Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Ready for leftovers – and online shopping? Our Online Holiday Literary Auction starts Nov. 26 and runs through Dec. 5 with literary services and items of interest to readers and writers, from a two-night stay at Sheep Mountain Lodge to a partial manuscript critique by a New York editor. View items and place your bid at http://stores.ebay.com/49alaskawritingcenter. We also still have our book bags (including four to five donated books) for sale at www.49fundraiser.blogspot.com, with newly donated books, some of them signed, refreshing the collection every day.

As you dive into holiday shopping, remember books make great gifts, and personally autographed books are even more fun.  On Dec. 3, our First Friday book signing features Deb Vanasse from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 427 D St. in Anchorage.  In addition to signing her read-aloud titles for young readers (Under Alaska's Midnight Sun, Totem Tale, Alaska Animal Babies), Deb will sign books for older readers: Amazing Alaska, ages 7-10; A Distant Enemy, ages 10-14; and Out of the Wilderness, ages 10-14.  She'll also have titles for adults: Picture This, Alaska;Insider's Guide to Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska; and Alaska Off the Beaten Path.

And for even more help with your holiday shopping (and hinting!) we've added a new button for 49 Writers Gift Certificates at our website.

Also new this week is our unveiling of the Winter/Spring term. So many great creative writing classes, so many interesting subjects, with instructors hailing from Unalakleet to Southeast Alaska (and beyond). Full descriptions and registration at www.49writingcenter.org. P.S.: We still have room in our final two fall term clinics: Deb Vanasse’s “Crash Course: Characters” on Dec. 4, and Cindy Dyson’s “Writer v. Grinch” on Dec. 22.

Children's book agent Kendra Marcus is willing to teach her three-hour course "An Agent's Perspective: The 3 R's of Writing for Children" in Fairbanks on Feb. 22, but we need a local Fairbanksan to help host it.  You'll find the course description at http://www.49writingcenter.org/; the Anchorage offering on Feb. 19 is already filling fast.  Email 49writers@gmail.com if you can help.

The Art of Nonconformity. Sound intriguing? It should. Chris Guillebeau is a revolutionary. His message: Work for yourself. Travel anywhere. Change the world (love that one). He’s put together a little manifesto with some of his stories–and those of others he’s met along the way. And he’s coming to Anchorage as part of his 50-state book tour. Come see him in person on Monday Nov. 29, at Metro Books on Benson Blvd. in Anchorage. (I don't have the exact time for this event.)

Geoff Kirsch interviewed our own Deb Vanasse for the Juneau Empire: full text here.

40 Writers also got a mention in Ronald Spatz' interview on the Alaska Humanities Forum blog. Spatz will be teaching a course for 49 Writers  this Spring titled "Getting Published in the Literary Market."

Heartbroke Bay, by Lynn D'Urso of Juneau, is on the shortlist for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers award for 2011.

Capital City Weekly interviewed Alaska writer and poet Vivian Faith Prescott: see here for the full text.