richard Nelson
1995 - Tom Sexton
1988 - Joanne Townsend
1981 - Richard Dauenhauer
1977 - Sheila Nickerson
1973 - Ruben Gaines
1969 - John Haines
1965 - Oliver Everette
1963 - Margaret Mielke

News flash for former Graphic Arts authors

This appeal comes from frequent contributor Bill Sherwonit, who can be contacted via his website. Some authors may have received this in email form, but in the interest of locating anyone who might be affected, we've decided to print it here as well.

By now, many and perhaps all of you who lost royalties when GACPC went out of business have received a letter from the Ingram Book Group, offering to pay thirty percent (30%) of the royalties you are owed. Several of us in that circumstance have discussed the offer and believe it is unfair for any number of reasons; chief among them, perhaps, is that if Ingram has indeed assumed "various contracts of Graphic Arts" and is continuing to distribute and sell Graphic Arts titles, then it is legally and morally obligated to fully reimburse the authors who are owed money. It's still unclear whether Ingram will seek out another company and sell the "rights" to GACPC's titles, or in fact choose to set up its own publishing arm to continue to publish, sell, and distribute such titles. In either case, we believe Ingram is obliged to to honor any and all contracts between GACPC and its authors, photographers, etc. Several of us have decided to say NO to Ingram's offer, but we also believe we will have a greater position of strength if as many authors as possible join this "NO THANKS" movement and demand full compensation. We are the ones who have done the work through which GACPC and now Ingram have earned their profits. It is only fair and honorable that we be paid what we are owed.

The letter states "While Ingram is not under obligation pay this amount [30% of owed royalties] to you due to the filing of the bankruptcy, we are offering to make this payment as a good faith effort to provide some of the past amounts owed to you by Graphic Arts . . ." In fact we -- and some attorneys -- believe Ingram's interpretation of bankruptcy law and/or rules is wrong and it is obliged to pay full royalties, in assuming GACPC's assets and liabilities. We also believe a good faith effort would be to pay no less than 100 percent of royalties we are owed.

Ingram is trying to move quickly on this, requesting a response within two weeks. Don't let pressure tactics force your hand. Give this some thought and seriously consider saying "NO" for yourself and other authors. And if you know others who have titles with GACPC, please pass this along.

Deb: Workshop Talk

Our first 49 Writers Workshop, Finding Your Voice, ended Saturday.  Andromeda and I have both taught multiple workshops, but this was our first collaborative effort.  As with this blog, we found it a touchstone that challenged our thinking, stretched our skills, and provoked fun interactions. 

But instructors alone do not a workshop make.  The quality of a workshop correlates with the quality of the participants.  Ours were wonderfully engaged, a great group that we would have loved getting to know over weeks instead of just weekends.  At the suggestion of one participant, we created a ning network so they can stay in touch, a feature we'll add to upcoming workshops.  The next, we hope, will happen in late April/early May.  The topic:  Jumpstart Your Writing.    Another potential development later this year:  a 49 Writers workshop/retreat in a secluded spot across Kachemak Bay from Homer.  Stay tuned for updates.

The ultimate affirmation for Finding Your Voice:  in anonymous evaluations, 100 percent of our workshop participants said they'd recommend the workshop to others.  "Price was incredible; time passed quickly. I appreciated the fast pacing, obvious detailed preparation, as well as the easy atmosphere," wrote one.  Another noted that she'd brought 35 poems to a finished state in the week between workshop sessions.  That says more about her than it does about us, but it's nice to know the workshop had a catalytic effect.

Which brings me to today's question:  What makes for a great workshop experience?  We'd love your input.

Deb: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Have you picked up your copy of Nancy Lord's Rock, Water, Wild yet?  Our 49 Writers online book club discussion begins three weeks from Monday.  Watch for an interview with Nancy Lord as the book club date nears.

Lucky me:  without even the requisite six degrees separation, I've nabbed a back-door link to Alaska's celebrity author.  As reported this week in the New York Observer, Bookforum editor (also my brother) Chris Lehmann, has sold Rich People Things to Colin Robinson at Or Books. Expanding on his column of the same name for The Awl, Chris says it will be a sort of "bestiary of the permanent institutions of American capitalism."  You may recall Or Books launched last year with the best-selling anti-Palin anthology Going Rouge.  Upending the traditional publishing model, Or prints on demand and sells directly to readers, freeing distribution funds for marketing - at least $50,000 per book.

Anchorageites making the First Friday rounds tonight won't want to miss Parque?Poetry Installed, an evening of recently published work by poets Olena Kalytiak Davis and Kary Wayson arranged by the Still North Reading and Performance Series.  Alaska based Kalytiak-Davis and Seattle based Wayson will read their
poems within an installation by visual artists Jimmy Riordan and Craig Updegrove, the owner/operators of Rabbit Rabbit Press.  The fun begins at 7 p.m. tonight, February 5th, at the MTS Gallery, 3142 Mountain View Drive; readings begin at 8 p.m.  Catering is by Crush, with music by Reverse Retro.

Alaskan poet Erin Hollowell has started a new blog on writing and life called Being Poetry. "So far I've examined purpose, patience, grief and cabin fever all through the window of poetry," Erin says.  "I'm working up to featuring some Alaskan poets; Joan Kane is on the horizon. But mostly, the blog is a reflection on how poetry informs my life, and some writing and reading suggestions."

In addition to her February 16th Poisoned Pen Launch Party at the Grand Ballroom of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel for A Night Too Dark, Alaskan author Dana Stabenow announces the following signings:

• February 17th, Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, 7 p.m.
• February 18th, Powell's Books, Portland, 7 p.m.
• February 19th, Barnes & Noble, Anchorage, 7 p.m.
• February 20th, Fireside Books, Palmer, 12 noon

Palmer has declared February 16th, 2010, publication day of A Night Too Dark, to be Kate Shugak Day.  Dana will also speak as part of a panel March 5, 10:40 a.m.- noon at the Alaska Library Association Annual Conference, Hotel Captain Cook, Anchorage, on The Mysteries Behind Alaska Sisters in Crime. She'll keynote Oklahoma Writers' Federation Writers Conference April 29 - May 1, and she's also featured at a Poisoned Pen conference in Scottsdale June 24-27.

Welcome to Mary Katzke, our February Featured Writer.

I was unsettled this morning because when we were rapidly packing to head to Alyeska for ski camp I found yet more fallen leaves from my prize tree. They flutter down noisily this time of year, and each time I think I will lose her. There were three spread across the living room floor and I stepped on them in the dark. They sound like potato chips when you do that. She started with a seed. My son, then three, and the one who will ski while I write in lobbies and hotels and coffee shops, put the seeds in his little pockets when we were in Belize in ‘03. He always had that habit- clinging to small objects for days at a time. Once he found a coffee bean on the kitchen floor and held it in day care from morning till dinner before I discovered it. This time the object of comfort happened to be seeds of a mahogany tree. They come in pecan-like pods and then crack open to papery dragon fly wings. “Helicopters” he called them, because they spiral when you toss them in the air. They slipped through customs in his little pockets and I found them while doing the laundry.

I planted all of them one day while he was napping. Tucked them in beside a philodendron and forgot about them. It was probably April or so. One day there she was, the bright green trifecta of avocado-like leaves, six inches tall. After she got to be three feet tall, I transplanted her and she grew to six feet. Then I put her in a pot twice as large and she grew to nine feet tall. “Will we have to leave her when we move?” my son asked, dwarfed by her size. Last winter, we left for three weeks and she was near a drafty door during a temperature plunge. All but one shoot died. Who was I to think a rain forest tree could live in Alaska’s winter anyway? But it was a wild idea to try, and one that continually reminds me that sometimes you just have to give things a chance. Even when the leaves fall, all is not lost. She survived. I love surprises like that.

So when I first read Kathryn Harrison’s “The Seal Wife”, I was very taken with the imagery and the tone of her writing. Haunting, penetrating. I had never seen Anchorage through those eyes, the eyes of a young frontiersman with a hungry spirit back when it was just a tent city in the mud by Ship Creek. A man driven by trying to predict the volatile weather for the US government, and by the “edge of the earth opportunities” that all of us have tasted somewhere in our journeys here. And not insignificantly, driven by pure lust for a range of women that a 26 year-old man might be expected to have in such circumstances. No family, no real friends, money in his pocket, with the thrust of new inventions fueling his pride.

So I wrote to her by way of her book publisher back when I first read it- in 2003, about the same time I planted the mahogany seeds. She didn’t respond, nor did her agent. Now, several films later, a few screenwriting awards down the trail, a good crash course in the film incentive program, and inspired by tropical trees growing in Alaska, I reached out again. Thanks to the net that wasn’t so indirect as last time. She responded- in less than 4 minutes. Yes, she wrote. She would love to see her work on screen. Yes, “you make a compelling argument to be the one to do it.” A few more emails- letting her know fireweed isn’t orange, and light questions to test how much I could wiggle with the text (she is open to this) and then the FedEx arrived with the official paperwork from ICM. That is the moment the option became real. Also the moment the clock started to tick. Nine months to do something. The obvious parallel in this agreement between women isn’t lost on me.

Such a responsibility. First step is to re-read, and highlight scenes, and start to figure out where the story should begin, and how it will arc and what will not translate well from page to screen. It isn’t long before doubt starts to creep in. This beautiful internal journey of a young man on the frontier in search of wild ideas and the inner soul richness of love, which turns to obsession, is outrageously challenging to visualize. What was I thinking? Will I have to move away and start a new career if I can’t do this after all? As many times as I have made my mark (About Face or Intuition or Sea of Oil), sadly, I have also missed (Pen Pals, Tuesday Morning Coffee).

Then I think, the tree. The tree. The Tree. Nurture. Not overly complex, not overly cast or set. Doable. Nine months. A reasonable goal. Europeans will love it even in the U.S. doesn’t dine on subtleties. Maybe the inter-racial sex will lure a few repressed New Yorkers.

FADE IN: Anchorage, 1915.

Mary Katzke has produced over 30 documentaries and feature films. She was interviewed at 49 writers a year ago about her recent film, About Face.

Andromeda/Your Turn: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I'm a big believer in revision -- not just the fine polish, but the entire "re-seeing" of a project through multiple drafts -- and I'm comfortable giving revision advice. One of my favorites: When revising, read your work out loud. That's how you locate the clunky parts.

Have I taken my own advice? Errrr -- sometimes. I mean, I guess I'd read a few pages at a time out loud, here and there. I know I had told myself to do this more, especially when, while reading out loud from a published work in a public venue, I found myself still wanting to edit.

When we read silently, of course, we scan -- over the redundant phrases and the inadvertent echoes, the unintentional rhymes or excess alliterations. When we read aloud: all becomes clear. Certain words that have been used over and over. Other words that don't belong in a certain character's mouth. The flat phrases, and the overembellished ones.

Last week, I worked on yet another revision of my current novel-in-progress, which I have read in full at least three or four times, and in bits and pieces more times than I can count. My husband has looked at it, too. I knew typos still lurked, and some tense problems where I had changed from present to past tense (inconsistently), which I was bound to miss on further fast readings.

So I made myself read it out loud. All of it. I hoped it would take one good, long day. The first day, I spent 4 hours on about 20 pages. Crap. The next day I read aloud another 40 pages or so. More days; more pages. Have I mentioned I don't particularly enjoy the sound of my own voice? Every time I wanted to quit, I'd read the next page and find another unintentionally repeated word or rhyme or unnecessary dialogue tag or odd rhythm. Last night, I finally finished. It took -- I've lost count -- maybe 20 hours.

Reading every single word out loud shocked me. How had I failed to do this with previous projects? There were awkward phrases and infelicities on nearly every page! It was like going to a makeup counter with one of those high-powered mirrors and really seeing your skin for the first time in a long time -- every sun-weathered spot and every pore.

I knew before, but now I really know. Next time, when I think a project is nearing completion, I'll read every page out loud, before I submit to any agent, editor, or friendly reader. (Not this blog, though. Just to be clear: If you see no typos or errors here, ever, that's a bad thing. It means I'm spending too much time blogging and not enough time writing.)

Which makes me wonder, what other pieces of writing advice do many of us preach but not follow?

Share your favorites ...

What do dumpsters have to do with writing?: A guest post by Marybeth Holleman

Given the recent fallout between Amazon and Macmillan over book pricing, here are some timely thoughts on book pricing and readership from Alaskan author Marybeth Holleman.

My college roommate stayed in Chapel Hill after getting her BA in English, and for many years made a living cleaning houses. Then one day, out walking her dog near campus, she saw a University press employee dump boxes full of books into a dumpster. Toby pulled out one of the books, a textbook still in shrinkwrap. She brought it home, and looked up its retail price online--it sold for well over $200. So she did some dumpster diving, and started selling the books on eBay. For years she visited that dumpster and helped to get new books into the hands of grateful students, while making enough money that she cut back on housecleaning to a couple of days a week. Now she’s the self-proclaimed eBay Queen of Chapel Hill.

While I’m glad for her success, her story makes the writer in me groan. Many of us fortunate enough to have books published have also realized that the high price of our books keep readers from us—and keep bookstores from carrying many of our books. (I admit, I stopped frequenting one local bookstore after they hosted a reading of Crosscurrents North, and failed to have copies of The Heart of the Sound there as well—even with six weeks’ notice. Fortunately, I’m used to screwups enough to have brought a couple copies myself. But still. It’s a bookstore.)

Sometimes the problem is in the number printed. Ever since I heard that Alaska Northwest Books filed for bankruptcy, I’ve been imagining the boxes of my book, Alaska’s Prince William Sound: A Traveler’s Guide, sitting in their warehouse, on dumpster death row. It’s a slim book, one of their pocket guides, but they printed 10,000, and it hasn’t sold even half that many. Compare that to Crosscurrents North which quickly went into its second printing –but only because the print run was less than 1000.

Sometimes it’s the hardcover vs. softcover dilemma. I was happy that University of Utah Press decided to print The Heart of the Sound in hardcover, in part because I hoped for a larger press to pick up paperback rights. After all, it happened to the previous two authors in the series. But it didn’t happen to me (sigh), and instead I had to wince whenever someone at a reading would say, "I can’t afford hardcovers. When does the paperback come out?" (Better late than never, I guess: the paperback of The Heart of the Sound will be out next fall. Hurray.)

And wouldn’t it seem that online publications would be less expensive, given that there’s no paper costs? Well, while Alaska's own Cirque is free, it's not always true that online is less expensive. A new electronic journal, The Motherhood Muse, posts its inaugural issue at $4.00 a copy, about the same as a hard copy journal. (It looks like fun, though, I’ll buy it—just the cost of a latte, after all.)

So, as I send out a book proposal into the crazed world of book publishing, I’m hoping for a small print run of a nicely done paperback. Perhaps something with those French flaps, like Wild Moments, or a new anthology I’ve got an essay in, To Everything on Earth.

O.K. I’ll be honest. I’ll be happy if it’s printed, period. On anything. Napkins. Just please don’t let it end up in the dumpster.

On Solitude and Commitment: a guest post by Jo-Ann Mapson

When I learned that J.D. Salinger had died, I didn’t quite know what to feel. His abhorrence to publishing was beyond my understanding. His desire for privacy seemed extreme, but who am I to talk? I happily spend many days inside my little pueblo house on the prairie without interacting with the world beyond. A week will go by that I venture no further than the mailbox or the back fence to tell the hounds to stop barking at coyotes. All that day I reflected on Salinger’s books—only four—and how reading the story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” changed my life. I was a depressed teenager when my then college-sophomore (bad boy) boyfriend gave me Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction.

Other than my teenage angst, Bananafish was my first concrete experience with Existentialism, and it blew the top of my head clear off. The feelings I felt did matter! I’d always had choices of how to deal with life, but now I had company. I loved Seymour Glass more than my boyfriend; the events that transpire in Bananafish were to me a reaction to everything I felt about the world just then. Love. The Vietnam War. What lay beyond high school? The fear that the adult world would scoop me up, deliver me into some office job that would slowly leaden my soul, and worst of all, I’d stop writing.

After reading Salinger, solitude no longer felt like a disorder, but rather a kind of holy necessity to my writing self. It might even be the place stories come from.

My writing was pretty terrible back then. But I made time for it. When I felt desperate, Salinger reminded me that one could actually make use of this dark stuff that seemed to fit nowhere. That tears in me could potentially foster a story that evoked tears in readers. That may be the moment I truly committed to writing.

Solitude fosters that bond. Unlike my painter husband who choreographs his life, I need quiet to work. Caller ID was invented just for me. When I do venture out into the quirky city in which I live, to museums, or Farmer’s Market, or dinner out, a funny thing happens. I’ll raise my hands to clap for Coleman Barks or finish the bean soup I ordered, and wham, I am blindsided with insight. My subconscious never leaves the desk. If I can’t hurry home, I write down whatever has come to me and champ at the bit until I can spend time with it. Alone. Such moments are the gold every writer longs to discover.

For the last fifty years the world has speculated on what Jerry Salinger was up to in Cornish, New Hampshire. Salinger sightings and tabloid-type gossip provided tawdry speculation, or suggested he was a Howard Hughes-style hermit, up to only weirdness. Me, I picture an office made comfortable over the years, a place he could go to every day to shut out the world in order to write the stories of the choices humans make, and the consequences that follow. One thing for sure, he was up to something that he could only do by himself.

I imagine finished manuscripts lined up on bookshelves. Twenty families beyond the Glass tribe that so captured me long ago. Imagine Holden Caulfield a grandfather. Maybe Salinger foresaw his writing compromised by becoming “the famous writer” of his generation. Maybe he only had four books in him. Maybe he chose to stay at home, waiting for more to show up. Whatever there is, and I bet it’s dazzling, I know how he did it, by himself, listening to his subconscious. And that I understand perfectly.

Jo-Ann Mapson is the author of nine novels, most recently The Owl and Moon Café. In Fall 2010, Bloomsbury USA and UK will publish her tenth novel, Solomon’s Oak. She teaches fiction in the UAA MFA Program in Creative Writing. She lives with her husband and five dogs in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and travels to Alaska every summer.

Deb: 49 Writers weekly round-up

He's not technically Alaskan, but he used to be, and he's (unintentionally) adding to this week's discussion of online vs. in-person promotion by getting his photo in Publisher's Weekly PW Daily, emailed daily (for free) to subscribers - not once, but twice.  You might recall that Erik Brooks, illustrator of my Totem Tale, returned to Anchorage a couple of weeks ago for a series of school visits.  He submitted this photo to PW Daily, and on Monday they zapped it to all their subscribers with this caption:  "Erik Brooks, author and illustrator of Polar Opposites (Marshall Cavendish), recently returned from a 5-day school tour in Anchorage, Ala. During a stop at Taku Elementary on January 14 Brooks reconnected with his own second grade teacher, Eileen Apodoca, now a Title 1 Reading Specialist."  A few months ago, PW Daily featured a photo of Brooks with other winners of a Jacketflap contest.  Moral:  it's not that tough to get free online publicity, at least if you're a good-looking guy like Erik who'll take a few minutes to submit a photo to PW Daily.

Speaking of online promotion, Ketchikan's long-time public radio show  "Booktalk" is now available in a digital format at www.krbd.org under the link "downloadable KRBD."  Ketchikan librarian Charlotte Glover, who has hosted the show for nineteen of its thirty-some years, says it's a thirty-minute broadcast, primarily for adults but kid-appropriate, that features library, book and publishing news, best-sellers, and a book review/excerpt each week. Maybe we should talk to Charlotte about going statewide???

Ever wonder why your book or writing news doesn't land here?  Easy answer:  you didn't tell us about it.  Andromeda and I are both tied up with that pesky daily grind of churning out our own writing, leaving little time to ferret out news for this round-up.  What we get comes mostly from you, our readers.  For instance, as a follow-up to Nancy Lord's recent 49 Writers guest post on the special literary edition of The Northern Review, UAA Bookstore manager wrote to tell us that you can get copies of The Northern Review at the bookstore.  Thanks, Rachel!

The Alaska Center for the Book has announced winners in its 2009 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska Awards (CLIA). The awards, established in 1993, recognize people and institutions who have made a significant contribution in literacy, the literary arts, or the preservation of the written or spoken word in Alaska.  Included are Ed Bovy and Alissa Crandall of Anchorage, honored for the Read Alaska book fair held each winter at the Anchorage Museum. For seventeen years, the Greatland Graphics publishing team has volunteered to organize the event, an annual showcase for Alaskan authors, illustrators and publishers.

Carol Swartz was also honored for her efforts in establishing the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference, held each June in Homer.  In addition, Anne Coray of Port Alsworth, author of several poetry books and chapbooks, as well as non-fiction work on Alaska and the environment, was recognized for the creation of Northshore Press, a small literary publishing house run from her home on the shores of Lake Clark.  We'll try to bring you interviews with each of this honorees in the weeks ahead.

Poet Sandra Kleven, host of our 49 Writers poetry discussion earlier this month, reports that you can now view production stills for her film "Where is Ted Roethke?", which she recently finished shooting at the Blue Moon tavern in Seattle.  For more on the film - you can even get t-shirts! - visit http://www.heartworksak.net/roethke.html.

In a comment attached to our recent post about the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, there was mention of the Kiriyama Prize, with Alaskans as winners or finalists is years past.  Currently, the Kiriyama Prize is being restructured, and entries are not being accepted.

On a more positive note, the Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop "Creative Cross-pollinations" (July 17-24, 2010) is accepting registrations for this summer's sessions in McCarthy, Alaska, featuring Frank Soos, Margo Klass, Nancy Cook, Jonathon Gray and Maria Shell. Prince William Sound Community College.  Surrounded by the mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. While crafting original writings, participants will help piece a community quilt and produce non-traditional book structures.  Other activities include individual conferences, staff and participant readings, and guided opportunities to explore the area. Limited to 14 participants, workshop fees of $595.00 include meals and camping.

The UAA Low-Residency MFA Program pleased announces that poet and novelist Kim Addonizio will be this summer's keynote speaker.  Addonizio's fifth poetry collection, Lucifer at the Starlite, was recently published by W.W. Norton., and her collection Tell Me was a National Book Award Finalist.  Addonizio has also authored two instructional books on writing poetry: The Poet's Companion (with Dorianne Laux), and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, both from W.W. Norton. Her first novel, Little Beauties, was chosen as "Best Book of the Month" by Book of the Month Club. My Dreams Out in the Street, her second novel, was released by Simon & Schuster in 2007. You may read more about her at: .  In conjunction with UAA’s MFA Summer Residency, July 10-22, 2010, Kim Addonizio is tentatively scheduled to give a free, public author reading on the evening of Sunday, July 11, 2010.

Alaskan author, movie maker, and musher Rod Perry will speak Tuesday, February 16th at 7 p.m., at Barnes and Noble in Anchorage for the monthly meeting of the Alaska Writers' Guild.  The Guild is also sponsoring a second seminar on writing, with Professor Lee Goodman presenting on character at the Anchorage YWCA on Saturday, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27.  The cost is $60 for members and $75 for non-members. 

Young writers:  check out Inkpop, the new Harper site that offers opportunities to connect and possibly publish.

Andromeda: A death greatly exaggerated...?

As Mark Twain said about the erroneous reporting of his own death, perhaps the 'Death of Fiction' was also a bit exaggerated in the title of this recent Mother Jones article, brought to our attention by a 49w reader.

But article titles, which editors rather than writers often generate, are one thing. (I mean 'Death of Fiction?' The article focuses on university literary magazines, not literature in general).

Author Ted Genoways did claim that university-based quarterlies are seeing a decline in their subscriber base and -- here is a touchier point -- in their cultural relevance. He shares the bad news about publications (including TriQuarterly and New England Review) facing budget cuts or imminent elimination.

I read a few dozen of the comments posted at MJ, and most were doom and gloom. I'm not a major consumer of small literary magazines, especially non-Alaskan publications, to be honest (I barely make a dent in the books and magazines already cluttering my bedside). My perhaps naive impression from reading this blog is that the Alaska and northern litmag scene isn't doing too badly -- witness the publication of the new Cirque, the revival of Ice Floe, Nancy's post yesterday about The Northern Review, and the long-term success of AQR.

It won't surprise me to find out that reader audiences are splintering, simply because there are so many new publications (and entirely new forms of media) competing for reader's attention.

But what's your say on all this? Did you read the Mother Jones piece? Agree or disagree with it? Think the Alaska litmag scene is thriving or barely surviving? Are you tired of the every-decade pronouncement that 'literature/fiction/the novel/all of writing' is dead or do you think that this time around, the sky truly is falling?

I'd also like to know -- based on the surprising figures shared by Genoways (he says most literary magazines have fewer than 1500 subscribers) -- do you actually subscribe to the magazines he mentions? If a magazine is being supported only by the people writing for it, and possibly not even by those people -- does it have much relevance to the larger culture? Or are niche markets the perfect place for counterculture ideas, nuanced arguments, and new forms of writing to thrive -- and who cares if the subscriber base is small?

Exploring Human Experience in the North -- The Northern Review's Special Literature Issue: Guest post by Nancy Lord

In December, The Northern Review , a journal published by Yukon College in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, recently produced a special literature issue for fall 2009. (The journal normally deals with more scholarly subjects.) The guest editor is Eric Heyne, from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the issue was published with support from both the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Alaska Humanities Forum.

There are a lot of familiar names in this issue—Alaskans Jean Anderson, Joe Enzweiler, Tom Sexton, Anne Coray, Peggy Shumaker, John Morgan, the late Marjorie Cole, myself, others. And a lot of unfamiliar (to me) names—other Alaskans and writers from various parts of Canada. Altogether, it’s a great look at who we are as northerners, the forces that shape us.

But, as Eric Heyne says in his introduction, “This is not a celebration of the wilderness beauty and charismatic megafauna of the North. There’s nary a wolf to be seen.” Heyne seems to have been, in his selections, more interested in the human dimensions of northern living, and in the many contradictions to be found there. Or else, the writers themselves transcended expectations—surely a sign of a maturing literature.

I haven’t read the entire issue yet, but I’ve read enough to be impressed by its variety, and I’ve loved seeing some new work from old friends as well as being introduced to the work of writers new to me.

One of my regrets about Alaska literature is that, while we’re so strong in poetry and creative nonfiction, we seem to have a dearth of literary fiction, and so I read the fiction section with particular interest and attention. I wasn’t equally moved by all ten stories (which include a very short one of my own), but I was very impressed with several and also picked up on some common themes—that I might characterize as “life in the north is hard.” Of course, with fiction, it’s good to remember that only trouble is interesting, but this particular group of stories is, perhaps fitting to our current season, dark. That is, we’re treated to plenty of violence, family and societal disfunction, sadness, drugs and alcohol, loneliness. In a good way, I mean—the way that makes you think about what it means to be human. This is the north when the tourists are gone, when the snow sifts in under the door, the kids are huffing gas out on the beach, and towns are too small for abused women to share with their abusers.

I have favorites among the fiction. It’s nice to see something new from Fairbanksan Jean Anderson, author of the 1989 short fiction collection In Extremis and Other Stories. Her story here, “Blizzard,” is truly a blizzard of internal dialogue from a woman narrator caught between generations and in domestic despair. Another Fairbanksan, the late Marjorie Cole , is represented by “With This Body,” a story of remarkable faith and humor, in which a not-happy-to-be-pregnant woman finds a source of abundance. Following Marjorie’s too-soon death from cancer, this story comes as a gift from her generous spirit. I was especially wowed by Leslie Thomas’s “End Times for Ruby,” which captures the lives of girls in village Alaska, with all their imagined possibilities “until you actually graduated.” Leslie grew up in Nome and is author of the novel Flight of the Goose. I was perhaps equally impressed with “The Komatik Lesson,” by Julia Christensen, a writer from Yellowknife NWT, new to me. Like Leslie’s story, this one captures the realities and contradictions of village life, in which a mother has to make an intolerable choice about home, family, and future and reaches to her own beginning for the strength to do so. According to her bio, Christensen is, along with being a writer, a scholar who studies homelessness and rural housing issues.

Hmmm. I detect a pattern here. Each of these stories I so admire has at its center a remarkably strong northern woman.

Because this is a Canadian publication, I don’t know if it will be very visible in Alaska, but it deserves to be. You can order a copy or a subscription by emailing review@yukoncollege.yk.ca. As with the poetry journal Ice-Floe, it’s a great way of considering Alaskan writing alongside our contemporaries from similar geographies.

Nancy Lord is the Alaska State Writer, and author of Rock, Water, Wild. She is a regular guestblogger for 49writers.

Deb: Flash Fiction, an interview with David Marusek

"Flash fiction offers me the equivalent of instant gratification," says Fairbanks author David Marusek.  "Also, the shorter the length, the more puzzle-like the writing becomes, and I find that rewarding as well."  Knowing Marusek will present on flash fiction at a retreat in Fairbanks next month, we asked him to tell us about the genre.  We'll follow up with a post by another Fairbanks author, Michael Engelhard, when his anthology of flash fiction comes out from University of Alaska Press later this year. 

First, some background. What is flash fiction? How did it start? How is it developing as a genre?

Flash fiction is fiction of ultra-short length. Any story--with a beginning, middle, and end--of 1000 or fewer words can be considered flash fiction. The lower limit for a complete story seems to be six words. Other popular lengths are 55 words (the 55er), 100 words (the drabble), and between 250 and 500 words. Recently, Twitter-length stories of 140 characters (or about 25 words) have appeared on the scene.

While writers have always produced stories of very short length, flash fiction wasn’t considered a separate genre until the 1980s when James Thomas and other editors began publishing anthologies of shorter and shorter story lengths. In 1992, Thomas put out a volume of 72 very short stories called Flash Fiction. The stories ranged in length from about 250 words to 750. The original idea was to find stories that could be read without turning a page, that is, stories that could be apprehended “in a flash.” The name stuck, even as the Internet blossomed, blogs were invented, and people started reading fiction on their cell phones.

What prompted you to write your first flash fiction piece?

The editor of the British science journal Nature asked me to write one. They were devoting the last page of each issue of their venerable periodical to a fiction feature they called “Futures,” and they invited science fiction writers around the world to submit stories. The word limit was between 800 and 900 words. This was way shorter than anything I had ever published and so it was a challenge for me, and a lot of fun.

What special challenges and rewards attach to the writing of flash fiction?

It seems to me that every story you may want to tell has its own inherent ideal length, and that part of your job as a writer is to discover what that length is. Is it a meaty, chewy story that needs the legroom of an entire novel? Or a slight, incandescent glimmer of a story that wants only a paragraph or two? The challenge of writing flash fiction is in finding the right story to tell in the first place.

Think about what can happen in a novel. An entire life can be laid out for examination, an era can be reproduced, or a new world discovered and explored. A person can be redeemed in the course of a novel; civilizations can clash; Time can march on. Not so much in a short story. A short story typically has enough space to contain a single event in the life of single character. It may be a very important event to that character, and it may lead to a major epiphany or change in that character’s life, but it is necessarily limited in scope. A piece of flash fiction, with an even smaller scope, has enough space for a startling impression or flash of insight, and not much more.

I generally work in longer lengths--novels and novellas. I seem to like the broad canvas. A project of mine takes months or years to complete. And thus flash fiction offers me the equivalent of instant gratification. It’s a place to park all those neat ideas I have that have no other home. It’s an opportunity to keep my name in front of my readers between novels. Also, the shorter the length, the more puzzle-like the writing becomes, and I find that rewarding as well.

What are some good markets for flash fiction?

These days I seem to stumble across flash fiction opportunities at every turn. Even NPR has gotten in on the action with their Three-Minute Fiction contest, which asks listeners to send in original stories of 500-600 words. If you search the web for “flash fiction” you will get over 400,000 results covering the gamut from contests to paying markets. But if you’d like a frequently updated compendium of flash fiction opportunities, I suggest you join Pam Casto’s Yahoo flash fiction group. It’s a brilliant and free resource.

What’s in the works for your Flash Fiction retreat at Writing in the Dark in Fairbanks on February 13?

The Fairbanks Arts Association’s annual retreat is a great chance to mingle with other writers during the dark days of winter. It takes place in the beautiful conference setting of the Four Winds Foundation. We’ll start the all-day event with continental breakfast. Then I’ll be sharing some of my favorite flash fiction discoveries to illustrate storycraft, with examples of both popular and literary styles. I have spent tens of hours over the last few years collecting little gems and exemplars of the genre. And flash fiction is a great form for exploring the mechanics of fiction because the stories are so short. Workshop participants will then take time to try their hand at writing their own stories. We break for lunch. After more storycraft, discussion, and writing time in the afternoon, we’ll share our results at the end of the day.

The cost is $30 (until February 1, $35 at the door) and includes continental breakfast and lunch. For more information, call 907-456-6485 x227.

Deb: Use this blog!

Our readers have spoken: the next selection for our 49 Writers online book club discussion is Nancy Lord’s Rock, Water, Wild. Pick up your copy soon, in preparation for our online discussion March 1 and 2. In the meantime, we’ll apply the old arm twist – it shouldn’t be hard – for an interview and an occasional visit from Nancy during the discussion.

Now, a question for writers: Would you rather have your book featured in an online book club discussion, or would you rather do a reading at your local independent bookseller? If you’ve been following our recent discussion of changing policies at Title Wave, Alaska’s largest independent bookseller, initiated in a post by featured author Joan Kane and followed-up by Andromeda, you’ll understand why I’m asking.

Title Wave used to maintain a robust calendar of author readings and signings, featuring both local writers and some from Outside who veered north on their tours. It won’t be what it has been. Among the comments (and please, continue to comment) on this development, two threads emerge: to what extent should/must we embrace online substitutions for in-person promotion, and in what ways might we salvage in-person author promotion and interaction in Anchorage (and elsewhere)?

Marketing and enrichment are the two major benefits to writers and readers from in-store events. It used to be that scheduling lots of signings and readings caused a marketing ripple. Stores placed ads and spread flyers, which got the author’s name out. Putting author faces to names led to booksellers hand-selling titles. But the book culture has changed. The ads got too costly. With staff cuts, hand-selling happens less often (though those nice people at Mosquito Books are still doing a great job with my books). Readers are far more likely to select books based on online buzz and reviews than from chatting with their local bookseller. You may scream at your screen, “Not me! Never!” But at the end of the day, a fact is a fact.

Beyond the fact that people connect differently than they did fifteen years ago is the fact that big publishing likes big names. Look no further than our own Sarah P. to see a book tour blown into a celebrity mega-event. Another example: the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation is featuring Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner at an upcoming luncheon. I made a mental note to attend, till I noted the cost: $45. Now people pay that and more to see Larry the Cable Guy, so on one hand I like knowing authors command at least that much clout. But it’s another manifestation of the exclusive author-celebrity club that most of us won’t be invited to join.  (Dubner's book-signings are free.)

Ideally, we’d never have to choose between great online and in-town promotion – we’d have access to both. In comments to our recent posts, ideas are still popping up (keep them coming!) for new in-person models of bringing authors and readers together in Anchorage. Add yours; next week we’ll pull the comments together and see if there’s a way to make something happen.

In the meantime, writers, use this blog and others to connect to your readers. Your book doesn’t have to be chosen for book club discussion. What if, whenever you comment on this blog or others, you use the name/URL option, including the URL to your author website so readers can find you? (If you have a Bogger ID, you’d accomplish the same: with one click, readers can learn about you and your book). What if you wrote an occasional guest post, or requested an interview?

Interact. Engage. Reach your readers. Hand-sell your own books. Use us.

Andromeda: More on Title Wave's author signings policies...

Wait a minute -- Title Wave, Anchorage's biggest indie bookstore, isn't having author signings? Or just fewer of them? And what kind of books, exactly, will they be stocking? Admittedly, there are changes underfoot and I asked Angela Libal, store manager, to help us sort it out.

I think (hope!) the news really isn't so bad. And for those who are frustrated with the store (and what local author, wanting to see more copies of his or her book stocked, wouldn't be?) I hope we can also imagine the economic challenges any independent bookstore faces, just trying to keep the doors open.

Here are some snippets of what Angela Libal told me in recent emails:

We have scaled WAY back on the amount of new books we carry -- only Alaskana titles (both new releases and bestsellers) and some paperback fiction titles in modest quantities. Because we are no longer ordering large quantities of new books from publishers (for events or otherwise), we are not offered as many opportunities to host visiting authors. Additionally, our recent remodel of the store has caused us to use our open-seating areas a bit differently. However, we plan to still host local author signings, in addition to many other community events, coordinated by the authors themselves or local distributors like Todd Communications, at the front of the store.

I asked Angela for more details. In a later email, she said:

We scheduled little to no signings during the remodel because of the noise / flux, etc. ... I've had a couple larger publishers contact us about signings, and then decide to pass upon learning that we're mostly a used bookstore now and we wouldn't order 100 books. They don't see the point of sending someone to us without a guarantee of high sales. ...

And as for readings or larger presentation events -- it would really just depend on the who / what / when. We just don't have the staff anymore to handle large-scale events. We no longer have the need for 50+ employees -- we have about half that now. Also, our event space is smaller and we cannot accommodate more than about 30 people. Last year, before the remodel, we saw attendance for sit-down events plummet. The Daily News rarely promotes local authors, they don't review books like they used to, and there's little media support to bookstores, in general. There's nothing worse than an author coming to do an event or presentation, expecting a high turnout, and have little to no attendance. That's why it's easier for us to offer and promote signings at the center of the store. The pressure is less, they can talk to all kinds of people, sign books, and really be at the hub of activity -- rather than be tucked away. Mike Doogan, Stan Jones, and Tom Brennan (aka "The Murderer's Row") came for a panel signing during the holidays. It was great! They had a blast heckling each other, chatting up absolutely everyone, and they signed/sold a ton of books. That's what we like to see !

So here is my final reading-between-the-lines. Title Wave has not turned its back on all events, or even on new Alaska titles. They do seem to be favoring signings, which is a bit of a shame, because a signing is not a reading; but perhaps there is some way to make even small readings less work and more profit for them? (You can see I'm not giving up on those readings.)

Finally, I think we should consider the role of the media in all of this. (And this blog is a part of that media.) To make book sales and signings and readings work, we need more book coverage/reviews/interviews. Newspapers are down; digital media is up. During this transition, we need to do all we can to help authors and books get the coverage they deserve. At least in my mind, we can't blame booksellers for not wanting to host events without some assistance in promoting turn-out. Frustration aside, we all sink or swim together

P.S. In the comments, Michael E. recommended this NYTBR article about an author doing in-home book readings. Worth considering...

Deb: 49 Writers weekly round-up

There's a tight race underway for our next 49 Writers online book club choice. It's great to see all the interest, with lots of fans for each book. If you haven't already voted, you can weigh in (once) at our sidebar poll before 5 p.m. Sunday. The online discussion will be March 1 and 2, and we'll do our best to feature an author interview and perhaps even some author participation as part of the fun - yes, even if the author is Michael Chabon, we'll give it a shot.

We may have two slots still open in our 49 Writers workshop "Finding Your Voice." Email your registration to me at debv@gci.net. Thanks to the Alaska State Council on the Arts and Alaska Sisters in Crime for helping to sponsor this workshop.

In case you missed yesterday's post by Joan Kane, note that authors and playwrights Joy Harjo, Diane Glancy, Susan Power, and Terry Gomez are coming to Anchorage this weekend to kick-off the yearlong Alaska Native Playwrights Project. On Saturday, January 23, free performances mark the first Native Theatre Festival at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Also, on February 5, poets Olena Davis and Kary Wayson will read at MTS Gallery in conjunction with an installation by Rabbit Run Press, part of the Still North Reading and Performance Series.  And if that's not enough to satisfy the Anchorage literary crowd, in conjunction with the Alaska Library Association's annual conference, nationally-acclaimed Sherman Alexie will speak in Anchorage the first week in March.  Tickets are limited, and I haven't heard yet the procedure for general admittance.

Alaskan writers once again have an opportunity to apply for Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Awards. The Foundation is hoping to generate artist interest from all parts of the state, from artists at all career stages. Project Awards of up to $5,000 will support short-term projects that have a clear benefit to the artist and development of their work. Fellowship Awards of $12,000 are available to mid-career and mature artists in specific artistic areas (not literary arts this go-round). One distinguished artist award of $25,000 will be given to a mature Alaska artist.  The postmark deadline to apply is March 1, 2010.

To learn more about the grant application process, or ask questions about improving a past grant application that did not receiving funding, artists are invited to join us for one of three, free informational teleconferences.
For awards in Literary Arts, Scriptworks and Music Composition, the teleconference will be Jan. 26, 2010 at 6 p.m.   Call (877) 615-4339 and use Passcode: 8435 602#.

Friends and fans of the Wrangells Mountain Center will want to head to a winter fund-raiser at the Snow Goose Theater in Anchorage at 6 p.m. on January 27th, where they'll enjoy live music by Sweet Sunny South and the Pilot Cracker Playboys, a silent auction, a big raffle, and of course fine microbrews.  A $20 donation covers admission, your first drink, appetizers.  Children attend free of charge, with a special WMC kids' activity focusing on cold-weather adaptions in northern animals offered at 6:30 p.m.  Music starts at 7:30 p.m.  Call 907.244.7717 or email info@wrangells.org with questions or auction donations.

Finally, Alaska Quarterly Review announces its Spring & Summer 2010 book-length issue, an anthology of innovative new fiction, a major work of nonfiction, and new poetry.  This issue features a cutting-edge anthology titled, “Innovative Fiction: 21 Writers,” guest edited by Amy Hempel. Hempel is an acclaimed writer of short fiction and recipient of the Hobson Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a USA Fellowship grant by United States Artists, the Rea Award for the Short Story and the PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction. Hempel’s Collected Stories, was named one of The New York Times' Ten Best Books of the year. Readers of “Innovative Fiction: 21 Writers” will enjoy a mix of stories by 21 new, emerging and established writers including O. Henry Award winner Patricia Lear and National Book Award winner, Lily Tuck.

Of special interest to writers is the issue's exploration of what makes a good sentence and how to write one. Using examples from 48 writers, author Arnold G. Nelson, professor emeritus at Western Michigan University, studies the nature of language, literature, and personal observation. Exemplars range from John McPhee and Gertrude Stein to Philip Roth, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, and William Least Heat-Moon.  Rounding out the issue is poetry by eighteen new and emerging poets including Todd Boss, Jeanne Emmons, and Amber Flora Thomas.

New Wave, No Wave: Guest post by Joan Kane

Ed. note from Andromeda: I hadn't realized Title Wave had made this apparent policy change! I'm still a big supporter of TW and want to find out more. Today, we have Joan Kane's take on the matter; we invite booksellers and other authors to weigh in...

Could it be that Title Wave’s decision to stop supporting authors (local and otherwise) by selling their new books and hosting their readings is the best thing to happen to Anchorage’s literary offerings in years? I find that I’ve a bit more diversity to my book and media selections through old standbys Metro Music and Books, amazon.com, and other outlets, and more time to spend actually reading, writing, and attending events elsewhere since I’ve chosen not to spend money or time at Title Wave this year.

This weekend, authors and playwrights Joy Harjo, Diane Glancy, Susan Power, and Terry Gomez arrive in Anchorage to inaugurate the yearlong Alaska Native Playwrights Project. On Saturday, January 23, a range of free performances mark the first Native Theatre Festival at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. More details are available through the Heritage Center’s Web site.

Also this week, writer Nikki Giovanni presents her work as part of the University’s Civil Rights Month Celebration on Thursday, January 21 at the Wendy Williamson auditorium.

In early March, Sherman Alexie will also present his work at UAA. These readings join the second installment of the Still North Reading and Performance Series, which will include readings from Olena Davis and Kary Wayson at MTS Gallery on February 5.

When Title Wave’s manager Angela Libal shared the news with me in November about the store’s decision, I initially lamented the loss of a venue for writers, visiting and otherwise—many of my colleagues and professors from NYC enjoyed including Alaska on their reading tours when invited to read at the strip-mall bookstore, but in recent months, the store’s move seems to have breathed life into new and existing venues, making the prospects of readings and performances elsewhere a great deal more attractive.

Joan Kane (Inupiaq), a Whiting Writers' winner, is a poet and playwright. She is the author of newly-released The Cormorant Hunter's Wife and the play, The Gilded Tusk, which is in its reprise run at The Anchorage Museum.

Andromeda: Quick answers from the PNBA -- Alaska longlist nominees

Thom Chambliss, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, provided some very quick answers to our questions yesterday about Alaska representation among PNBA nominees. While there are no Alaska books in the 2010 shortlist, there were some in the longlist of nominees. (And congrats to those Alaska writers!)

Thom writes, "Yes, every year a bunch of AK titles are nominated for a PNBA Award, as you can see in the list of nominations. Seth Kanter has won a PNBA Award twice, and this year William L. Iggiagruk Hensley's "Fifty Miles from Tomorrow" was featured at our fall show as well as nominated for an Award. Nancy Lord's "Rock, Water, Wild" was also nominated. ..."

Looking at the list, I see also Miranda Weiss's "Tide, Feather, Snow," Mattox Roesch's "Sometimes We're Always Real Same Same," and a book called "Alaska and Beyond" by M.D. Kincaid. There may be other Alaskans on the list that I am not recognizing by title or author, but at least this shows us that Alaska booksellers and publishers are getting Alaska books into judges' hands, and that's a good thing. (It seems to me that it wouldn't hurt to ask one's publisher if they participate in this particular awards process. If a publisher doesn't supply books, a title can't be considered, as Thom kindly explains below.)

Thom's email continues, "ANYONE may nominate a book for a PNBA Award. We encourage our bookstore members to nominate books, because they tend to know more about the good local titles than we do. The burden, however, is really on the publisher, because, in order for a book to be given the most consideration by the Committee, it must be put into the hands of all nine Committee members. Usually only the publisher has the means to do that. When a bookseller nominates a book, I then have to contact the publisher, determine the correct publicist, contact him/her and ask them to send copies of the book to each of the members of the Committee. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Most publishers know our Awards now and contact me directly for the list of Committee members each year. If you or one of your colleagues know of any titles that you would like our Committee to consider, let me know, and I will contact the publisher and ask them to supply copies to the Committee."

Deb: Winners

If genies granted wishes for books, we'd first ask for quality.  Right behind we'd want readers, and for that you need buzz.

In today's mega-marketing culture, most buzz comes from money dumped on celeb authors or books that don't need it.  But there's a back door to buzz:  book clubs and awards.

Book clubs pack a double wallop.  Readers pick up titles they might otherwise miss, swapping insights and ideas with other bibliophiles.  Writers get buzz - a little here, a little there, all adding up to more readership.  Check our sidebar, and you'll find five great titles we're pondering for our next 49 Writers online book club discussion:  Blonde Indian by Ernestine Hayes; The Cormorant Hunter's Wife by Joan Kane; A Land Gone Lonesome by Dan O'Neill; Rock, Water, Wild by Nancy Lord; and The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.  Vote for your favorite (one vote per reader) before Sunday, January 24 at 5 p.m.  We'll announce the winner next week, with online discussion to follow March 1 and 2.

Awards generate backdoor buzz, too.  Sure, awards get political, but there are always some backdoor surprises.  Yesterday the ALA announced the big boy awards for children's and YA books.  I've been on a YAWriters listserv for years, one that allows only 100 members, and guess what?  Three of yesterday's winners came from our list:  Libba Bray won the Prinz for Going Bovine, Rebecca Stead won the Newberry for When You Reach Me, and Tanya Stone won the Sibert for Almost Astronauts.   (Move over, big boys - it's the big girls this year.) 

Coincidence?  I think not.  Success means you network.  You engage.  You seize opportunities.  Listserving won't make a bad novel good.  Online connections don't drive awards.  But connecting does raise a standard, ease frustrations, and motivate achievement.  We hope, in a small way, we're doing some of that for writers of the North here at 49 Writers.

Andromeda has posted before on formalizing buzz for great books of the North with awards.  Gary Luke at Sasquatch officially bequeathed us the now-defunct Chinook Prize to award as we will.  But there's another avenue for generating award buzz for our books:  the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA)awards.  In 1965 the PNBA began honoring excellence in writing by authors and/or illustrators residing within the PNBA region (Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and British Columbia.  Northwest booksellers nominate books by October 31 of each year.  Maybe we should encourage Alaska booksellers to nominate titles.  Or maybe we need an award of our own.  Because backdoor buzz gets books read.

Deb: Giving back

I never aspired to plankton.  But on occasion I suppose we have something in common, in that writers - for good reason - sometimes feel we're at the bottom of the food chain.  Traditional publishing layers agents, editors, marketing departments, sales staff, jobbers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers between us and our readers.  Our advances and royalties mostly seem microscopic when compared to the immense labor of birthing a well-written book.

Writing for publication may feel like volunteer work - and sometimes, as with journals that pay only in copies, it is.  While you can't make a living working for free, Martin Luther King Day is a good reminder that we're all pulling together on this big planet of ours, and compensation doesn't have to be at the top our list.  From local arts councils to writing groups to library boards to non-profits that support literacy, the work of countless volunteers promotes writing and books

Across the country today, as folks step up to help others, I'd rather not dwell on what it's like to be plankton.  Instead I'll think of all the good people right here in Alaska who give voice to writers.  LitSite Alaska.  Alaska Center for the Book.  Alaska Sisters in Crime.  Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators.  The Alaska Writing Consortium.  The Alaska Library Association.  The Alaska Literacy Association.  The Mountain Trailer Arts Center.   The Alaska Chapter of Romance Writers of America.  Journals like Cirque and Alaska Quarterly Review.  The Kachemak Bay Writers Conference.  Book Festival Alaska.  Authors to the Schools.  A few of these groups have paid staff or university affiliations, but the bulk of the labor comes from volunteers.

This year, we hope to feature interviews with as many of these groups as we can.  Are there any we've missed?  Let us know through a comment, below.  Because when you engage with writing community, you're making it better for all. 

It beats floating the ocean.  And as I remind myself often, it gets toxic on top.

Deb: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Now that the new year's well underway, we've opened nominations for our next 49 Writers online book club discussion. We've got a nice list going (Blonde Indian; The Yiddish Policemen's Union; Rock, Water, Wild; The Cormorant Hunter's Wife; A Land Gone Lonesome) but if you have another title to add, there's still time before I post the book poll on Monday, January 18. Leave a comment with the original post or email your nomination to debv@gci.net.

Our 49 Writers writing workshop "Finding Your Voice" begins two weeks from tomorrow, on January 30. Three slots remain open. To register, follow the link or email me at debv@gci.net. Judging from registrations so far, we've got a dynamic group of writers in a variety of genres, and we'd love to have you join us. Thanks to support from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and Alaska Sisters in Crime, we're able to offer the workshop at the low rate of $35.

Congratulations to Michael Engelhard, editor of Wild Moments, on a glowing review from Audubon Magazine in their January-February 2010 issue. The Editor's Choice states,"This is top-drawer nature writing—there’s not a clunker in the bunch." On the Audubon website, http://www.audubonmagazine.org/, you'll find an excerpt from the book's editor Michael Engelhard.

I'm not sure you're a real Alaskan unless you've been to Fairbanks, mid-winter. Now there's a reason to visit. Fairbanks author David Marusek will be speaking on Saturday, February 13 at Writing in the Dark, an annual all-day writing retreat sponsored by the Fairbanks Arts Association. It provides the creative writer the opportunity to generate new material, gather ideas, and commune with other writers in the beautiful setting of the Four Winds Foundation.

Marusak's topic is flash fiction, the art of the very, very short story, 1000 words or less. It's a form custom-made for the digital age, great for reading on your phone, as a Tweet, or during a coffee break. For the creative writer, flash fiction offers the chance to sharpen narrative skills in brief, but complete, bursts of fiction. And the form has become so popular that opportunities abound for publication online, in magazines, and as part of writing contests.

David Marusek is a long-time Fairbanks resident. His short fiction has appeared in Playboy, Nature, MIT Technology Review, and Asimov’s, and has been translated into nine foreign languages. His story collection, Getting to Know You, has been released as a Del Rey paperback and was a finalist for the Quill Award. According to Publisher's Weekly, “Marusek's writing is ferociously smart, simultaneously horrific and funny, as he forces readers to stretch their imaginations and sympathies." Marusek loves writing flash fiction between his novel projects and has published three of them in a national magazine.

The cost is $30 (until February 1, $35 at the door) and includes continental breakfast and lunch. For more information, call 907-456-6485 x227.

And that's not all that's happening in Fairbanks. As part of their commitment to showcasing the work of Alaskan playwrights, the Fairbanks Drama Association and The Looking Glass Group Theatre invite Alaskan residents to send in their best ten-minute plays to be considered for the 9th Annual 8X10 Festival of New Alaskan Plays. Eight ten-minute plays will be given rehearsed staged readings at the Festival, which will be held April 16 & 17, 2010, at FDA’s Riverfront Theater in Fairbanks.

Scripts must be written by Alaskan residents, with one entry per playwright and one author per play. No musicals or children's plays will be accepted. Submit 5 (five) copies of each script, typed & bound, with pages numbered, and a cover page with playwright’s name and contact info, including phone and e-mail. A “Cast of Characters” page with brief character descriptions should follow the cover page, with a cast size of no more than eight actors. Plays should be between 8 & 12 minutes long based on one minute of playing time per page of script, 12 pt. font size, standard playwriting format. Electronic and Express Mail submissions are not accepted, and scripts will not be returned. Submissions must be postmarked no later than March 15, 2010 and sent to: 8X10 Festival, Fairbanks Drama Association/ Looking Glass Group Theatre, 1852 Second Avenue, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701. For more information, contact Peggy MacDonald Ferguson at 907-456-PLAY or pegferguson@gci.net.

Congratulations to Jo-Ann Mapson, core faculty member, fiction, in UAA's MFA program, on the upcoming publication of another novel, Solomon’s Oak. To be published in hardcover by Bloomsbury in Fall 2010 and simultaneously released in the U.K., Solomon’s Oak is the story of a financially challenged young widow who throws weddings on her ranch-ette in Central California, a former crime lab cop recovering from a devastating injury, a cynical, teenage foster girl who finally finds a home, and of course there are dogs.

Mapson's upcoming book is dedicated in memory of MFA fiction student, Jason Wenger, who was about to start his thesis semester at UAA when he was murdered in Anchorage in December 2007. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Jason Wenger Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, a fund Mapson started at UAA after Jason’s death to support the program he so dearly loved.

Authonomy has partnered with the Act on CO2 campaign offering publication opportunities in an anthology of short stories, fairytales and poems (100 to 3000 words long) on the subject of climate change. View selected submissions and then submit your own by January 31.

If you write for children, you might make note of a couple of contests. Kids agent Mary Kole, who is hosting a contest on her KidLit blog, inviting writers to submit the first 500 words of their finished young adult or middle grade novel. Deadline: Jan. 31, 2010. Also, Sourcebooks is launching a new young adult imprint called Sourcebooks Fire with a contest for YA writers. You're invited to submit your pitch, a bio and the title. Contest runs from Feb. 1 to Feb. 28, 2010.

It's also time once again for The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, an international competition seeking fresh new writing voices. Self-published novels are now eligible, and there will also be two categories this year: Young Adult Fiction and General Fiction. One grand prize winner from each category will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin, including a $15,000 advance. Contest details are listed below, and further information and official rules can be found at www.amazon.com/abna. Contest submission period begins January 25th, 2010 at 12:01 a.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time) and ends February 7th, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time), or when the first 5,000 entries have been received in each category, whichever is earlier. There is no entry fee.

Andromeda: Q&A with Mike Burwell of the new journal "Cirque"

Have you checked out the inaugural issue of Cirque?

First, there is substantial content by a veritable who's-who list that includes nonfiction by Jeff Fair, Sandra Kleven, Bill Sherwonit; plays by Nancy Lord and Peter Porco; poetry by the recently departed Marjorie Kowalski Cole, plus Ann Dixon, Ernestine Hayes, Cinthia Ritchie ... and that's just a sampling, and only from the first page of the two-paged table of contents.

Second, there is the online format. Now, maybe I've missed out on some other online journals, but this one strikes me as incomparably elegant, and really a pleasure to read online. We're not talking about dull text scrolling vertically across on the screen. Cirque looks like a real journal (including good photos and design), with pages you can "turn," and the additional option of being able to buy a physical, published copy on demand. If this is the future, it looks pretty good to me.

And now that I've filled this much space proselytizing, a few very quick answers from Mike Burwell, who created this new addition to the lit world.

What was the creative and/or strategic impetus for founding Cirque? I’m curious both about the starting point and the process (including many hours of toil, I imagine, plus any other people you want to credit) involved in creating such a polished-looking product.

My original reason for founding Cirque was the fact that a very fine circumpolar poetry journal, Ice-Floe, the labor of Shannon Gramse and Sarah Kirk, had stopped publishing in the Winter of 2006. When Ice-Floe disappeared, I felt that many poets in the region had lost a significant platform for their writing. About a year later, I teamed up with my friend Randol Bruns in Wasilla to do a journal that would be half standard literary journal and half performance/slam poetry, but for a variety of reasons we just couldn't get the number and quality of submissions to make this editorial concept work.

Things languished for a year or so and then on a visit to Lake Clark to see my friends Anne Coray and Steve Kahn of NorthShore Press the fire was rekindled. We brainstormed the journal's name--Cirque: we all liked the sound of the word and the concept of this high mountain place where beautiful things would form, literally mountain lakes and more figuratively written works, informed by the northern landscape....The process languished again because I work full-time and am also getting a masters in anthropology and poet Buffy McKay, who was my chief editorial assistant, got very sick. All this time I was amassing submissions and folks were wondering what I was up to with them. Then, this fall, Rachel Epstein at the UAA Campus Bookstore convened a panel on literary journals and invited me to talk about Cirque. I realized I needed something concrete to report. So the for two intense weekends in September I read submissions, sent out acceptances and rejections, and ended up with the material that has just become Issue #1.

Ironically, it was at this same UAA forum that Tom Sexton told me that Ice-Floe had been resurrected by the Univ. of Alaska Press and I wondered what I was doing trying to fill a void that had just been reconstituted. I was able to talk to Shannon Gramse at the forum and see that their one published volume per year of poetry was not really going too threaten submissions finding their way to Cirque that by this time had morphed into a full scale regional journal that wanted fiction, nonfiction, interviews, plays, reviews, and photography--as well as poetry. In the home stretch, it was Janet Levin's photographs and editorial saavy and Paxson Woelber's text and web design artistry that heroically and finally got Cirque up and running. Now Issue #1 is online at www.cirquejournal.com and hard copies can be purchased through the MagCloud print-on-demand process.

What are your long-term goals for Cirque; i.e. what will constitute success for you and the journal?

Success will mean producing two issues a year--on the Solstices--keeping the quality of the submissions high, and developing a vigorous readership. At a more basic level, another success is my excitement in working with established local writers and discovering new writers in the region who do great things and helping them get in print. The real surprise of this first issue was discovering how honored and pleased people were to be in the inaugural issue. I mean, I had no track record of publishing a journal and they were all so honored to be part of it. And as you can see, there are many published writers in Issue #1 who could easily have published in a number of other places.

Can you provide the broader context of how this fits into literary journals in Alaska (or the North, or the Pacific Northwest) and the larger world of lit journals, especially those making use of online and/or publish-on-demand technology. Is this part of a tidal wave of new efforts? Is the audience growing, or is it getting split by all the reading options available? Did you have a role model for this project or any other thoughts on technology or the reading audience that you want to share?

Cirque will publish all genres. I think it should have a broader appeal in Alaska and the region--which I am calling the North Pacific Rim and defining arbitrarily as Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Hawaii, Yukon Territory, Alberta, British Columbia, and Chukotka. I think it is important to break down the border with Canada and Issue #1 has a number of Canadian writers. Also, I want to stay out of California and the East, as there are so many writers there who are already served by many fine journals. In Alaska, the journals Permafrost in Fairbanks and Alaska Quarterly Review in Anchorage take on submissions from the entire U.S. and Canada and have a more national appeal and stature. My intention for Cirque is to get the writing of this region out to a wider audience. In the Net world right now there are hundreds of e-journals that have a disembodied cast to them with editors from all over the globe editing a collection of writers from everywhere. Many of these journals have strong readerships and identities; many do not. I am old fashioned in the sense that I still believe that writing comes out of place, so I'd like Cirque to speak from and for the North—to articulate the essence of this place—but at the same time affirm that this voice has international vitality and impact. There are probably many things that could work against such a view but for now that is Cirque's editorial intent.

I have looked at hundreds of journals online and have noticed that with the changes in the publishing world most well known literary journals are beginning to offer electronic subscription options to maintain dwindling circulation. So in this sense, the online, print-on-demand format is just practical and a good working platform for Cirque's launching. With print on demand, there is the option to get a hard copy in your hands if you really need and want one, and many readers have already expressed this desire. It sure beats having boxes of printed and unsold issues taking up space in the garage.

The closest thing to a room of one's own: Guest post by Joan Kane

Having finished one book and one play while working full time, exclusively nursing an infant through 19 months, and expecting my second baby (due next month), shortcuts to writing space/time have assumed a critical role for me. The ability to get anything written tends to hinge on three things: location, resources, and writing prompts.

If you’ve suggestions to add to these lists, let me know. Once I come out of the newborn fog (sometime in March, with any luck—though with a toddler, also, who know how things will shake down this time around), I’ll need to motivate.

Top Ten Places to Write:

1) Lousaac Library (indoors)

2) Café Felix

3) Whale’s Tail

4) Bob and Evangeline Atwood Alaska Resource Center

5) Paris Bakery and Café

6) Organic Oasis

7) Kaladi on Tudor

8) Orso

9) Westchester Lagoon

10) Lousaac Library (outside on the lawn)

Many of these places are best (or only up for consideration) during off-peak hours (when they’re not too noisy or crowded) or appropriate weather (particularly the last two). I’ve a prejudice towards Downtown/Fairview/Spenard/Muldoon for numerous reasons, but mostly for proximity.

Top Ten Writing Tools:

1) Online OED

2) my commonplace book

3) Thesaurus.com

4) Wikipedia

5) Facebook (for procrastination)

6) headphones

7) NetLibrary

8) Oxford Reference Online

9) Gale Resource Center

10) Friends’ blogs (too numerous to list—for inspiration/procrastination both)

If you’ve free/readily accessible online resources to suggest, let me know.

Top Ten Writing Prompts:

1) Renga (in-person or over e-mail)

2) Zuithsu (as a warm-up)

3) Any Mountain Goats song

4) Alaska’s Digital Archives

5) Translation

6) Looking to a random poem for formal, rhetorical, or syntactical structure

7) OED’s word of the day

8) Tupelo Press Poetry Project Prompts

9) RhymeZone (for arbitrary sonics)

10) Bartleby’s Quotations

Admittedly, not a very inspired prompt list. I’m not the biggest proponent of prompts, but do find them helpful when I’m not working on anything in particular, when I just need to spend 15 minutes writing about something new, or when I’ve got writers’ block. If you’ve reliable sites to suggest, I’m all ears.

Joan Kane (Inupiaq), a Whiting Writers' winner, is a poet and playwright. She is the author of newly-released The Cormorant Hunter's Wife and the play, The Gilded Tusk, which is in its reprise run at The Anchorage Museum.