Osher Lifelong Learning Institute: Guest post by Peggy Shumaker

I know very little about the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute when Barbara Lando calls to ask if I'll teach a class. (Actually, she calls several times, but this is the first time her schedule and mine match.)

So I go online and find out that the "Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UAF is a membership organization providing learning opportunities for midlife and older adults (50+) in the Fairbanks area. Led by its membership, OLLI offers stimulating courses, lectures, educational travel, and special interest groups." OLLI is a program of UAF Summer Sessions and Lifelong Learning.

No tests, no grades. Members take the classes for pleasure. Sounds good to me.

Some classes involve travel:
* Glacier Bay National Park
* Fortymile River Rafting
* Pribilof Islands
* Wrangell-St. Elias N.P. by Horseback
* Copper River Rafting
* Dutch Harbor

Our writing class involves travel to University Park, a former elementary school revamped for several university uses. I'll be teaching creative writing for five Mondays, for an hour and fifteen minutes each meeting.

When I arrive the first day, twenty-two lively faces greet me. I know five or six people from other classes and from town. I greet everyone individually, and we set about writing, first thing.

After hearing Christianne Balk's amazing poem "John Muir Remembers Eliza Hendricks," we try writing in an If, if, if / then pattern. (At least three "ifs" and at least one "then.")

Then we read two brief prose pieces, "Confession" by Stuart Dybek and "Moving Water, Tucson" by me. We write pieces that feature a character in action in specific place at a moment of change.

For homework we write road stories. To start out the next class, we return to a place and evoke the landscape inside and out.

After each activity, some writers choose to read. One woman brings to life a neighborhood of small bungalows swallowed by apartment buildings--the place her husband was a boy. This is hard on her, revisiting what's no longer intact.

One retired nurse tries to read about taking care of an elderly woman who has no family, no friends, no visitors. She weeps, though twenty-five years have passed. A generous classmate reads her work aloud.

One man reads about gearing up for a dangerous winter journey. He's faced danger before--in VietNam, in an inner city elementary school in Baltimore, in divorce court. The perilous trek? To his mailbox. (He claims not to write humor, though the whole class laughs aloud, just where he wants them to.)

A woman who lived twelve years in Bethel returns to a village. She describes flying over shelf ice, then post-holing and sinking waist deep, then stepping over a seal left to cool in the entryway. Village children, curious and exuberant, throng to greet her. Nuanced, her awareness of how to enter a village, a home, a conversation.

Another woman writes about collecting stones to cover a place nothing would grow. This scene allows her to reflect on the last days of a wrong marriage, on her solid relationship with her growing son, and on the nature of permanence.

We have only three more sessions! I'll miss this group, that's for sure.

For more information, please check the Osher website .

Membership is open to adults 50 and older and to companions of members. The annual fee is $25. The membership year is January to December. Membership includes newsletters, socials, special interest groups, and eligibility to register for courses and excursions. Course fees are $10 per course, $40 for unlimited courses for a half-year (Jan - June or July - Dec), or $75 for unlimited courses for a full year (Jan - Dec).

Featured guest author Peggy Shumaker's new book of poems is Gnawed Bones. Her lyrical memoir is Just Breathe Normally. She's currently working on a manuscript of poems set in Costa Rica. Peggy lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, and travels widely. Professor emerita at University of Alaska Fairbanks, she teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop and at many writing conferences and festivals. Please visit her website at www.peggyshumaker.com

Andromeda: Book Event Survey -- What You Had To Say

Readers wasted no time in taking our survey about book and author events last Wednesday. Thanks for that! Here's what you had to say. Would love to hear from more booksellers on their reactions.

The vast majority of you (70%) think that more events would be nice. Another 17% are starving for more events. Only 3% emphatically preferred to stay home.

When are you likely to go? When you're interested in the subject (average rating of 3.25 on a 4-point scale -- anything higher than 3 "matters a lot") or have heard of the author (2.94), even if that author is not necessarily "notable" (2.5).

Next in descending level of importance, not meriting a "matters a lot" or better rating: Whether the event matches your schedule (2.84), location (2.41), whether you personally know the author (2.31), and ease of parking (2.19).

These are the things we don't necessarily care about: whether we know someone else attending, or whether the author is from outside of Alaska.

Two things actively deter people from attending. Not enough advance publicity, or finding out soon enough to make plans (3.17 on 4-point scale). Also, people strongly prefer actual talks or readings to signings; the difference matters to all but 20% of those surveyed and people followed up with specific comments in favor of author talks.

A few surprises: those surveyed cared only a little, or not at all, about: the weather (really?), whether a book is self-published, and whether they felt any pressure to buy a book. So take that, and a thumbs-up to the self-published folks willing to brave blizzards in order to hand-sell their books!

We had a lot of UAA Bookstore fans take the survey. Next in line were folks who had attended events at Title Wave, Metro Music and Books, First Fridays, Barnes & Noble, Fireside, Anchorage Museum, and -- last in place -- Borders.

People's final comments adhered to a few repeated themes. People begged for more publicity and advance notice, applauding sites like this and all other attempts to get the word out. They cursed certain bookstores that have reduced events and cheered those bookstores that keep trying. Several said they enjoy Q & As after events, and made suggestions about other ways to make events more interactive, for example with discussions or other gatherings following an author talk. (Interesting!) And finally, one plug from a Juneau resident wishing that authors could make a pit-stop there as well.

Thanks everyone -- I've learned from all this and been surprised as well. Many of us would like to see book/author events remain an important part of a vibrant Alaska literary scene.

Deb: The Brave New World of Book Marketing

Wouldn't you be thrilled if your publisher paid for a mailing to one of the nation's largest target audiences of readers with the tag line THE BEST FIRST CHAPTER YOU'LL EVER READ?

The question mark's mine. The tag line, with "Publishers Weekly" as the sender, comes not as a question, but an assertion. Note that it's not the best first chapter ever, which would exclude books not yet written. The claim is both prophetic and hyberbolic - that by clicking this link, readers will be treated to the best first chapter they will ever read, in their lifetimes.

So much for the old adage about underpromising and overdelivering. Of course I bit, and of course the chapter, while chilling (in all respects - it's the first chapter of a YA novel called Across the Universe, coming out on 1-11-11 - more marketing genius? - that renders a teen watching as her parents are cyrogenically frozen alive and then succombing to the process herself) is far from the best first chapter I've ever read, and therefore not a candidate for the best first chapter I'll ever read.

But I digress. As with much of the daily slam in our so-called "information age," the point is not that the assertion is true, but that it got our attention. I clicked, I read, I commented - complete with link. Mission accomplished.

And thus a funny little distinction I first learned in real estate spills into the world of - do we still call it literature? If you make a claim so outrageous that no one would truly believe it, it's not fraud - it's puffing. A cute, innocent-sounding term, isn't it?

I guess we shouldn't be shocked. Book puffing (sounds like a strange and harmful habit, like something you'd do in a hookah shop) has been around for awhile, in blurbs from authors who use all sorts of clever hyperbole to praise books they've never read. But somehow it's less shocking when there's one person's name attached, as opposed to a statement that's put out there as fact, purportedly from Publishers Weekly.

We long ago left the idyllic world of "build it, and they'll come" (isn't that what publishers love to tell writers - just write a good book, and readers will find it?) for "say it, and it will be true."

I wonder what's next, now that "best first chapter you'll ever read?" has been shot out to the universe. Once a book declares itself the winner, is the battle over before it begins? Maybe a barrage of late contestants will flood our mailboxes with subject lines like THE REAL BEST FIRST CHAPTER YOU'LL EVER READ and THE BEST BEST FIRST CHAPTER YOU'LL EVER READ and THE LAST BEST REAL MOST FIRST CHAPTER YOU'LL EVER READ.

Perhaps I'm a cynic. Jealous my publisher didn't think of this first. Except I somehow doubt that I could ever lay claim to having written the best first chapter that will ever be written. On the bright side, I can quit trying, since the prize is already won.

49 Writers Interview: Lew Freedman, Yukon Quest

Lew Freedman has written several books about the Iditarod sled dog race and profiled well-known Alaskan mushers, such as George Attla and DeeDee Jonrowe. His most recent book, published in April by Epicenter Press, is about the “other” great race—the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, not as renowned as the Iditarod but considered by most racers and fans as more extreme and challenging.

With seventeen years’ experience living in Alaska, covering Alaska sled dog racing and other northern events as sports editor for the Anchorage Daily News, Freedman (now sports editor of The Republic in Columbus, Indiana) is well-qualified to bring this race to life. He is a seasoned and adaptable writer who has written on everything from the Olympics to major-league baseball, from the Superbowl to the Mount Marathon Race. Rose Winters interviewed Freedman for 49 Writers.

In Yukon Quest: The Story of the World's Toughest Sled Dog Race, among the book's other attributes, I was very impressed with the sense of history it conveyed. You mention in the first chapter that "unlike in other sports. . . mushers know their history. Dog mushers recognize that they are part of a continuum." Do you think that awareness in other sports is being lost in our culture due to the celebrity-generating mania of modern America? How do you feel about your work as a reporter and a chronicler of the feats of society's heroes?

I do think dog mushers are more aware of the history of their sport than many other athletes for a number of reasons. Those who mush dogs and live in Alaska and the Yukon are actually competing in the same regions and on the same trails as the original Iditarod racers and Yukon Quest mushers raced on. So comparisons can be made somewhat accurately.

More than that they also live in the areas where the Gold Rush history was written. A contrast to this would be a baseball player raised in Florida who attended college in the Midwest, then spent one season each year for three years moving around the country as a minor leaguer before being promoted to the majors to play for a San Francisco team. So when they arrive in San Francisco as a 22-year-old they might not know how that team has fared over the last half century, might not be aware that Willie Mays was the biggest star in team history or that Hall of Famers like Willie McCovey or Juan Marichal played there.

There was a time when baseball was clearly the most popular sport in the country. Baseball was also a symbol of racism for black people because people of color were excluded from the majors until Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

For the next several decades, as blacks made inroads on every Major League team, as the first black coach was hired and the first black manager was hired, America's black population keenly followed advancements in opportunity.

Amazingly, within the lifetime of players like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, American blacks have shown a drop-off in interest in the sport that they so heartily wanted to integrate. This is concurrent with the rise of the black athlete as a dominating force in pro basketball and pro football.

What is sad is that in many instances when asked about the history of the black athlete and his struggles in the mid-20th century, many stars don't know what happened, don't realize how even the best players were excluded.

Yet I also wonder if singling out black athletes in this vein is appropriate. Young people in high school and college in general, whatever sport they play, and whether or not they play a sport at all, do not often seem very informed about American history.

I am not sure that the premise in your question, on whether the celebrity mania of modern America is to blame for this. The two are not mutually exclusive. LeBron James may be a superstar in basketball and even a cross-cultural icon who makes commercials and appears on TV shows, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know history. My impression, from conversations with him and things I have read indicate to me he does know the history of the game that has made him famous.

Also, in your question, you refer to "society's heroes." I assume in reference to prominent athletes. I have always been careful to separate a star from a hero. Not the same thing. A star athlete may be admired for his skills and talents on the field, but that doesn't make him a hero. In my mind a hero transcends sports achievement with some other type of accomplishment. For example, someone who volunteers time to travel to places destroyed by national disasters and raises money to help those people. Peyton Manning may be the greatest quarterback of all time, but to me a better reason to admire him is his volunteer efforts to distribute food in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit.

You've been a sports writer for many years, written many books on professional sports such as baseball and basketball, and naturally have conducted numerous interviews with top-ranked athletes. How would you compare the top Alaskan mushers to the stars of more popular mainstream sports? Do you see similar traits and attitudes? How would you characterize the most significant differences?

Most Alaskan athletes, whether it is dog mushers or skiers in the Olympics are more down to earth than top athletes in other sports. What a top notch dog musher and a top notch basketball player have in common more than anything is a dedicated to training, a commitment to being the best, a willingness to put in the time, and maintaining a refuse-to-lose attitude.

Many top Alaskan athletes, other than dog mushers, must leave the state to compete at the highest level offered by their sport. An example would be an Olympic caliber skier. To keep up with the best in the world and challenge for Olympic medals, that Alaskan would have to compete around the world on the World Cup circuit.

Alaska being a special place, it's my opinion that almost all of them do consider Alaska home and enjoy coming back even more if they are forced to travel extensively for their sport.

As a professional writer, it's expected for you to write about the winners. In Yukon Quest you also do a wonderful job of illuminating the importance of the race to every participant; the life-changing effect it has on every musher who's ever crossed the finish line. But as a professional, how hard is it to sell a story about the 'also-ran' competitors, the participants in any sport who merely finish? Do you see any trend over the last couple of decades to publish more--or fewer--stories about the non-winners?

In a daily newspaper, under the pressure of time, and with the unfolding of an event with a score or a first-place winner, one would be negligent not focusing on the winners. So in a story with a daily result, it is natural to focus on the winners with some exceptions. An opportunity to write something about someone else, or another aspect of the sporting event beyond who the top finishers were, is present if you are the second person on the story, there to write either a column or a sidebar. A very real example of how this works can be seen on Monday mornings in major U.S. cities, the day after a professional football team representing that city plays a game. For one thing, football teams only play once a week so their games are magnified. The newspaper will have someone who does write the game story, explaining how the game was one. However, there will likely be sidebars featuring other players on the home team's performance, the key play, and even a story from the opposition locker room, in addition to a columnist or two.

Over the last decades I think there has been more awareness of writing stories about athletes who are not "winners" in the strict sense. In a book like the Yukon Quest, where there is far more room than in a daily newspaper, the opportunity and obligation is there to tell funny, funky, unusual stories from the history of the event, regardless if they revolve around the champion.

What I have seen in the last couple of years, including what is going on right now, is a trend by worried book publishers only to cut deals about big-name, famous sports figures if they will use their fame to help promote the book, rather than just sign a deal with an author to write a really good story that doesn't have anyone famous in it.I find this a troublesome trend, both as an author, and as someone who is an avid reader.

In Yukon Quest you blend the history of the race in with the recap of the 2009 event, by inserting historical chapters between the chapters narrating the 2009 race. It adds an interesting depth to the book. How did you decide to use that format? And did you find it challenging to keep the whole piece cohesive?

To be honest, when I lived in Alaska and worked for the Anchorage Daily News, I wrote far more about the Iditarod than the Yukon Quest. I always wanted to have the chance to follow the race on the trail, but ended up moving away before I could do it. So if I was going to write a book on Quest history I most assuredly wanted to have the experience of following a whole race.

When that race was over and I had reported on all of the other years and heard the stories, I was faced with a dilemma. Although the 2009 race was not necessarily more important than any of the others, it was the most recent. That is why I used it as the framework to build the history around.

Thinking specifically as an Alaskan sports writer, what's the most exciting or unusual situation you've found yourself in while covering events on the Last Frontier?

The biggest events on the sports calendar each year in Alaska are the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and probably the Great Alaska Shootout. Covering the Shootout for many years gave me the opportunity to meet and write about basketball figures who became famous later. Covering the Iditarod always made me feel more in touch with Alaska, the land, and the people than any other event, with the World Eskimo Indian Olympics serving as runnerup for those reasons.

Standing at the finish line for more than an hour waiting for Rick Swenson to come in at the end of the 1991 Iditarod when it was 25 below with a 50 below wind chill factor when he won his record fifth Iditarod, is one of my most memorable moments. I had to run for a phone to make deadline with the paper being held for three paragraphs to top the lead story, too.

There are specific sports you've focused on writing about in your books--baseball and football, and of course sled dog racing. Naturally, you've had a lot of exposure to those events as well as many other sports, as a writer for the Chicago Tribune and the Anchorage Daily News. Do you feel you've been able to focus most of your career covering the sports that you enjoy most? Or has life taken you on a path you didn't plan for?

Life has definitely taken me on paths I didn't plan for. I grew up in the Boston area and was sure I would be a sports writer there. Even when I moved to Syracuse to cover government news in 1975, I was certain I would be back. It has never happened.

My career has dictated where I have gone. I also worked for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and the Philadelphia Inquirer. I thought I might be in Philadelphia forever and when that didn't work out Alaska and I found each other. After 17 years in Alaska between 1984 and 2001 I was feeling fairly certain I would stay there. The Chicago Tribune made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I went off to Chicago, thinking I would be there forever. Until the newspaper business went haywire and I was laid off.

Since May of this year I have been the sports editor of The Republic in Columbus, Indiana and I think this is my last job. The atmosphere in the newsroom resembles what it was like to work at the Daily News in the 1980s. However, since the temperature has been inching within shouting distance of 100 degrees every day lately, I would say it is a teeny bit warmer than Alaska.

Alaska is such a special place that it will always feel like home and I will always stay in touch with the state, visit as often as possible, and keep it dear to my heart. I do write a column once a week for Alaska Newspapers for their weeklies and that's one way I stay linked to the state.

Your career as a sports writer has led you all over the U.S., meeting hundreds of top athletes, covering major sporting events, watching exciting and historically significant events. However, you must have one story, one event or athlete that you've always hoped to write about, but haven't had the opportunity. What would be your dream assignment (real or imagined)?

Interesting question. I will say this. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to write a story from Arkansas. That represented having a byline from all 50 states, a quiet goal of mine that took years to reach after I thought of it in the early 1990s.
Likewise, I have written at least one story from each Canadian province or territory -- except for Nunavat, created in 1999. I would like to write something from there.

Until May my biggest goal in sports writing was to cover the Indianapolis 500, but I got to do it. I have been at only one Super Bowl, so I would like to cover another one if I could.

As for athletes, my favorite baseball player as a kid was Ted Williams and I did get to interview him in the late 1970s. My favorite basketball player was Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics and a couple of years ago when I got to write a book about the Celtics I had the chance to interview Cousy. Even better, after the book came out he sent me a fan note.

This may sound a bit hokey, but it dovetails with how I approach sports writing. Rather than one particular individual that I would like to interview in sports, I would like to find a new great story every month to write for the rest of my career. The athlete may not be famous, but would have a great tale to tell.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

So much 49 Alaska Writing Center news each week: Only 10 days until the start of Bill Sherwonit’s class, “Adventures in Creative Nonfiction: The Art of the Personal Essay” (Monday nights 7 to 9:30 pm, Oct. 4 to Nov. 22) (see his recent guest post here for some ideas as to his approach) and only 12 days until the start of Andromeda Romano-Lax’s class, “Memory as Muse” (Wednesday nights 7 to 9 pm, Oct 6-27). And of course, six more courses follow: Working the Edge, Flash Fiction, Revision Intensive, Promoting Your Book in Your Pajamas, Crash Course: Characters, and Writer v. Grinch. Register at the 49 Writing Center Website, and please help us spread the word.

Do you enjoy a good yard sale? Attend ours (Raven Place, 415 L. Street) on October 2 from 9 am to 2 pm. Or if you’re a member, be sneaky and come the night before, 6 to 8 pm., to get the chance to preview and buy early. That also happens to be First Friday, so downtown will be hopping and we’ll have signings of Mike Burwell’s journal, Cirque, at Raven Place.

If that’s not enough of a Raven Place fix, mark your calendar for Sunday October 17, 2 to 4 pm, when we’ll be having a Tea Tasting and Book Talk. Alaska tea matron Marge Arnold will share the history of tea, methods of brewing, a take-home booklet packed with information, and a chance to sample fourteen different blends. Then we’ll all enjoy a “proper cuppa” while some of Alaska’s best readers tell what they love most about their favorite titles. The event is free, but donations are welcome and reservations are required due to limited seating. Email Deb at 49writers@gmail.com to reserve.

On to news from other corners: A new radio show called "Kids These Days!” is airing throughout Southcentral Alaska on KSKA-FM. This one-hour, weekly program examines the various issues related to raising modern children in Alaska. The topics discussed range anywhere from hard-hitting to light-hearted, and always the show attempts to educate, entertain and engage the childraising community. In addition to interviews with in-studio guests on each weeks' topic, KTD! also features news stories, commentaries and the voiced opinions of local adults, teens and kids. This radio show, and its accompanying website, are all about bringing together the childraising community in order to strengthen ties and provide a forum in which this community can exchange ideas, share tips and make new friends. On the website, listeners can post their thoughts, ask their questions on a discussion board, and suggest future show topics. Listeners are invited to call (888-KTD-RADIO) or email KTD! with questions for upcoming show topics.

Now, for the opportunity part: In the interest of gathering community voices for this program and website, Kids These Days invites Alaska writers to pitch ideas for essays of 2 to 4 (read out loud) minutes in length, or 800-1000 words. These pieces would specifically address two areas : "youth" and "Alaska" - raising kids here, growing up here, the lighter side of motherhood/fatherhood, unique family experience you've had, etc... These pieces would either be featured on the show’s website or on the radio program - or possibly both. Please submit your ideas, or query for more information, by writing to Sarah . (Note from Andromeda: On Tuesday, an essay by Barbara Brown about her daughter Sophie leaving home was enough to get me teary during an afternoon commute; KTD is off to an excellent start!)

Mt. View Branch Library Opening will take place Sat, Sept 25, 10am-2pm, at 120 N. Bragaw Street, Anchorage .You’ve waited years for your new branch—the time is here to celebrate! The opening ceremony and ribbon cutting will be followed by a day of food, music, children’s storytimes and workshops.

Also on Sat, Sept 25, from 1-3pm, Craig Medred reads from Graveyard of Dreams at Barnes & Noble, 200 East Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK

He's written for the Anchorage Daily News for 30 years, and is now with Alaska Dispatch... Craig Medred's first book, Graveyard of Dreams: Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska's Iditarod Trail, is sure to be a huge hit. Signing from 1:00-3:00.

LitSite Alaska announces Alaska's Story, its new interactive timeline of Alaska's history. Alaska has maintained a long and dynamic human past. Spanning a period from the Pleistocene Ice Ages to the end of the 20th century. Alaska has served as a geological, ecological and cultural bridge that has connected, and continues to connect us, to the broader world. Alaska's Story is an interactive platform of Alaska's history divided into 9 time periods, providing brief narratives of Alaska's major historical events and themes.

LitSite's Featured Writer is cartoonist and animator Peter Dunlap-Shohl with My Six (Known) Brushes With Death.

A reminder that the deadline for this year’s Two Review Poetry Contest, judged by poet Nathalie Handal, is September 30, 2010. Full guidelines are available at their website.

Please check out the latest issue of Arctica Magazine, an online literary and arts journal out of Whitehorse. There are some contributions by Alaskans, including four poems by UAF's Eric Heyne. This is a great place for Alaskans to submit, as it's limited to circumpolar contributors.

Smoke City Narrators announce their annual Novel Pitch and First Five Pages contest.
DEADLINE - Postmarked or Emailed by November 15, 2010.
ENTRY FEE - $8.50
First prize - $150. Second prize - $75. Third prize - $40.
JUDGE - Agent Jeff Kleinman/ Folio Literary Management, NY, NY.
Email/Snail Mail:
1. First 5 pages of a novel, 1,500 words max.
2. One-sentence synopsis of the novel, 25 words or less.
(Novel does not have to be complete.)
Please see website for complete rules.

From the Alaska Council on the Arts: Teaching Artist Academy to be held in Anchorage. Are you an artist? Have you ever wanted to do an artist residency in the schools? The Alaska State Arts Council is hosting the first Anchorage Teaching Artist Academy. Starting Oct 6, this 6 week (12 1/2 hours) workshop series will provide in-depth training emphasizing how to work effectively with students of all ages in varied settings as a Teaching Artist, in Anchorage and elsewhere in Alaska. Each session features expert teachers, administrators and consultants who share knowledge, skills and techniques to equip you to work effectively in Anchorage classrooms and beyond.

What participants will get:

· Better understanding of what teachers are expected to teach in terms of state standards and district curriculum.

· Proven classroom management strategies

· Help with designing and writing lessons or a unit to be used in a Teaching Artist residency in a school in Juneau or beyond

· Dialogue and community building among local artists and educators about teaching in and through the arts.

· Advice on how to negotiate contracts, market yourself and how to join the Alaska Teaching Artist Roster of the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

Oct 6 through Nov 10, 6:30-8:30PM in the Alaska State Arts Council conference room, 161 S Klevin St.

$50 for the series of 6 workshops or $10/session.

Contact Ruth Glenn, Arts in Education Director, Alaska State Council on the Arts, 269-6682.

For interested women writers, 49 Writers friend and fan Shannon Polson recommends a site called SheWrites, where she took a great webinar on non-fiction book proposals. She reports it’s a big community with some stellar writers and lots of ways to learn about - and actually promote - work.

Alaska Sisters in Crime's first meeting for the 2010-2011 season, is on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 6:30 p.m. at Kaladi Brothers on Brayton Drive in Anchorage. They have a lot to discuss. They are also holding a NIGHT WITH THE FEDERAL MARSHALLS - still awaiting final confirmation.

Check out Heartbroke Bay, a new and debut novel by the pseudonymous Lynn D'Urso. It is a Southeast Alaska Goldrush novel based on an incident that really happened in 1906.

One Writer's To-Do List: Guest post by Peggy Shumaker

This list will let you know why my husband's fond of asking me, "What part of retirement don't you understand?"

As you'll see, my writing life is lively, productive, challenging. I'm grateful for every day. What's on your list?

To Do

--Check in with Anne Coray about production progress on A Measure's Hush, the 2011 Boreal Book. (Artwork secured for cover, design happening now, release date set.)

--Email Nicole Stellon-O'Donnell about her progress on getting reproductions of documents and photographs that will accompany her poems in the 2012 Boreal Book, tentatively titled Steam Laundry.

--Love Joe. Laugh with Joe.

--Write blurb for Vivian Faith Prescott's book The Hide of My Tongue.

--Tell everyone I know about Kes Woodward's opening from 5:00-8:00 p.m. on October 1 at Well Street Gallery in Fairbanks. He's painting like a madman to fill both exhibition spaces.

--Lunch with mathematician John Gimbel.

--Text grandkids, nieces, nephews. Call older relatives.

--Prepare for Theresa Bakker to record me reading another section of Gnawed Bones.

--Ask Wanda Chin about designing a cover for the CD version of Gnawed Bones.

--Prepare reading and craft talk for UAF Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series (with John Morgan).

--Work on the in-class exercises I wrote along with my Osher Life Long Learning Students. Do the homework (a road story). Prepare our next class.

--Read manuscripts by Margaret Baker, Erin Hollowell, Heather Weber, Christina Collins, Katrina Hays, Katie Eberhart. Respond to the writers.

--Pick up tickets for the concert--Zuill Bailey performing the Bach Cello Suites.

--Get groceries. Make dinner.

--Respond to mailings & emails from three MFA students.

--Love Joe. Laugh with Joe.

--Revise and polish drafts of poems started in this July's Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Creative Writing Class.

--Read Let the Great World Spin, so I can discuss it with Kes, who says this is his favorite book since Snow.

--Prepare manuscripts for submission to journals.

--Check in with Kate Gale and Mark Cull at Red Hen Press. Place Boreal Books ad in their fundraising brochure. Arrange meeting in Napa Valley in late Oct.

--Email Frank Soos and Margo Klass. When are they coming home?

--Email James Engelhardt at Prairie Schooner about plans for this year's Prairie Schooner Book Prize competitions.

--Write syllabus for short course for Kachemak Bay Campus visit next March.

--Get new notebooks and pen refills at If Only, a Fine Store. Check in with Rebecca Morse about her writing and with Georjean Seeliger about her art.

--Stock up on Fireweed Honey and Yukon Gold potatoes from the Farmers’ Market.

--Remind Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Creative Writing Class participants about our reading Oct. 2 at Bear Gallery. Double check the details with Carey Seward at Fairbanks Arts Association.

--Go to dentist.

--Make airline reservations for upcoming travel:
to Seattle, Woodway, Whidbey Island
to Tucson (Palo Verde High School 40th Reunion)
back to Alaska--Governor's Arts and Humanities Awards (Fairbanks)
to Napa Valley
to NonfictioNow (Iowa City)
to Hamline University (Minneapolis)
to University of Arizona Poetry Center 50th Anniversary event (Tucson)
to Chandler AZ

That takes us up through November.

--Thaw halibut. Make potato-leek-fennel soup.

--Write thank you notes to a whole list of people, including Bill Kloefkorn, who sent an inscribed copy of In a House Made of Time, his new collaboration with David Lee. Congratulate Bill on his amazing new and selected,Swallowing the Soap.

--Confer by email with Carol Swartz about possible faculty for next summer's Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference.

--Go to post office, bank, pharmacy, auto shop.

--Do laundry. Do dishes. Answer correspondence, both print and email. (These never end.)

--Update website. (This requires constant vigilance.)

--Organize recycling. Make a trip to the Rescue Mission Recycling Center.

--Check Facebook. (Dangerous!)

--Respond to fundraising appeals.

--Remind writers about the Farthest North Reading--Alaskan Writers at NonfictioNow (in Iowa City in Nov.)

--Send belated birthday greetings to all the folks whose birthdays I missed this crazy busy summer.

--Get belated wedding gift.

--Ride my bike while I still can. Enjoy the sunshine.

--Love Joe. Laugh with Joe.

--Write something new.

--Write 49 Writers guest post.

Featured guest author Peggy Shumaker's new book of poems is Gnawed Bones. Her lyrical memoir is Just Breathe Normally. She's currently working on a manuscript of poems set in Costa Rica. Peggy lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, and travels widely. Professor emerita at University of Alaska Fairbanks, she teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop and at many writing conferences and festivals. Please visit her website at www.peggyshumaker.com.

Andromeda: Thanks for taking our survey

Thanks for taking Wednesday's book/author event survey -- responses will be compiled and shared next week!

49 Writers Online Book Club Discussion: A Man of His Village

Welcome, lurkers and talkers, to the 49 Writers online book club discussion.  Today and tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday), we've got an open forum for discussion of A Man of His Village by Tanyo Ravicz. Leave your comments and/or questions using the comment feature, tagged with either your Google ID, a name of your choosing, or Anonymous. If you have questions or comments for the author, start them with "Tanyo." Stop by as often as you like over the next two days to get back in the discussion thread.


To open the dialogue, I'll pose this question: What in the book did you find most compelling?

Some Musings on the Essay: Guest post by Bill Sherwonit

Nature writer, author and essayist Bill Sherwonit will teach an eight-week class, “Adventures in Creative-Nonfiction: The Art of the Personal Essay,” beginning Oct. 4. He promises that participants can write about anything they choose, without any reference to larger nature or what we humans like to call “the natural world.”

When people ask what I do, or how I make my living, I almost always answer in one of two ways. Depending on the circumstances (and the person asking the question), I will either say “writer” or “nature writer.” If probed further, I will eventually add that I’m an author. But hardly ever, if at all, will I describe myself as an essayist. And that’s a curious thing, for a couple of reasons: first, I began writing essays long before I knew there was a literary animal called nature writing and also years before I wrote my first book; second, I love essays. They are, in fact, what I love most to write.

If I could afford to do so, I would spend the rest of my literary life simply writing essays (once I finish the book project with which I am currently obsessed, a story in itself in more ways than one). Being a freelance writer who’s largely unknown beyond Alaska – and maybe the greater Anchorage area – I can’t yet afford to do that.

I began writing essays while working as a newspaper sports reporter in the early to mid-1980s. Back then I didn’t even know they were essays; they were simply one type of column I wrote. When I moved from the sports beat to outdoors while at The Anchorage Times, I continued to write the occasional essay, masquerading as a column. And I remained blissfully unaware that I was part of a long tradition that reaches back to the late sixteenth century and the French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne. Generally recognized as the “father” of the essay form, Montaigne put together a collection of 107 essays in a book appropriately titled Essais – or Essays, as it’s known in English.

As many authorities on the essay have noted, “essai” when translated into English means an attempt or trial (or, as a verb, to try or undertake or attempt). Check the dictionary, as I’ve just done, and those are also given as secondary meanings of the English “essay.”

Here, a confession: I have not read Montaigne’s Essays, nor even more than an excerpt of any essay in his groundbreaking book. Another confession: until recently, I had never dug into – or, perhaps better put in the context of this posting, attempted – any of the Best American Essays collections that have been compiled annually since 1986. Because I’m going to be teaching a class on the personal essay, I figured it was about time I did. So I have. Sometime in August, I wandered into Title Wave Books and (with some assistance) found my way over to the store’s section on essays. There I got myself a copy of The Best American Essays 2008 (the most recent edition I could find) and, even better, The Best American Essays of the Century. The twentieth, that is.

Though I’ve read a couple of pieces in the 2008 collection, I have focused my efforts on the past century’s 55 best, as chosen by editor Joyce Carol Oates and her co-editor (and Best American Essays series founder), Robert Atwan.

I have to tell you, my initial essay to read and comprehend those fab 55 has been an eye opener. This is not an undertaking for the faint of heart or someone expecting an easy read.

Accepting that I’ve brought my own literary prejudices and predilections into this effort, as well as my ignorance, I have still been somewhat – well, more than that, I have been downright shocked by what Atwan and Oates have decided are the past century’s best of the best. Not all of the choices, of course. But at least some of the essays I’ve read so far (as I write this, I have read less than half the pieces, though I intend to read them all).

I should perhaps clarify that I’m not shocked by the writers collected here; many are considered literary giants, from Mark Twain to John Muir, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, E.B White, Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Loren Eiseley, Maya Angelou, John McPhee, Alice Walker, Annie Dillard, John Updike, Ms. Oates herself (included at Atwan’s insistence) and others. Of course many of these giants are better known for their brilliance in other forms – poetry or fiction, for example – than the essay. Nonetheless, they are here because of the purported excellence of their essaying.

I make no claims to either brilliance or creative genius, but I’m a reasonably intelligent and perceptive guy, and I find myself struggling to understand the reason(s) that some of these pieces are in a “best of” collection. Friend and fellow writer Kathy Tarr points out that I shouldn’t judge essays written up to a century ago by the tastes and styles of today; but has the essay changed that much? Maybe so.

Let me give a example or four of essays I found difficult to digest or even hard to swallow. For all of Mark Twain’s writing ability, I found his “Corn-pone Opinions” to be remarkably repetitive and, after a while, boring. About halfway through, I felt like shouting, “all right, I get the point.” And this was only a five-page story.

Perhaps because they present a poet’s perspective (I’m still healing from a decades-long dysfunctional relationship with poetry), I found both Robert Frost’s “The Figure a Poem Makes” and T.S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent” to be largely impenetrable, though portions of each ring with clarity and, yes, brilliance. It hasn’t helped my ego that Oates describes those two pieces as “The two most influential literary essays of the twentieth century.”

“YIKES!” I wrote in the margin of my book. I don’t get it. Eliot of course was also a renowned critic, so perhaps that worked as a double-whammy against me. The biographical notes for Eliot proclaim his piece “quite possibly the most widely anthologized literary essay of the twentieth century.” So what do I know?

Then there’s Gertrude Stein’s “What Are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them.” Double YIKES! I found her stream-of-consciousness style (if that’s what it is supposed to be) almost impossible to follow. And she, too, seemed overly repetitive.

Some other essays were disappointing, I think, simply because my expectations were so high. A prime example: I’d heard and read so much across the years about Gretel Ehrlich’s widely acclaimed book The Solace of Open Spaces, that her same-titled essay was a bit of a letdown. It is mostly her style, I think, but I didn’t come away from the piece inspired or enthused, as I expected.

On the other hand, I have discovered some wonderfully engaging, insightful, and in some instances provocative essays I never would have encountered on my own. McPhee’s “The Search for Marvin Gardens” (first published in 1972) is superb, I think. John Jay Chapman’s “Coatsville” (1912), Langston Hughes’ “Bop” (1949), N. Scott Momaday’s “The Way to Rainy Mountain” (1967), Lewis Thomas’ “Lives of a Cell” (1971), John Updike’s “The Disposable Rocket” (1993), and Oates’ own “They All Just Went Away” (1995) also proved powerful to me, while moving me in different ways. I’ve included their initial dates of publication to show that, yes, I have relished essays from all parts of the century. I also put a “very good” notation by Hemingway’s “Pamplona in July.” Back in my twenties, I was a huge Hemingway fan; he remains among my favorite novelists, but, rightly or wrongly, I grew less interested in his work as I matured into middle age (and now beyond) and less comfortable with his machismo.

I loved Loren Eiseley’s “The Brown Wasps,” but that was no surprise because he is among my favorite essayists. Still, it’s not the essay of his I would have chosen. My favorites of his – and at or near the top of my all-time favorite essays list – are “The Judgment of the Birds” and “The Bird and the Machine,” both of them in The Immense Journey, first published in 1946.

And so I come, in something of a roundabout way, to this point: Atwan and Oates neglected to include essays by many of the twentieth century’s most accomplished essayists, notably John Burroughs, Wendell Berry, Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, Wallace Stegner, John Haines, Scott Russell Sanders, Terry Tempest Williams, and David Quammen (no doubt I’m forgetting others). What links these writers/essayists is that all of them have written extensively about our species’ relationship with the Earth and its other inhabitants. I guess I grow weary of essays that are so completely focused on us humans and “the human condition” that they ignore the larger world of which we’re simply a part.

To her credit, Oates in her introduction writes, “There is a rich subcategory of American essays, the confrontation of nature by a refined, fastidiously observing consciousness, that has descended to us from [Henry David] Thoreau; I would have dearly liked to include more practitioners of this sort, but had room for only John Muir, Rachel Carson, Loren Eiseley, Annie Dillard, and Gretel Ehrlich.” And, I might add, she does include most of the overlooked nature essayists in her long, back-of-the-book list of “Notable Twentieth-Century American Literary Nonfiction.”

I wonder, if someone put together The Best American Essays of the Decade, 2001-2010, how many of the people who do nature writing (even if they deny or protest the label “nature writer”) would be included. Besides those I’ve listed above, I think of David James Duncan, Kathleen Dean Moore, Brian Doyle, David Gessner, Chet Raymo, or Alaska’s own Sherry Simpson, Nancy Lord, Nick Jans, Eva Saulitis, and Seth Kantner (the latter claims to hate writing essays, but he’s very good at it, even if a novelist at heart).

The point of all this, I suppose, is that these “best of” choices, like so many other things, are highly subjective. But more than that, this collection shows the incredible range of approaches, styles, subjects, and forms that the essay can take. This is one of its great appeals, I think.

• • •

Many writers, editors, and literary critics have discussed the nature of the essay, including Adam Gopnik, a staff writer for The New Yorker and guest editor of The Best American Essays 2008. But my favorite discussion of this literary form is to be found in the last chapter of Chris Anderson’s book Edge Effects: Notes from an Oregon Forest, a chapter titled “Life and the Essay Compared to a Forest.”

There is much to digest and discuss about this piece of writing (and we will do so in the class I’ll be teaching through the Writing Center), but for now I’ll simply share a few of Anderson’s insightful observations.

“The essay,” Anderson writes, “has the structure of an old-growth forest. It’s rough and jagged and variously textured, digressive, splintering, apparently unsystematic, a thickness of multiple layers and indistinct layers, its vertical structure spatially complex and hierarchical, its species – of words and sentences, of ideas – sometimes wildly diverse and always complexly interacting.”

Wow, there’s some food for thought. Later he writes, “The secret to the complexity and coherence of the forest is that even the apparently unimportant things are finally important. Everything matters, however small and ugly – the fungus, the owls, the voles. . . . Each place has its own spirit.

“And this is the strategy of the essay, too, and its philosophy to think small instead of large, to celebrate the small and insist on it. . . . [The essay] focuses on the concrete details, shows the writer in his or her own place and time, situated, trying to say what’s important, trying to describe what’s right outside the window. . . . It brings things home, exploring how the grand ideas are connected to our day-to-day lives and rejecting all the high-blown abstractions.”

More to ponder: “The kind of essay I mean is personal, a sharing of the writer’s own thoughts and experiences, here and now, directly, openly. ‘I want to be seen here in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice,’ Montaigne says in the preface to his Essays [where it all began]. “It is myself that I portray. . . . E.B. White says bluntly that the essayist is ‘congenitally self-centered, . . . sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest.’ ”

Yet for all their emphasis on the self and the particular, the small and day-to-day things, their “gestures toward unliterariness,” Anderson notes, “the great essays are great because of their literary power. Great poetry flows from its simplicity. Beneath the apparent randomness and digressiveness, complex patterns emerge. Important ideas ring out, profound and useful. [My emphasis.]”

This, I believe, is another of the personal essay’s great appeals: the best of them weave together the personal and universal, often in surprising ways. Through the telling of our own stories, we touch upon larger realities and truths. The ones I love most have some sort of “Ah-hah” moment and often (always?) present the reader an opportunity to view or consider life, and the world, in a new or different light.

One other thing I love about the personal essay: it’s a great “entry level” literary form. What can be a better starting place, than to write about one’s own experiences, ideas, inner life, and way of being in the world? At the same time, the most polished essayists can unveil many layers and depths of story, offer profound food for thought, and shock, delight or sadden readers (or all of the above) in sometimes life-transforming ways.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

"It is, I hope, more than an adventure novel or a study of an obsessed character. It's the human personality under every kind of duress, physical, emotional, social and spiritual.” This from author Tanyo Ravicz, who homesteaded in Kodiak and returns every summer, on his novel A Man of His Village, winner of the Eric Hoffer Prize in General Fiction. We’re featuring the novel in our online book club discussion this Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 20 and 21, and Ravicz has agreed to stop by (electronically) to field questions posed directly to him. Log on at your leisure starting at 7 a.m. Monday to leave comments and follow the discussion thread.

In just over two weeks, two 49 Writers classes begin. Adventures in Creative Non-Fiction: The Art of the Personal Essay is an eight-week class taught by Anchorage author Bill Sherwonit beginning Oct. 4. With a strong following of students who’ve sampled his Nature Writing course, Sherwonit will give participants in this new course the chance to explore and refine their own writing styles – and the stories that help define their lives – through the personal essay. A workshop-style class that combines writing, reading, and critiquing, it is designed for writers at all levels. Register today.

Also starting in early October is Memory as Muse, a course that examines: how and why we remember (or mis-remember), why poor memory isn’t necessarily a terrible thing for a writer to have, distinct types of memories and memory retrieval, and tricks we can use to access the recent or long-ago past to discover the details that make a work come alive. Instructor Andromeda Romano-Lax promises lots of low-risk, high-yield in-class writing exercises designed to unburden the process of poking around those dingy corners. Register today; class begins Oct. 6.

Cleaning house, prepping for winter? Chances are you’ve come across a few high-quality items you can’t use anymore. Get a double feel-good by recycling your slightly-used treasures and helping your favorite Alaska Writing Center by dropping these off at 415 L St. between 4 and 6 p.m. on Friday, October 1 for our yard sale on Saturday, October 2. We’ll be happy to give you a receipt for your donation, of course. If the item doesn't sell and you'd like it back, you can pick it up at 2 p.m. Saturday. Adding your items to our like-new selection of guesthouse leftovers and boutique clothing, we’ll open for browsing (and purchasing!) by members and friends in conjunction with our First Friday event from 6 – 8 p.m., featuring Cirque, and to the general public on Saturday (Oct. 2) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

All this month, we’ll be accepting (and appreciating) books, preferably signed, donated by Alaska authors for our fall book bag fundraiser. Send to Andromeda at PO Box 233394 Anchorage AK 99523. We’re also looking for signed books by national authors interesting in supporting us, and literary services or items worth auctioning at our first-ever online holiday auction. Maybe you have a connection, or maybe just a great idea. Email Andromeda at lax@alaska.net.

Are you following us? We’re trying out a follower’s box at right, thanks to a suggestion by Lorena. She thinks we need a goal. Is 100 followers by Nov. 15 too ambitious? Not ambitious enough? (And wouldn’t it be fun to surprise Lorena, who is offline for a wee bit this month, with a massive explosion in “following.” Tee-hee…)

On Friday September 17 and Saturday September 18, 8pm both nights, radio personality, author and performance poet Corrina Delgado will be presenting "Cell Therapy" at the Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer.

From noon on Friday September 17 through 8pm, Sunday September 19, Hearthside Books in Juneau will be celebrating their 35th birthday. 10% discount store-wide, limited to stock on-hand. They'll be giving away a $35 gift card each day. See their website for full details.

On Saturday, September 18 at Fireside books in Palmer, Kris Farmen will sign his book The Devil's Share.

There are some great events coming up at the UAA Bookstore:

On Monday, September 20, from 5-7pm, Colonel David Fitz-Enz will discuss The Mere Matter of Marching: Thomas Jefferson, the War of 1812, and the Taking of Canada.

On Tuesday, September 21, from 5-7pm, Mary Breu will present on Last Letters from Attu .
Full details at the UAA Bookstore's website.

A new publication devoted to Flash Fiction has been launched - FutureCycle Flash - and they tell us they are reading submissions now and plan to hold a book context next year. But what is Flash Fiction and how does one write it? We did a Q&A with Alaska author David Marusek on this trendy new genre last January. In that interview, David told Deb, "Flash Fiction offers me the equivalent of instant gratification. Also, the shorter the length, the more puzzle-like the writing becomes, and I find that rewarding as well." We were so intrigued that we asked David to teach for us in Anchorage , and that's why we have a 2-evening Flash Fiction intensive on the Fall roster at the 49 Writing Center, November 9 and 10. See this page for full details and to register. No fiction-writing experience required, and in fact, we hope that people who simply want to shake up their sleepy brains will give this course a try. Andromeda, who plans to pitch this class to everyone she knows, says, "Grab a friend, tell your writing group or book club, and get ready to flash Alaska." As a final P.S., we hear that other existing publications, like F Magazine, are eagerly looking for short fiction as well.

Congratulations to Arlene Lidbergh-Jasper of Anchorage, 49 Writers friend, member and student for winning 3rd prize with her "Hall of Fame" in the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest. Her father was a renowned portrait painter of major league baseball players in the 1950s. This memoir piece recounts a visit to a special collection of his work at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY. The judges called it "a beautifully written and highly engaging account...written from the inside by the daughter of one of baseball's finest artists, Charles Lidbergh."

Alaska-born Melinda Moustakis has been named as one of two winners of the Flannery O'Connor award for short fiction, for her book of linked short stories, set in Alaska, titled Bear Down, Bear North. The collection will be published by the University of Georgia Press in September 2011.

Teaching, Learning, Writing: Guest post by Peggy Shumaker

Since 1976, I've balanced teaching and writing in my professional life. Writing is usually solitary, blissfully so. Teaching is usually sociable. For me, this makes a good mix. (Except when there is too much of a good thing, and teaching demands every waking hour.)

It's been my privilege to work with hundreds of wonderful writers in Alaska, many of whom are at this moment creating contemporary Alaskan literature.

In 1999, I retired from full-time teaching at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Now I teach in the Rainier Writing Workshop, a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program. (Alaskan writer Sherry Simpson teaches there too.) I still get to work with students who are crafting their first books, and I still get to challenge myself to articulate my critical and aesthetic perspectives. The differences? No meetings. No committees. And I have the great luxury of three students.
Sneak previews--teaching the next generation of writers means that I get to see poems, stories, essays, novels, and plays before they're in print. What a privilege! Literary friendships deepen and grow long after school adjourns.

Many writers have lots of life experience before they opt for an MFA. Our own Andromeda Romano-Lax is a good example of this.

Here are the perspectives of five Alaskan writers who've been writing a long time and have chosen to study for their MFA degrees at Rainier Writing Workshop.

Debbie Moderow, from Denali Park, first year:

So I'm back at my desk after an extraordinary day in the park with our 28-year-old son. Our hike of a few hours across brilliant red tundra culminated when a sow grizzly and her two yearling cubs plunked themselves down at the base of a bluff beneath us. We had witnessed their urgent "bleating" sounds as they crossed the gravel bar towards us, and Andy and I were anticipating making a hasty retreat. We need not have worried. When the sow reached the base of the bluff she nestled against its bank on her back, and her two cubs proceeded to nurse. Three bears, connected to one another, fifty feet away. The feeding didn't last long. Mom sat up, then pinned her belly against the ground. When one of the cubs started rooting around for an additional serving, she growled then swatted the persistent one away. Within a minute or two all three were soundly sleeping in a contented bear-pile. Andy and I got onto a park bus and smiled all the way home.

So, that is my excuse for not getting back to you sooner. Now for your requested topic: I am thrilled to be embarking on the RWW program, and after the residency returned to Alaska inspired to have attended a dazzling week of classes, and delighted to have interacted with such a talented group of students and writers. Always one for an adventure, I decided to attend a out-of-state program in order to broaden my horizons, and I was not disappointed. The cedar tree outside my dorm window, my classmates from D.C, Wyoming, Texas and Florida to name a few, and "the mountain" that was not named Denali but rather Rainier -- these unfamiliar landmarks of the residency in Tacoma added to my sense of gratitude that magnified as the ten days unfolded. I love my Alaska home and hope to write about it with new skill as a result of the MFA program. I am also eager to engage a broad non-Alaskan audience. I’m optimistic that in widening my learning horizons in a lower-48 program, I'll do the same for my craft.

In short, I feel like the luckiest person around to be enrolled in a program with such breadth. Then to return to Denali and write about our life in such a wild and engaging place is far more than anyone deserves.

Linda Martin, from Homer, is in her thesis year:

I'm a mature woman following a mature dream. In the process of working on the MFA my mind has grown and changed, something that doesn't necessarily happen in daily life. The discipline of study and writing toward a purpose has kept me sane during periods of loneliness (my children have left home) and periods of illness (the kind a woman could dwell on if she had nothing more important to think about).

My choice of RWW was practical--the program had room for me when I decided to pursue an MFA--and mystical: Every part of the program seems so right to me; each mentor has provided structure, sympathy and direction when I needed one or all; I trust the direction I seem to be going. I am enjoying the present process and anticipating the future, while sitting at a studio window in my own home at the end of the road.

(Linda is writing both poetry and nonfiction. During her second-year Outside Experience, she did a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. She learned there that she needed a studio of her own, and so turned her son's former bedroom into her new workplace.)

Erin Hollowell, from Cordova, graduate:

I saw getting my MFA as an investment in myself as a writer. It was a chance to become part of a community of writers. Living in a remote place, I wanted to have a group of people whom I could I rely upon to give me good advice, read my work, and commiserate with me about the vagaries of a writer's life. RWW gave that to me in spades. I now have a wonderful cadre of writers who not only give me good writing advice, but are dear friends.

Because I'm now taking myself more seriously as a writer (my newly-minted MFA clutched in my hand), I am sending out my work more often and applying for opportunities to continue to enrich my writing life, such as Bread Loaf. My MFA has given me the confidence to pursue my writing whole-heartedly. I consider myself a writer, first and foremost. Whatever else I'm doing is simply supporting that writing.

As for why I chose RWW - there were no in-state low-res MFA programs at that time. I knew that I couldn't quit working and relocate to pursue a full-time MFA, and so I looked at a host of different programs. In the end, I chose RWW because of the people. Stan Rubin and Judith Kitchen are the nicest, kindest and most supportive folks running any MFA program. I applied to several and none gave me the encouragement and individual attention that RWW did. The faculty at RWW were impressive not only for their writing careers, but also for their teaching careers. Honestly, I have never once regretted choosing RWW, not even for a moment. The spirit of the program is like nothing else.

Erin Coughlin Hollowell lives in Cordova, Alaska, a small fishing town off the road system. She is originally from upstate New York and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University, concentration writing. Although she is currently teaching English at the high school level, she has held many careers including several in the multimedia and computer industry, weaving rugs, selling books, and developing programs for a local arts association. She was commissioned by the University of Alaska Southeast to co-write a play in verse, Bedsheets, for the Alaska Humanities Forum. She was the Rona Jaffe Scholar in poetry at Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 2010. Her work has most recently been published in Blue Earth Review, Crab Creek Review, Terrain.org, Weber Studies, and Alaska Quarterly Review.She blogs about poetry and writing at http://www.beingpoetry.net/.

Katie Eberhart, from Palmer, graduate:

Being in a three-year MFA program helped me schedule writing time, and my writing certainly improved because of the suggestions and feedback I got from my mentors.

RWW came to my attention when I met Stan and Judith at the Writer's Conference in Homer one summer. It was the same year I had applied to UAA's traditional MFA Creative Writing program but they decided they weren't taking any new students and were reconfiguring to low residency. When I applied to RWW there wasn't an MFA Creative Writing program in southcentral AK, so out-of-state low residency was the only option I had. (UAF has a traditional MFA, but moving, whether in state or out of state, was not a possibility.)

Who is Katie Eberhart? Is she the one writing (not “texting”) in a small notebook under the edge of the table? You might have seen her: swimming, biking and running in the Gold Nugget or Eagle River triathlons, teaching / Smart Web Site Planning / at an Alaska Music Conference, installing the free Iñupiaq font on a computer at the Senior Center in Kotzebue. If you'd been there, you would have encountered her sloshing through Yukon Flats marshland searching for Rusty Blackbirds, sifting dirt at the Mat-Su Borough's archaeology dig, or along the Denali Park Road extricating invasive dandelion roots from the gravel. You might have spied her at Prudhoe Bay or Tuktoyaktuk, hunting for the Arctic mirage; and at Dachau sixty-five years after Liberation. Listening. Who is Katie Eberhart? Economist, researcher.mother, teacher, poet, essayist, and a woman up to her elbows in the sweet muck of ideas. Katie Eberhart has a bachelor's degree in Geography and Economics (CWU 1977), a Master of Arts in Agricultural Economics (WSU 1980), and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop (2010). Her web site is http://www.solsticelight.com/

Theresa Bakker, from Fairbanks, graduate:

For most of her career, Theresa Bakker has worked at public radio stations across Alaska, covering subjects as diverse as politics, persistent organic pollutants, and placer mining. She's written for several small-town newspapers and publications as well as airline magazines and on-line zines. She lives with her son near the Chena River.

Coming from a background in journalism, Theresa wanted to see what could happen in her writing when it wasn't driven by deadlines and on-air times for radio broadcasts. She used her three years to write a collection of personal essays called The Desert Was Once an Ocean. The essays deal with many topics, including transformations on several levels--geological, political, familial, personal. She also explored, in a critical paper, how walking and writing are inextricably intertwined. She's recording Alaskan writers and trying to find ways to use their voices to bring their writing into people's lives.Now that she is finally submitting her work to literary journals, two of her essays have been accepted for publication in the fall. She is grateful to have found RWW, which treated her as a writer and helped her find a writing community.

Featured guest author Peggy Shumaker's new book of poems is Gnawed Bones. Her lyrical memoir is Just Breathe Normally. She's currently working on a manuscript of poems set in Costa Rica. Peggy lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, and travels widely. Professor emerita at University of Alaska Fairbanks, she teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop and at many writing conferences and festivals. Please visit her website at www.peggyshumaker.com.

Andromeda: Special books for book lovers! Announcing our fall fundraiser (and calling for more donations)

Jodi Picoult is on board. So are Ayelet Waldman, Michael Chabon, and David Shields.

These four renowned Outside authors confirmed just yesterday that they are willing to donate signed books in support of our first fall fundraiser! They join dozens of talented and generous Alaska authors (Anne Coray, Rich Chiappone, and Dana Stabenow are just a few of the latest) who have donated books, either specifically for this new fundraiser or to the "Book Nook," our ongoing collection of donated books, which we'll be using to help feed this fall effort.

Here's how the fall event is going to work. Beginning in November -- just as thoughts are turning to the holidays -- we're going to be selling up to 50 raven-logo book-filled tote bags for $80 each (shipping included). Each of these lovely bags will arrive with a random assortment of four new, donated books -- including signed books and the occasional rarity -- plus some extra literary freebies thrown in. Buy a mystery bag, and keep all the contents or divvy them up to give away, and your holiday shopping will be halfway done!

So why I am telling you now? Three reasons.

One, we want you to be thinking about buying that great bag (or several of them); skip the malls and support your new writing center instead.

Two, if you are an author of fiction, nonfiction or poetry (and you haven't donated already), we would love to have you donate one or more of your books. This November, we'll proudly brag about you just as we've bragged about some of our other donors, above.

Three, if you'd like to go one step further -- if you'd like to help us solicit donations (a simple email to folks you know or authors you wish you knew) then please contact me, Andromeda, at lax@alaska.net.

The Edge: Where Fear is a Friend - A Guest Post by Sandra Kleven

“Inside you is an artist you don't know about… Is what I say true? Say yes quickly, if you know, if you've known it from before the beginning of the universe.” Rumi

“ In the long journey out of the self, there are many detours, washed-out interrupted raw places
Where the shale slides dangerously and the back wheels hang almost over the edge.” Roethke

Fear is a good friend. Fear keeps us away from the dangerous edge. As you move toward danger, you can hear your heart pound. Apprehension equals excitement – a buoyant energy that moves and lifts. Energized brains make new connections. When you take a chance, the mind clears and genius comes out of slumber. Maybe there is brilliance in the poem or song or painting you have been holding back. Maybe you can move before you are sure without reaping dark consequences. Many fears are groundless – apprehensions connected to the unfamiliar – but the excitement generated when you extend yourself refines in the manner of fire; something falls away and something of spirit comes forth.

“Working the Edge," an October 16th offering of the 49 Alaska Writing Center, is designed for people who would respond to Rumi, “Is what I say true?” with a resounding “Yes.” It will involve: Action, not theory. Moving, not sitting. Speaking, not listening. Fearlessness is not required but this workshop it is not for those who say “I can’t.” If we start with the willing, this adventure will accelerate, happily, beyond the agenda.

The fears to be met in this workshop relate, mainly, to letting your guard down and expanding your field of play, so you can grow (to quote the poet Anne Sexton) “by leaps and boundaries.” The few rules include: Speak for yourself. Be respectful of all ideas and viewpoints. Practice kindness. The workshop will be made safe for creative discovery. The single applicable descriptor is the word play. If a midwife, assists in birth, this facilitator will act as a playwife, bringing methods from theatre, dance, visual art, and the word.

Workshop activities will center on the creation of a map. Throughout the day, the map will grow, illustrated with emblems, icons, drawings and pictures cut from magazines. Each map will be a lasting key to ideas that surface during the workshop. Those who take part will also build a foundation friendship with fellow travelers.

Join this gathering of movie makers, poets, writers, dancers, and jugglers. You will make a difference. Register today!

Kleven is a poet and film maker who recently completed her MFA in Creative Writing. She brings to this workshop experience in drama, dance, and adult learning. Kleven has worked as a behavioral health clinician and has taught psychology at the university level. Her influences include Jung, Fritz Perls, Wilhelm Reich and Milton Erickson. Kleven is the author of two books, The Right Touch and Holy Land. She has also published many essays and poems in journals and magazines such as Alaska Quarterly Review, Cirque, F-Zine, Topic and Alaska Women Speak and the anthology Cold Flashes. Kleven recently produced a film “To the Moon!” a tribute to the poet Theodore Roethke.

49 Writers Interview: Jack de Yonge, Boom Town Boy

In Boom Town Boy, Jack de Yonge delivers a witty and outspoken coming-of-age memoir. Born on Independence Day in Fairbanks, 1934, before Alaska became a state, de Yonge grows up under the influence of an idealistic German-Dutch father and pragmatic Irish mother. When the boy’s worm-picking job fails to bring in enough money to help his family during depressed economical times in Fairbanks, de Yonge’s mother has a solution for her eight year-old son. She pushes him to peddle newspapers and this leads to an early career in the news business and political-environmental activism. Jack de Yonge will be signing copies of Boom Town Boy in Anchorage on September 15th from 6-8p.m. at Barnes and Noble. Our thanks to 49 Writers member Lizbeth Meredith, who read de Yonge's book and conducted the interview, and to Epicenter for providing a copy of Boom Town Boy for our interview team.

What sparked the writing of your memoir Boom Town Boy? When did you first know that yours was a story that needed to be told?

After writing novels and short stories that stirred neither the interest nor the tongues of publishers and editors, I decided I would write what I seem to write best, a fact piece, in this case a memoir of my youth in Fairbanks. Seventy some years of experience, including considerable travel, had taught me that Fairbanks in the 1930s and 1940s, by virtue of history and location, resonated to a different tuning fork than did the rest of the world. I hoped to recapture some of those long-ago tones so that others could experience them.

So far that seems to be the case, judging from readers’ comments. It has been especially gratifying that people I grew up with apparently think "Boom Town Boy" gives sense to a place and time long past and people long vanished.

Before writing your memoir, you were a reporter and editor. How did the process of writing your book differ from writing shorter pieces?

I write books in short takes, as we say in journalism. Reporters on deadline often write news stories in "takes" of a paragraph or two then send to editors for processing and later assembly with other takes.

My brain long ago learned that writing blocks of copy, for assembly later, results in finished work. I do not worry when beginning a chapter that I know precisely where it will go and what it will say. Getting the parts written carries more importance for me than fussing initially about form and coherence. Those arrive in the final rewriting, editing and assembly.

Each day I yoke myself to my computer write at least 500 words. Because of news training, I usually write more than that each day, but not always. And I write fast, again a reporter’s skill–or flaw, depending. I always rewrite. I always edit. Editing differs from writing. Editing requires thought, analysis, and play. How does this sentence look? How does it read? How does it sound? How to make the idea shorter, more crisp? How to junk adverbs? How to position the best and most precise verb?

The great difference between writing a book and news stories? News stories rarely afford the time and luxury of rewriting. Book writing allows no excuses for not rewriting.

In Boom Town Boy, you reveal some ugly truths about issues such as racism and religion. How did your family feel about you sharing this in your book?

To date no one in my family or out has complained about reporting the facts about racism and religion.

The literary world has changed so much in your lifetime. The way news and stories are disseminated, and how books are promoted and sold is constantly evolving. What do you believe are the most positive and negative changes you’ve seen that affect writers who want to share their stories?

I remain a bit of a novice in discussing the literary world. I’m only a trifle past being a virgin here. Much of what I know of that world derives from reading and from rejection slips. When many years ago, I reviewed books, music, performing arts in general, publishers were fewer but independent. One felt that a good book, fact or fiction, had a chance of seeing print and perhaps selling enough copies to repay an editor or agent for troubling to birth it.

Now publishing houses abound but the big and mighty among them belong to business conglomerates that also hustle movies and TV shows. So agents and editors judge a book’s desirability by how well it might bundle into a package: Book, television and movie spin-offs and logo sales on t-shirts, beer mugs, sex toys–on tattoos, for all I know.

Add to that is a drop of poison: Editors refusing to look at a manuscript unless an agent represents it. The famous transom atop the publishing-house door has snapped shut. Agents now open and shut the gate to publishing. Agents complain about the avalanche of queries that thunders in every day, thanks to the proliferation of hopeful authors in the U.S. Each year creative-writing classes and graduate programs usher thousands of virgin authors out into the wilderness of publishing. Agents say numbers force them to employ other graduates to make a first run on the queries and dish out rejection slips accordingly.

Assuming agents hire letter-and-email Cerberuses who have some knowledge of literature and of books otherwise, the temptation lures to try to devise a book and book query that might make a recently graduated English major salivate. That is one of the few temptations I so far resisted, if only because I haven't the slightest idea what might thrill a recent graduate still palpitating from deconstructing Finnegans Wake.

I am not complaining. Over the past decade I have received a mighty nice bundle of rejection slips and many were not mimeographed. Several agents actually inked notes of regret.

For Boom Town Boy I have been lucky. The publishers of Epicenter Press–both former newspaper people like me--agreed to look at the manuscript. They correctly judged it too fat. I rewrote it. I slimmed it. They accepted it. And did a great job editing it. I am grateful.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Back from a great retreat with David Vann and rolling into our Fall Literary Season here at 49 Writers. Registrations and memberships have been pouring in - we invite you to join us! Remember there's new class on the schedule - a three-hour microediting session with novelist Cindy Dyson. And believe it or not, we're already starting to plan our spring term. If you've got a request for a course you'd like to take, email us at 49writers@gmail.com. If there's a course you'd like to teach, fill out our Course Proposal form by October 1.

Ten days till our 49 Writers online book club discussion of A Man of His Village by Tanyo Ravicz. All are invited to join in by commenting on our discussion thread Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 20 and 21. Also in the works: a big yard sale on Saturday, Oct. 2 (we're happy to take your high-quality donations from 4-6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1 at 415 L St.).

Final call for contributions to F Magazine's October edition: the deadline is today, Friday September 10th. The theme, open to interpretation, is 'Learning a Craft.' Send prose pieces (500-800 words) to Teeka Ballas and poetry (one page max) to Bruce Farnsworth. Their preference is for .doc format; they specifically request no .docx: in the body of the email is also acceptable.

Tomorrow, Saturday September 11th, 11am-1pm, Robert Wittman, founder of the FBI's Art Crime team, will be signing copies of his book Priceless at Barnes and Noble in Anchorage. And you could stay there afterward:
1-2pm that same day, the Pulpwood Queens Book Club presents a storytime, also at Barnes and Noble.

Don't forget that on Monday, September 13th at 7.30pm Terry Tempest Williams will be speaking as part of the UAA Bartlett Lecture series in the Wendy Williamson Auditorium - and you can hear her for free!

On Tuesday September 14th, 6-8pm, Mary Breu will be giving a reading and signing copies of her book  Last Letters from Attu, at Gulliver's Books in Fairbanks.

On Wednesday September 15th 6-8pm, at Barnes and Noble in Anchorage, author Jack deYonge will be signing his new memoir, Boom Town Boy, Coming of Age on Alaska's Lost Frontier, which treats his childhood in WWII-era Fairbanks.
At 7-8.30pm that same Wednesday, Poetry Parley at Out North will celebrate the work of Marge Piercy, as well as showcasing original work by Enzina Marrari.

Kris Farmen will sign his novel The Devil's Share (McRoy and Blackburn), on September 16 at the UAA bookstore from 5-7 pm. Farmen was born in Alaska and grew up both in a house in Anchorage and in various wall tents and plywood shacks in the Bush. He has lived in Fairbanks, McCarthy, Ninilchik, and Homer, as well as overseas in Australia. His writing has appeared in The Surfer's Path, Mushing magazine, The Ester Republic, and the Anchorage Press. He still lives in Alaska, with no fixed address.

On Friday September 17th, at 7pm, Peggy Shumaker and John Morgan will be reading in the Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series at UAF in the Wood Center ballroom. Incidentally, Peggy and John both have interviews in the current issue of Permafrost, Alaska's oldest continuously-running literary magazine. Peggy is also our featured author this month - check out her post yesterday, if you haven't already!

Our current Alaska Writer Laureate, Nancy Lord, is coming to the end of her term. There's still time for you to nominate her replacement! Go to http://www.eed.state.ak.us/aksca to register your vote.