Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Andromeda Romano-Lax and Deb Vanasse will be talking about the 49 Alaska Writing Center at the next Alaska Professional Communicators’ Luncheon, Thursday November 4 at 11:30, at Kinley’s Restaurant. Lunch is $19 for guests, $25 for members. The APC website has details.

If you read us regularly, you may recognize our upcoming courses: Flash Fiction with David Marusek (Nov. 9 & 10), Promoting Your Book in Your Pajamas with Dana Stabenow (Nov. 17), and Crash Course: Characters with Deb Vanasse (Dec. 4). But because we added it last, you may not know about a very special clinic we have coming up on Wednesday, Dec. 22: Writer v. Grinch with Cindy Dyson. Dyson is the author of And She Was, a novel set in Dutch Harbor. Publishers Weekly called it “original and provocative.” Dyson will be teaching the nitty-gritty of micro-editing. But she doesn’t take herself too seriously (note the clinic title) and we thought this quirky class would be a fun instructional offering for the holidays. Plus – despite her pretense of being “mean and grinchy,” Cindy is donating back her instructional fee, making this clinic a fundraiser as well. Here’s one idea we hoped might catch on: how about giving this class to a friend? Sign someone up and then let them know you’re not a Grinch at all, but someone who enjoys the holidays and believes in the written word. Or take a proactive step at fighting those holidays blahs and sign yourself up. Registration at www.49writingcenter.org.

A special 49 Writers thanks to Don Rearden, who kept us both amused and thinking in his October featured author post.  For November, we welcome featured author Tricia Brown.

If you live in Juneau, Ketchikan, or Sitka, you’re invited to an informal, no-host 49 Writers Gathering next month.  Deb will meet with Ketchikan writers from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on Monday, November 15 at The Point, across the parking lot from the Plaza Mall in the new condo complex on the water.  Thanks to Ketchikan’s awesome librarian, Charlotte Glover, for arranging the gathering.  If you plan to attend, please RSVP at 49writers@gmail.com.  In Sitka, we’ll likely gather for breakfast on Thursday, Nov. 18; watch for details next week.  In Juneau, we’re looking at an afternoon get-together on Nov. 20, after Deb’s class at the Juneau Public Library (the class is free – register at www.49writingcenter.org; ditto for the Sitka class Nov. 17).

Today, Friday October 29th, at 1pm, Fireside Books in Palmer presents Romance and Chocolate with Jackie Ivie. Ivie will be signing copies of her newest historical romance, A Knight in White Satin. As long as books last, Fireside will also be giving away coupons for Palmer's gourmet chocolate store, the Hot Hot Chocolate Shoppe.

Tonight, Friday October 29th, at 7pm, is the Gala opening night of Cyrano's Theatre Company's "The Winter Bear," inspired by the life of Koyukon Athabascan elder Sidney Huntington. It will then run Thurs-Sat at 7 and Sunday at 3 through November 13th, with an additional special Wednesday performance on November 10th. Cyrano's Off Center Playhouse, 413 D Street, Anchorage.  Advance tickets at centertix.net, 907 263 2787.

On Sunday, October 31st at 7.30pm,  Anchorage Festival of Music presents the Fall Soiree - a Duet Recital titled "Love and Nature." Featured will be four settings by UAA Music professor George Belden of poems and songs by Elizabeth Thompson. The concert will take place at a private residence, and reservations are required. For reservations and venue address, call the Anchorage Festival of Music at 907 276 2465.

Nine new plays, free admission.  It's all happening Nov. 1, 2, and 3 at Cyrano's Playhouse, 4th and D, in Anchorage as the Alaskan Native Heritage Center proudly presents the Alaskan Native Playwrights Project readings.  Showtimes vary.

The Mayo Review is the literary journal published by the Department of Literature and Languages at Texas A&M University-Commerce. They will be accepting quality submissions in Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama, Original Artwork, Original Photography, through November 16th. See their website for submissions guidelines and detailed information.

49 Writers volunteer Interview Coordinator Leslie Hsu Oh queried Kids These Days after reading about it right here in our blog.  Her essay aired Wednesday of this week, and it’s also posted on their web site.  Additionally, she’s been scheduled as a guest blogger at Kids These Days. We love hearing success stories like these from the blog!  By the way, Kids These Days is still actively seeking submissions.  Call Sarah Gonzales - cell: 907-315-0006, show: 888-KTD-RADIO  or email her.

Arctica, the Magazine of Circumpolar Art and Culture, is sponsoring a writing competition in poetry, fiction and nonfiction, entitled SPACE. Deadline: April 1st, 2011. Submission guidelines are at their website.

49 Writers member Becky Strub has launched a new website:
Alaskan State of Mind. She posts monthly videos and also accepts submissions on Alaska geography and quotable quotes.
She says the concept of Alaskan State of Mind began as a book idea and morphed into a website/business.

The Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest is getting underway, with a chance to win a $20,000 scholarship. Call the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council for more information: 907 586 2787.

Andromeda: The AK writer babies are here -- and last chance to enter for Raven's Brew giveaway

One of these babies lives on the shore of Lake Clark and has a new book of poetry out, which she'll be signing at the 49 Writers First Friday event at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art on Nov. 5.

One of these babies is our new state writer.

One of these babies has a scary book due out soon and is also our October featured author. Can you guess who is who? (See bottom.)

Why the silly baby photos? (Just a few of the batch we have posted on our new Facebook page). To remember how special youth is and how quickly we all grow up. These thoughts are in my mind today, as our 49 Alaska Writing Center turns a mere six months old. In that time, we've sponsored numerous literary events, from author readings to a book & tea talk. We've offered a phenomenal writers' retreat and launched our fall creative writing instruction, with the next even bigger round of winter/spring courses to be announced in mid-November. We've grown our membership and our board, and we've met a lot of Alaska writers -- veteran and beginner, from across the state -- that we'd never met before. This fall, we've spent a lot of time reading, writing, and learning together. It's been exhilarating. It's been, frankly, kind of incredible. It's hard to imagine that some of this energy started gathering from a few blogposts from long ago, including one I just found in the archives from December 9, 2009: "Do we need a writing center?" Now, we've got one. We're still a baby on the literary scene, but we're a baby that's growing fast -- all of us together, thanks to amazing volunteers and supporters. Thank you so much and if you're Facebook-inclined, head on over there now and "like" us for a chance to win a gift from Raven's Brew, our coffee sponsor.

Answers:

Lake Clark baby. Picture #2. Anne Coray

State writer baby. Picture #1. Peggy Shumaker

Get back on that horse and don't be scared, baby. Picture #3. Don Rearden.

More at our facebook page!

Andromeda: Writers, delight and beware -- Paris Review interviews

DAVID MITCHELL, author of The Cloud Atlas : The novelist is more like a pregnant woman who delivers her own child unaided. A messy procedure, with lots of groaning.

That's just one quote among thousands you'll find at the Paris Review writer interview archives, recently made available online. I heard about it via an email from Nancy Lord, decided to check out while eating lunch next to my laptop, and emerged from my trance some 60 to 90 minutes later, wishing I could take a week off my life and simply read author interviews.

As Dwight Garner of the New York Times explained last week: Editor Lorin Stein's "most radical act since taking over from Philip Gourevitch is visible only on the 57-year-old magazine’s crisply redesigned Web site, theparisreview.org. He’s made the entire run of The Paris Review’s storied interview series, previously almost impossible to find in electronic form, available there, free for the browsing. If there’s a better place to lose yourself online right now, I don’t know what it is. The interviews in The Paris Review — the magazine founded in 1953 by a group of writers and editors that included George Plimpton and Peter Matthiessen — are about as canonical, in our literary universe, as spoken words can be. They long ago set the standard, for better and occasionally worse, for what well-brewed conversation should sound like on the page."

Garner admitted to spending a full day roaming around. (Should I feel less sheepish for my own "lost" hour or so? Or simply envious that Garner got a full day to spend in such a luxurious pursuit?)

Needing to justify the time I've spent already, I'll share a few random items I came across, which happen to relate to writers I've been talking about at this blog lately. (But I assure you -- or rather warn you -- just about every notable writer is in the archives. That's why you're bound to lose track of the time.

INTERVIEWER
Are there any trends in contemporary fiction that worry you? Any that particularly interest you?

TOBIAS WOLFF
I have no idea where it will go, except that narrative—story— will carry it. From time to time writers will feel the demands of narrative as a tyranny and refuse them, even mock them. Sterne did it, Tolstoy himself did it as a young man. Literary postmodernism is actually pretty old hat. It’s recurrent, and usually passes like a mild fever.

And here's a choice bit from an interview with Nabokov, proving yet again that the genuis would have been one heck of a difficult teacher to endure.

INTERVIEWER Did you learn from your students at Cornell? Was the experience purely a financial one? Did teaching teach you anything valuable?

NABOKOV My method of teaching precluded genuine contact with my students. At best, they regurgitated a few bits of my brain during examinations. Every lecture I delivered had been carefully, lovingly handwritten and typed out, and I leisurely read it out in class, sometimes stopping to rewrite a sentence and sometimes repeating a paragraph—a mnemonic prod which, however, seldom provoked any change in the rhythm of wrists taking it down. I welcomed the few shorthand experts in my audience, hoping they would communicate the information they stored to their less fortunate comrades. Vainly I tried to replace my appearances at the lectern by taped records to be played over the college radio.

And then, simply because it's fun to follow one author to the next, here is David Mitchell on Nabokov.

INTERVIEWER
Ghostwritten contains an invaluable piece of advice for writers: If you’re trying to finish a book, steer clear of Nabokov—he’ll make you feel like a clodhopper. Was this from bitter experience?

MITCHELL
Yes, his combination of barbed intelligence and incandescent imagination is pretty humbling. And what a vocabulary! I used to read Nabokov with an X-ray on, trying to map the circuitry of what he was doing and how he was doing it.

Lolita is an act of seduction. This is a lovable rogue, you think, this Humbert Humbert. How interesting life is in his company! Then there’s a place where, toward the end—and this is one of the most chilling scenes in English literature—he realizes that Lolita has lost her magic. She’s not the pliant young fairy she once was. But it’ll be OK, he thinks, because I can have a daughter through her and start all over again. That’s when you know you’ve really been had here—this Humbert figure is a damaged, dangerous piece of work, and you’ve been riding along happily in his car for a hundred and fifty pages. Somebody call the cops!


Thanks, Nancy -- I think. If I go missing in cyberspace for days at a time, you'll know where I've gotten lost.

Kathleen Tarr: 49 Writers Author Interview/Community of Grace: An Orthodox Christian Year in Alaska

The community of St. John the Evangelist Orthodox Cathedral in Eagle River was founded in 1972; back then, the people there were not Orthodox Christians, and they certainly were not a church. They lived together in a big house at the end of a street called Monastery, where they began a journey toward church and community that continues to this day.

Mary Alice Cook was raised in East Texas in the church of her ancestors, the Southern Baptist. She moved with her husband to Alaska in 1976, and they lived for 17 years in midtown Anchorage with their three sons. The family joined the community at St. John’s when they were chrismated in 1992; a year later, they moved into a house on Monastery Drive in Eagle River, where they continue to live – and Mary Alice continues to write – within the sound of the cathedral bells. Community of Grace is her first published book.

Kathleen Tarr, Anchorage nonfiction writer and Program Coordinator of UAA’s MFA Program, interviewed Mary Alice Cook for this 49 Writers Interview.

Community of Grace: An Orthodox Christian Year in Alaska, tells the stories of the people who live in what you call “intentional community.” When we imagine what an intentional community might be, we naturally think of monastic life. St. John’s isn’t a monastery, though. At St. John’s, people not only worship in the same church, but they also live in a kind of spiritual and material fishbowl. The people and families are deeply and seriously committed to staying involved in each others’ lives. Many live within walking distance of one another. I was fascinated by the stories contained in your book, on why in this day and age, people would ever choose this kind of unconventional existence, one that’s also tied to the church’s liturgical cycle, as well. How much did the place itself contribute to you becoming a writer?

First of all, when I moved into the St. John’s community in 1993, I had a longstanding familiarity with “church.” Trouble was that I, like Kathleen Norris, was beginning to realize that my Christian upbringing had been skewed toward the belief that “one had to be dressed up, both outwardly and inwardly, to meet God.” The church community, to me, had always meant a group of believers who determinedly put their best face forward with each other, and usually accompanied it with much quoting of scripture and what I call “Christian jargon.” I never openly rebelled against my upbringing, but neither did I ever feel satisfied with that definition of either church or community. Secondly, I was also familiar with the concept of the church as a “body.” Again, trouble was, I had never figured out my place or function in that body. And thirdly, I always wanted to write, but confined my efforts to an occasional spurt of journaling. When I became a part of this unique community in Eagle River, I got to know religious people who were also okay with being real, and that became the catalyst for me to get serious about writing.

In the St. John’s community, my friends Barbara and Nancy and Robin introduced me to Flannery O’Connor, a devout Christian who wrote stories about odd, sometimes marginal people, who experience encounters with the grace of God. Flannery’s people either choose to accept that grace or to kick against it – out of cynicism or fear or just plain stubbornness. And that is how I learned to see my community and, more importantly, myself (and all of us mortals) – as either willing to recognize grace and accept it, or refuse it. So I began to write Flannery-type stories, along with essays, articles, and even a novel, and to have some success with publication. My community encouraged my efforts, and I learned that I could articulate my convictions and be faithful to who I was without employing a lot of religious imagery and jargon.

You weave together the history of St. John’s by interspersing mini-profiles of some of the people who have chosen to make their home there, including the very interesting story about the community’s founders, Harold & Barbara Dunaway, who still live there today, and Robin Armstrong, the iconographer. You also talk a little about how you “jumped from the Southern Baptist ship” to become chrismated into Eastern Orthodoxy. But your personal story is not the central focus of the book. Do you wish you had incorporated more or less of your own meditations and ponderings throughout the narrative? Are you satisfied with the balance you ended up as far as how much time and space you devoted to reflecting about your own spiritual story?

When I first began to write the book, I didn’t intend to include any details of my own story; nor did I plan to record what I had learned from living in the community. It wasn’t going to be that kind of a book. Now, looking back, it seems that the length of time it took to figure out how to write the book was connected with my own experience of living there. The organic way that the book developed was as much a function of my own growth as it was of confusion about how to tell the story. Also, I was constantly aware of the fact that there are dozens of “spiritual” writers out there who are eagerly sharing their personal opinions and interpretations about theology, religion, and the spiritual life (a perfect example is a book that is a mega-bestseller called The Shack, in which the author “humanizes” the Trinity to the point of execrable triteness) and I didn’t want to join them. The Orthodox Christian tradition (and the community at St. John’s) is inclusive and tolerant of individualism; however, basics of the faith are not open to innovation or fresh interpretation. I never intended to make my personal story the focus of the book, and I’m mostly satisfied with the balance I achieved.

How long did this project take you from the first moment you conceived of it as a possible book, until you received your first shipment of books from Conciliar Press in Indiana? And what were some of the most difficult challenges you faced in figuring out how to write and structure the book?

As I mentioned in the book’s preface, my friend and mentor Barbara Dunaway asked me in 1996 to write a “history” of the St. John’s community. I felt flattered and eager to comply, so I interviewed a few people, searched the archives, and commenced writing a boring, linear account of how the community came to be. I bogged down in details of the group’s conversion that had been covered by other authors, and I concentrated the story too intensely on the Dunaway family. The book refused to catch a gear and for years, I made sporadic stabs at writing that history but laid it aside every time. Then, in an unexpected moment of grace, I realized that the only way to tell the story of my home would be to tell the stories of the people who make it my home. And I could tell the stories simply and naturally by organizing them around the Orthodox calendar year of feasts and fasts. And then everything fell into place. So I couldn’t have written this book without having been blessed to find my own place among those people; neither could I have written it without becoming part of an amazingly diverse and interesting group of people who found their way there through interesting chains of circumstance. In short, it took 14 years.

Some potential readers might be disinclined to read Community of Grace because they view it as too religious for their general literary taste. Others might assume the story is probably too regional and lacks a universal appeal because it has to do with a small, fairly unknown Eastern Orthodox community in Eagle River, Alaska. How would you answer these skeptical readers?

I would say that I worked hard to avoid writing a “religious” book; if it must be categorized, I would prefer to call it a book about community, about finding others with whom to make a spiritual journey, and committing to stay together in order to see it through. These folks – who were mostly disaffected Protestants – came together in the first place because of a shared mistrust of “organized church,” and they stayed together through a lot of experiments and readjustments until they anchored themselves in a “foreign” church that is unfamiliar to most Americans. To me, that story has a tremendously universal appeal because, as I tend to repeat in the book, every one of us longs for a place to belong, to feel at home. Not just physically, but spiritually as well. The story’s setting gives it great appeal, especially now that Alaska seems to be all over the news. And, as a kind of bonus, Alaska’s rich Russian Orthodox history and tradition creates a backdrop that sort of brings the book’s wandering Protestants’ journey full circle.

You studied history under the esteemed Professor Stephen Haycox at UAA, and now you’re in a Texas graduate school working on a degree in Public History, with an emphasis on museum and archival work. Would you comment about how your training and education in the discipline of history has helped or hindered your writing style? What does the formal study of history have to do with a writer’s development?


I am not a trained creative writer; I’ve attended a couple of writing conferences and have written a few short stories and one unpublished novel, but most of my experience has been with academic writing, and I would include expository essays and articles in that category. I also adore the process of research, of finding a piece of information that leads to another, and another, and sometimes takes me down a fascinating rabbit trail. So hunkering down in the stacks or in an archive is something I enjoy doing and history books were always my favorites. Writers like Joseph P. Lash, Edmund Morris, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose have created a genre of “popular history” and some of their books become huge bestsellers. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale is a lovely example of creative nonfiction and it won a bunch of prizes, including the Pulitzer. Of course, popular history makes some historians blanch with fright and dismay. When I first decided to return to college for a master’s degree in history, I chatted with a distinguished older professor (not Prof. Haycox) and actually used the words “creative writing.”He advised me right away that those words had no place in the history department. Well, I respectfully beg to differ. In fact, I believe that the creative retelling of true stories is where I will find my niche as a writer.

When you look out across the vast expanse of America, would you say there’s an increasing or diminishing influence on spiritual life? When you gaze at the spiritual landscape, what is it you see about contemporary spiritual life that may be missing?

The conventional wisdom is that Americans are turned off by religion (meaning organized, dogmatic churches), but are hungry for an authentic spirituality. And that spirituality takes many forms in the U.S., a place where freedom of the individual is itself often an object of worship. As an Orthodox Christian, I don’t subscribe to the relativity of truth – I believe in absolutes. But at the same time, an open-minded search for truth is not a quest to be condemned. As Robert Duvall said in The Apostle, a movie I highly recommend, “I’m on my journey.” And we all are on our own journey, and we go where it takes us. But the thing that may be missing is that at some point on the journey, pilgrims can choose to travel together. A friend and neighbor of mine, Harold, appears in my book as a man who set out alone to search for truth and ultimately found what he was looking for not in a church or a book, but in a group of people. Perhaps what is missing from contemporary spiritual life is not relationships, but rather the hard work that goes along with relationships: a commitment to stick around when the going gets tough; a willingness to drop the mask and get real; and the courage to seek and give forgiveness.

The Ghost in the Parka: A Guest Post by Don Rearden

Let me share with you a Halloween haunting back when I lived in one of the little Yup’ik villages on the tundra of southwest Alaska. The sun slipped beneath the horizon, my sisters and the other little kids were back from trick-or-treating, and it was our turn, the teenagers, to race down the narrow dark boardwalks between houses to fill our own plastic grocery sacks with candy.

I don’t even remember if we had costumes, but I do remember that it was a fall like this one, with no snow, and tall grass lined the boardwalk like two moving walls that whispered in the winds. We grabbed candy inside the first house and when we came out and started to the next, someone spotted something strange emerging from the tall grass. A traditional Yupik parka, with the hood up, no hands or feet visible, the thick fur ruff obscuring the face, appeared on the boardwalk behind us. We sprinted to the next house, not sure what to make of the parka, but not quite willing to admit to the adults inside what we’d just seen.

Back outside the little parka appeared again and again between each candy stop, each time giving us a good scare. We’d all grown up hearing the traditional stories of such haunting and we had a sense that we were being played with, but none of us were brave enough to approach the little figure or to question who or what was toying with us.

The last batch of houses sat on the far north side of the village, a walk that would require us to travel down a considerable span of darkness, right past the abandoned (and haunted) teachers’ quarters that everyone in the village avoided and didn’t even like to speak about. As we made our way down the boardwalk towards the last cluster of houses the little parka appeared behind us, and when we entered the arctic entry to the house, I remember looking back and seeing it standing there mid-way beside the teachers’ quarters, blocking our passage home.

When we came out, the parka was gone.

As we passed the building, we expected the parka to jump out in front of us or behind us, but it didn’t. Someone gasped and pointed, and there in the darkness beneath the building, near one of the steel posts that held it above the permafrost, the parka sat upright, waiting. It sprang towards us with a cackle.

We screamed and ran for our lives, and behind us the parka followed, growling and roaring. We fled in terror, but the scary sounds in our wake turned to laughter --- and legs and arms popped out from the squirrel and moose skin covered coat and soon a face emerged from beneath the parka’s hood.

My good friend. Ever the prankster. A boy with a contagious giggle and a hyena-like laugh. Loved by everyone. Afraid of nothing and afraid of no one.

Not a soul in the village would have gone to those lengths for an all-night prank like that. Not only was he foregoing his sack of free candy, but he spent that spooky black night alone, hiding in the grass; even hiding beneath the haunted school buildings despite all the traditional Yup’ik monsters and spirits also lurking in the same shadows, just to hear our terrified squeals.

A few years later we lost our prankster friend. I heard he managed to climb out from the black scar his snowmachine left through the river ice, but in the cold and wind he couldn’t escape death’s icy grip.

I try to comfort myself with the notion that he feared nothing. That even in the face of death, alone and cold in the howling tundra winds, he could find a way to giggle and that he wasn’t scared. And while his death still haunts me, over twenty years later, I am comforted by the fact that his trickster spirit survives. Each Halloween I think of him and imagine if I stare hard enough into the shadows I just might catch a glimpse of the ghostly fur parka waiting to jump out and chase me.

AUTHORS NOTE: Students in my writing course at UAA have been studying the structure of scary stories over the past week. They compose a personal essay about a scary or mysterious occurrence in their life and we talk about how the structure of an essay mirrors the structure of a scary story. Specifically, how the intro hooks the readers’ attention, the body paragraphs draw the readers along, and the conclusion doesn’t just wrap up what was said, but instead haunts the readers and leaves them thinking. The monster is still out there or the spirit continues haunting…Do you have a favorite haunting you’d like to share?

Bio: Don Rearden lived in haunted school buildings on the tundra. He never actually saw a ghost, but heard them playing basketball, and once watched as one of those heavy grey filing cabinets clicked and rolled open in front of him. Apparently ghosts enjoy a good game of one-on-one, but still even in death must deal with paperwork.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

It's your last chance to register for Revision Intensive, a six-hour course beginning tomorrow, Oct. 23. 

Today, Friday October 22 from 4:30pm-6:00pm there will be a discussion at the UAA Bookstore titled The Genre of Romance: Is Romance Changing? Cheryl Lovegreen, Kianna Alexander, Marcy Gentemann, Jackie Ivie and others discuss the nature of Romance books and what is now being published.

Also today, Fri, Oct 22, 6:00pm, Heather Lende, Author, Columnist, Commentator, will speak at the University of Alaska Southeast, Egan Hall (Juneau).

On Sat, Oct 23, 8:00am, there will be a Writing workshop with Deborah Hopkinson, "Bringing history to life one story at a time." Juneau and Alaska are rich in history and entertaining stories. Hopkinson will show us how to bring these stories to life in this writing workshop for adults and YAs. Register with Carol at 586-0434. Juneau Downtown Library, Juneau, AK

On Tuesday 26th October, from 5-7 pm, Kelsea Habecker, the author of the poetry collection Hollow Out and poet interviewed in Issue #1 of Cirque on pages 68-74, will be giving a reading at the UAA Bookstore.

Also on Tue, Oct 26, at 6:00pm, join Anchor Park Reading Group for a discussion of this month's selected book, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Barnes and Noble, 200 East Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK 99503.

On Wednesday October 27 from 5:00pm-7:00pm, Alaska Sci-Fi writer Tim Saunders unveils his new book Guardians of the Glacier. This is a fast paced, fun story for all ages.  “Miracles, magic, and mystery are yours in this adventure with unique beings, amazing technology, majestic geography, worlds within worlds, and sensible insights to life.”

The Society of Children's Bookwriters and Illustrators meets Wednesday, October 27 at 7pm at Starbucks conference room on E. Dimond.  For more information, email debv@gci.net.

Do you live in Sitka or Juneau? Deb Vanasse of the 49 Alaska Writing Center is traveling to both communities to offer "Crash Course: Characters / The Reader-Writer Edition." Look for her at Sitka's Kettleson Memorial Library on Wednesday, Nov. 17 from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m., and at the Juneau Public Library on Saturday, Nov. 20 from 9 a.m. - noon. There's no charge for either course, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the City of Sitka/Kettleson Memorial Library and the Juneau Public Library. Seating is limited in both locations; see the Writing Instruction/Fall 2010 tab to register for a spot.

Congratulations to Debby Dahl Edwardson for being selected as having written one of the top 10 First Novels for Youth in the October 15th Booklist! (Blessing's Bead)

After thirteen years of shepherding the Letters for Literature program, Barbara Brown is passing on the torch to Jessie Nixon. With a winner from West High School last year, here's hoping that Alaska participation will continue to be vigorous.

Anne Fox Chandonnet was interviewed online about her book 'Write Quick' - click here to read the interview in full.

Countdown to our 49 Alaska Writing Center six-month birthday!

Late posting today, because I was volunteering in my kids' school library (interesting discussion with the librarian about the problem of books being stolen. And which books keep 'walking away?' The graphic novels. Hmmmm.)

But I'm also busy this morning dreaming up ways to celebrate the 49 Alaska Writing Center's half-year birthday this October 28. We're only six months old? Yes! (Can you believe it?) So much has happened already -- and so much more is coming this fall -- which is why we want to get out and tell the world about us in the days and months ahead.

Step one: Facebook. We want to help reach out to those facebookers out there, and you can help. Check our our community page (at "49 Alaska Writing Center"). "Like" us and you'll be entered into a drawing for a Raven's Brew gift box. (If you've already "liked" us -- you are automatically entered.) Add a comment and you'll be entered twice. We'll draw the winner late on October 28.

This isn't the last you'll hear from me about our six-month birthday. We've got a few more silly things up our sleeves coming over the next 7 days...

Andromeda/Your Turn: What Makes a Short Story a Short Story?

So I get home last night after guest-teaching in a friend's fiction workshop (warm room, sleepy-eyed undergraduate students -- but I come home riled up, because evening classes always do that to me, all the more when the students are quiet). I log onto an online discussion from my own MFA program about Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff, who I mentioned last week. The discussion hasn't really heated up yet -- more to come, no doubt -- and we've only scratched the surface. Sure, we like this story or we don't like that one: but what is a short story, anyway?

I've noticed among the workshops stories I've read lately that most of them don't seem like short stories -- they seem like the unfocused beginnings of novels. Short stories can cover a few minutes (Wolff's Bullet in the Brain) or they can cover a lifetime, or close to it (Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich); they can be restricted to one setting or not; they can have few characters -- but not necessarily; they may seem to express a greater unity than the baggy and digressive novel. In all cases, compression is at work, and the skilled writer is the one who knows precisely what to leave out. (And isn't this what makes the modern short story 'modern' -- and haven't modern readers become increasingly comfortable with a writer leaving the story apparently unfinished or leaving more unsaid?)

But is that all there is to be said on the subject?

My family goes to sleep but I'm still awake, thinking about that question. I read some online interviews with Tobias Wolff -- including one where he asserts that "perfection is attainable" in the short story and another where he asserts that the short story, despite its brevity, actually requires more from the reader's attention. (Interesting thoughts, both.) I pull out a long-ignored anthology next to my bed with an essay on the subject, written in 1958 (a classic and oft-cited essay, the editor tells me), in which Norman Friedman argues that the short story and the novel "differ in degree but not in kind." Then he goes on to explore large actions and small actions, as well as how POV affects length.

All interesting, but I'm not satisfied. I'm thinking: If I don't get to bed soon, I'll never find time in the morning for everything that needs to be done, which happens to include this simple blogpost. Well, darn it, then the blogpost is going to have to be about the subject of my literary insomnia.

Someone out there -- most of you no doubt -- have read and perhaps even written many short stories, and you provided some great short story reading recommendations last week. Step forward again, if you're so inclined. What makes a short story a short story?

(And of lesser importance: Why do I lose sleep over these sorts of questions?)

49 Writers Interview: Susan B. Andrews and John Creed, Purely Alaska, interviewed by Stephanie Jaeger

Purely Alaska is an anthology of 32 stories from diverse areas of Alaska. These stories are unique because most are told by the Alaskans who experienced them. An Inupiaq elder recalls a reindeer drive across northern Alaska in the 1930s during which she gave birth to two children and buried one. A young man recalls the trauma of his early childhood and its connection to his fight against adult addictions. A mother wants her son to go to college, but he decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a fisherman. A musher tells about the difficulties of mushing in Southeast Alaska where there is often only rain and no snow. This book reveals everyday life in the challenging conditions of rural Alaska.

Stephanie Jaeger brings us this interview with Andrews and Creed.

How does Purely Alaska: Authentic Voices from the Far North differ from your earlier anthology, Authentic Alaska: Voices of its Native Writers?

All the contributors in our first anthology, Authentic Alaska: Voices of Its Native Writers, were Alaska Natives living primarily in villages in the Kotzebue region of Northwest Arctic Alaska. This newest anthology, Purely Alaska: Authentic Voices from the Far North, contains 32 stories by 23 writers who are not just Alaska Natives but also non-Natives. They also represent a much broader geographic cross-section of rural Alaska, from the rainforests of Southeast Alaska to the vast expanse of Interior Alaska to southwest Alaska as well as our own part of the state, the Arctic, in addition to other rural regions of the 49th State. The second anthology is bigger, many of the stories longer than in our first book.

Tell us more about the contributors to your book. Were all of them students or did you solicit stories from other sources?

The contributors in Purely Alaska are rural and Alaska Native students of the University of Alaska, although approximately one-third of the book includes our own stories.

Since the late 1980s we have taught in the humanities at Chukchi College, UA’s branch in Kotzebue, which lies 26 miles above the Arctic Circle in Northwest Alaska. Most contributors to Purely Alaska do not live in Kotzebue or even Northwest Arctic Alaska, although all writers were living in rural Alaska when they wrote their stories. All the contributors have been our students. All but one student story was composed in a Chukchi writing class.

When we first began teaching in rural Alaska, we realized that our writing students’ subject matter might interest an audience beyond the classroom. So we started applying our journalism skills toward publishing our students in the Alaska press. Most editors welcome the opportunity to publish polished writing by rural University of Alaska students. We appreciate that.

The vast majority of our students are beginning writers, including many village students still struggling with basic, standard English in a cross-cultural setting. Most of our students have not been published before enrolling in our writing classes.

Not surprisingly, it takes a considerable mutual effort to bring our students’ writing up to publication quality. From an educator’s standpoint, however, the effort has proved worth it. We have found no better incentive for students to strive for excellence than demanding it through the incentive of publication in that vast world outside the classroom.

One of Purely Alaska’s stories was written by an 11-year-old taking college courses. How was she able to do this?

China Kantner did take college-level courses in Kotzebue at 11 years old, both in writing and math. Precocious would describe this child. As a student, she always came prepared for class and ready to participate. China's mom, Stacey Glaser, is director of Chukchi Consortium Library on our campus and also oversees public libraries in Northwest Arctic Borough villages. Her dad, Seth Kantner, is a well-known local writer and wildlife/landscape photographer, so books and reading and writing run in the family.

In Purely Alaska, China Kantner tells the story of when she was even younger and a bear almost pushed its way into her family’s camp on the Kobuk River in Northwest Alaska. Mom was frantically pushing back on the cabin door while Dad shot the bear from a window in the cabin. Children don’t always sense danger the way adults do.

“Oh, he’s so cute!” China observes of the bear as it was trying to make dinner of her and her family.

How are you marketing your book? Have you found a readership for your book outside of Alaska?

We believe Purely Alaska is direct, honest and universal enough to interest readers around the nation and the world, as long as we continue to get the word out.

We have been marketing Purely Alaska pretty much on our own (with support from our publisher). All writers know the challenges of publishing and promoting books in today’s economic environment and in the age of Internet dominance. We have no agent or “publicist.” We are using mostly our own funds.

One of our main and most important audiences for Purely Alaska is rural Alaskans themselves. Like the first book, we expect that college and K-12 educators will use Purely Alaska, such as a teacher in Nome teaching it in a Native American lit class. Urban school districts also are expressing interest in adopting Purely Alaska for classroom use. Rural Student Services at the University of Alaska Fairbanks also uses it with rural students, as another example of interest in this book from fellow educators.

If the experience with Authentic Alaska is any indication, Purely Alaska also will sell well through the visitor industry, particularly because this book has such a strong geographic representation from throughout the Bush. Alaskans are also buying Purely Alaska to send to friends and relatives living Outside. Purely Alaska does not “sugar coat” life in the outback.

We also believe the book has a niche in addiction treatment and recovery programs.

Tell us about your choice of Epicenter Press and your publisher Kent Sturgis.

We have had a wonderful experience working with Kent Sturgis, who not only is the publisher of Epicenter Press but also was the editor for Purely Alaska. Kent grew up in Fairbanks, where he eventually became managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. He left the paper in the mid-1980s to start Epicenter Press with Lael Morgan, another long-time Alaska journalist.

It has been refreshing to work with a journalist on this project, especially one who knows Alaska so well. When Kent first read the manuscript, he recognized Purely Alaska’s potential immediately as a book with a long shelf life and the possibility of becoming a classic about Alaska.

We chose Epicenter Press because John had worked with Kent at the News-Miner in the 1980s and remembered his professionalism and editing talents. We knew we could work together under deadline pressure because as former full-time journalists, we had all done just that for years in the news business. The editing and production moved along smoothly and efficiently. Production moved quickly after signing our book contract.

What was the biggest challenge in putting this anthology together?

Every writer knows the work required in publishing his or her own work, but even among writers there may be a misconception that most anthologies are easier to put out than a book they write by themselves. Not true. Or at least not for us. That may be the case for an editor who pulls together an anthology from a corral of professional writers who typically would submit very polished work. Our journey with most of these student contributors begins at a much more basic level.

We spend much more time bringing student work up to publication quality because the voyage almost always proves longer, and less predictable. As educators, writing instruction always comes first. Consequently, edits and restructures necessarily need more explanation to our students because of the pedagogical dimension of the process. (Yes, we really did use a form of that awful academic word, pedagogy.)

One of Purely Alaska’s anchor pieces, Burt Haviland’s “The Long Road to Recovery,” started out as a 750-word narrative essay in a basic composition class. Over the course of many months and numerous revisions, restructures and rewrites, this initially short essay mushroomed into a 14,000-word treatise on a lifelong struggle with addiction (and a journey that never really ends for the addict). The result catapulted itself far beyond the requirements of a basic writing class in so many ways, including balancing the courage of a writer to reveal some of the most haunting and private parts of his life with, well, the courage of a writer to reveal just that.

But we’ve committed our careers to assist the publication of those who might otherwise not have a voice, or stories that might otherwise be lost—such as Noatak elder “Aana Nellie” Woods, who helped drive a herd of stubborn reindeer along the shore of the Arctic Ocean in the 1930s. That story took years for the writer, Steve Werle, to complete

We always try to hold our students to the highest standards in their work. We did not want to let our students down. We wanted to produce a timeless work of art. We wanted to create something that our students, our employer, and the reading public could point to with pride for many years to come. We can only hope that’s the case

Susan B. Andrews and John Creed are professors of journalism and humanities at Chukchi College, the University of Alaska's branch campus in Kotzebue. In 1988, John and Susan founded Chukchi News and Information Service, a cultural journalism project for publishing student writing in newspapers and magazines throughout Alaska. As freelance journalists, John and Susan have been recognized for their reporting on dog mushing, education, and global warming in rural Alaska. For work on First Amendment issues, they have received "Champions of Free Speech" awards from the Alaska Civil Liberties Union "for zealously challenging public policies that deprive Alaskans of their civil liberties and for courageously defending academic freedom, free speech and a free and independent press." For work on Alaska Native issues, the American Bar Association recognized them with a Silver Gavel Award.

Embracing Rejection: A Guest Post by Don Rearden

At this stage in my writing career I’m far too much of a greenhorn to be giving advice of any substance or merit. Unless we happen to be talking about one essential component of any writing career, in which case --- for that one particular slice of the writing pie --- I am a certified expert. If there were writing seminars or conventions with fancy buffets on this topic, I would be the keynote. If someone would read a book devoted to the nuances of this topic, I would be the author.

And since you, gentle reader, have already been duped into reading this far, the least I can do is provide for you the subject that has my rugged, yet handsome, photo beside it on the Wikipedia page devoted exclusively to it:

REJECTION

Rejection has been around since the earliest writings on cavewalls. (As evidenced by caveman writings followed by, “We regret to inform you…”) From those first cave scratchings, rejection became a standard part of the writing life; unless, of course, you were a celebrity who just always wanted to write a novel or a children’s story. It wasn’t until the mid to late 90’s that the art of rejection was truly crafted and finally perfected.

By me.

See, in order to perfect rejection, a writer must first begin with ridiculous aspirations. Believe that every word, every paragraph, every page of poetry or prose is perfect. Believe that every character, climax, and conclusion is complex and “crafted.” Finally, the writer doesn’t just hope for publication or production, but knows it will be so.

In this fashion, and only this fashion, will the writer be completely and wholly crushed upon opening that first rejection letter. Complete and utter devastation is necessary for the writer to take the next important step:

Swear to NEVER WRITE AGAIN.

Then, once the writer begins writing in a new genre or form, perhaps several years after that initial rejection wears off, the sting of the second and subsequent rejections will create a nostalgic sensation of sorts. This is key. Feel that pain. Throw the letters in a giant pile and roll in them naked. Let their sharp little edges cut your skin. Bleed on them. Bleed. In a word:

Embrace the rejection.

Okay that was three words, but you get my point. Rejection is an essential part of the process. Writing is supposed to be painful. Why do you think all those great writers drank opium and put their heads in gas stoves? It was because they were great and didn’t know about rejection! So if you’re like me, you’re mediocre at best and you love the act of writing enough that even rejection is a validation of what you are trying to do. Write. Get rejected. And learn to love it.

Then write on.

Plus, who can afford opium or gas these days?

Bio: Don Rearden’s writing has never actually been rejected. He is a master storyteller who simply wants to understand the pain and anguish he imagines lesser writers must endure.


[Blog Editor’s note: This post was initially rejected eighteen times, but due to real Alaskan writers being busy with actual writing projects, we had to accept Don’s at the last minute. Our sincere apologies.]

Andromeda: Looking for baby pictures of AK writers

Very silly request. Are you an Alaska writer with a emailable baby photo of yourself to share? To be used on blog/Facebook for one week at the end of the month. Why? I shall not say. Yet. Shall we get enough takers? May the fates decide. Email to me at lax@alaska.net.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

We still have a few slots open for our 49 Writers Benefit Book and Tea Talk this Sunday, Oct. 17, from 2 - 4 p.m. Join us as we learn about tea and sample new blends as we hear about some of Alaska's great books. There's no charge, but donations are welcome. Email 49writers@gmail.com to reserve your place.

Today's the last day to sign up for Sandy Kleven's Working the Edge: A Guide to Creative Risk-taking, to be held Saturday, Oct. 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 415 L St. Check the website for details and registration links for all our upcoming events and classes.

Debby Dahl Edwardson is reading TODAY, Friday, October 15, 3:00pm

at Barnes & Noble, 200 East Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK 99503,

907-279-7323. She will be reading from her new young readers' book entitled Blessing's Bead

Also TONIGHT, Fri October 15th, at 5pm - and every third Friday of the month - at The Canvas, Juneau, there will be a Poetry Slam and Open Mic. E-mail NaaHaan or Christy for more information.

Also TONIGHT, Friday, October 15th, at 6pm, Jackie Ivie will be signing her new historical romance, A Knight and White Satin, at Barnes & Noble, 200 East Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK 99503,

907-279-7323

Anne Coray and Steve Kahn will be giving readings and book signings in two locations on Saturday October 16: a book-signing 1pm- 3pm at Pandemonium Booksellers & Café, 1325 East Palmer-Wasilla Hwy Suite 101 Wasilla, AK 99654; and a reading, signing and discussion 7:30PM- 9:30pm at Fireside Books 720 S. Alaska Street, Palmer, AK 99645. Anne will be reading from her new book of poems, Violet Transparent, and Steve Kahn will be reading from The Hard Way Home: Alaska Stories of Adventure, Friendship and the Hunt.

On Monday, October 18th, at 6pm in Fairbanks (location tbd), The Alaska Classics Lecure Series presents outgoing Writer Laureate Nancy Lord: "Alaska in Writing: Where We’ve Been, Where We Might Be Going, and

Further Reflections on the Literary Voices That Tell Us Who We Are."

On Tuesday, October 19, 6:00pm, David Stevenson PhD, Director of UAA's Creative Writing and Literary Arts program, presents “Overnight Sensations and You Can’t Hurry Love.” In this case, the love of writing and literature!

Barnes & Noble, 200 East Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK

Students in grades 4 through 12 are invited to enter Letters About Literature 2011, a national writing contest sponsored by Alaska Center for the Book and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in partnership with Target Stores. The contest deadline is December 10, 2010. To enter, students must write a letter to an author – living or dead – explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves.

Each letter must be accompanied by an official entry coupon or copy of one. Entry coupons will be available at your local, participating library or online at the Alaska Center for the Book website. Guidelines, teaching supplements, and full information about the prizes at stake are also available for teachers, parents, or librarians at the site.

Ice Floe, New Selected is now available from UA Press. Alaskan contributors are legion - be sure to check it out. They are also accepting submissions for the next editions. New volumes will be forthcoming in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Poets and translators from Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Northern Russia are encouraged to submit new, original work. Any language, style, or subject matter is welcome. Please submit no more than five poems. Simultaneous submissions will be considered, as will previously published work if accompanied by appropriate permissions. If possible, provide English translations when appropriate and a brief paragraph of biographic information. Electronic submissions (either in the body of an email message or as an attached MSWord file) are preferred and may be sent to icefloe@uaa.alaska.edu. Alternatively, submissions may be mailed to:

Ice Floe

c/o University of Alaska Press

PO Box 756240

Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6240 Submission deadline for 2011: December 1st 2010

Check out Publishers Weekly's new platform for self-published authors to market their books - thanks to Sara Juday for sharing the link!

Andromeda: Downwardly mobile

My first love was journalism: the kind of writing you get paid to do, usually. With a side of travel writing: also fairly marketable.

My second love was novel-length fiction: hard to sell, but I managed to do it. (Will lightning strike twice? Still hoping!)

In 2008/2009 I took a little detour into screenland and since then I've earned just a bit of money doing modestly scaled film-related work, most of it local. Where I originally imagined writing features I've quickly turned to writing small scripts about things like climate change. (Instead of Titanic, only melting icebergs -- why can't I stay fixed on the more lucrative track?)

But for the most part, screenwriting was just a detour, and in the last year I've been reading lots of short stories: Flannery O'Connor, Denis Johnson, older classics, the latest young geniuses anointed by the New Yorker, and this week, Tobias Wolff (Our Story Begins). Wolff will be visiting Antioch in LA, where I attend a low-residency MFA. I love Wolff's novel, Old School, and enjoyed his presentations at Kachemak Bay some time ago, but I hadn't read many of his stories.

I used to say -- almost brag -- that short stories, for the most part, just weren't my cup of tea. It was almost a relief to finish certain notable collections and realize I didn't care for them. Why a relief? Because short stories are even harder to sell than novels. And a really great short story is no easier to write than a novel. It feels good not to pine for something beyond reach. Just as I'm glad I don't like beer (yet another source of calories; I drink plenty of wine already) or good whiskey (expensive!) I was glad I didn't have a burning passion to enter the downwardly mobile, intensely competitive world of the short story writer, a world only slightly more financially rewarding than the world of the poet.

Problem is, I kept reading, finding more and more examples of really good stories. They grow on you. You start finding flashes of brilliant characterization and humor and great dialogue and cleverly compressed plot and before you know it, you're leaving the latest novel unread and cracking open a previously-ignored anthology. You're reading a story like Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain" and realizing you like it even better now than when you read it or heard it read a few years ago. You're wondering if that plot living in your head, which you originally thought was better served by the novel or screenplay form, could be condensed into something smaller and more gem-like, and all the more artistically satisfying for its brevity -- and most likely, at least coming from a late-bloomer's ambivalent pen, unsaleable.

Groan. (Resist! Resist!)

I leave you with this link from the New Yorker, featuring author TC Boyle discussing Tobias Wolff's work and reading from "Bullet in the Brain."

Your turn: The best short story or story collection you've read lately?

Andromeda: David Marusek on Flash Fiction

David Marusek will be coming to the 49 Alaska Writing Center to teach a two-evening intensive about Flash Fiction, Nov. 9 and 10 (6:30 to 9:30 pm). That's just under a month away, but we only have five seats left, so if you're looking for a fun class that will challenge the way you write (and possibly think), register now at our website, www.49writingcenter.org. Not a flash fictioneer yet? No problem -- current registrants include newbies to the form, including myself. (I have trouble condensing an email; how can I tell a story in a single page? I look forward to finding out!)

This class is made possible with support from the AK Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. In honor of Marusek's upcoming visit, we're re-running this edited interview between Deb and David from last January.
*
"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."

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.

Check out this fall’s Alaska Quarterly Review: A Guest Post by Nancy Lord

Alaska Quarterly Review . has done it again. The current issue (volume 27, number 3 & 4, fall and winter 2010) includes a wide variety of some of the best contemporary writing readers will find anywhere. And, again, it includes what has become one of its trademarks—a “special feature.”

This time, that feature is a 42-page essay by Don Lago, a writer of science, history, and the history of science. Very few literary journals publish lengthy single works, opting instead for more short pieces by more writers, and it’s much to AQR’s credit that it provides such a service—to the writers of exemplary longer works and to those who get to read, and linger in, such substantive work. Writers (and readers) interested in the “braided essay” form will appreciate Lago’s “Storm Pattern,” which weaves together multiple narratives to explore the idea of the beginning of the universe. One storyline tells of the astronomer Edwin Hubbell visiting the Grand Canyon in 1928 to check out the site for an observatory; because little is known of this visit Lago creatively recreates it. Another thread tells of the Navajo “storm pattern” rug design, which is said to represent the Navajo creation story. A third part of the weave is Lago’s own story of visiting the same places, researching the origin of the rug design and eventually purchasing one of the rugs.

Not particularly interested in astronomy or Navajo rugs? I guarantee you will be after reading this essay—or that you will at least experience your mind expanding outward, like the universe, when you follow Lago’s exploration into ways of thinking about the beginning of the world—and to connecting principles and images across time and cultures. “The universe’s long quest for patterns became brains searching for patterns in events, patterns on the earth, patterns in the sky. The master weaving that began with the creation of the universe became the weaving of a rug symbolizing the creation of the universe.” (p. 40)

There are six more nonfiction works in this issue, all very different, all very accomplished. “Proof of Identity,” by K. C. Eib, is an extraordinary piece about sexual (and more) identity. Notably, this is a first publication in a national literary magazine for Eib, who happens to be an Alaskan. (Although AQR’s editors hold Alaska writers to the same high standards as any other writers, they do keep a sharp eye out for Alaska’s best as well as taking pride in publishing first-time writers and bringing those new voices to a national stage.)

Two other very strong pieces in this section are also about identity. Judy Copeland’s “Louisville, 1953,” a segmented essay organized around the stages of culture shock and adaptation, brings to life her transition as a child from life in Japan to life in America. Holly Welker’s “Leap Year” is a memoir about her Mormon upbringing and revising the story of her life. But perhaps my favorite among the nonfiction is Ben Miller’s “Twigmas,” a crashingly intense immersion into the life of the unconventional Miller family; think David Sedaris times four. All these writers—in fact all but one of the prose writers in this volume—are new to me. It’s a pleasure to make their acquaintance and, now, to watch for more of their work.

I’ve already googled featured writer Don Lago and read two more of his fabulous essays, one about the anthropologist-writer Loren Eiseley and the other about deaf astronomers.

There’s much more to love in this latest from AQR, including eight short stories (three by Native Americans) and the work of 30 poets. Former Alaskan Elizabeth Bradfield gives us three poems, all of them representing her connection to the sea, and Susanna Mishler, of Anchorage, makes the familiar new in “Afterlife: Without Apples.” But my favorite among the poems may be Donald Platt’s “Man on the Dump,” a longish meditation on a photo of a dead Iraqi man.

There’s nothing provincial about this or any other issue of AQR; it brings us the world in variations of experience, thought, and form—which is, perhaps, what’s most Alaskan about it: an openness to the new, the fresh, the experimental, the risky, the oddball surprise. Alaska is a place for invention and reinvention. (Just look at our politics.) It makes sense that our collective literary aesthetic embraces the same possibilities and questions of creation and identity, regardless of the origins of writers or the particulars of their stories.

Look for the new AQR at bookstores, or order a copy (or better yet, a subscription!) .

Publishing for Alaskan Dummies: A Guest Post by Don Rearden

While cleaning out the back bedroom last spring in preparation for the hoard of visitors we would be hosting, I came across a book I must have purchased when I was feeling like a complete dummy or idiot. The title included one of the latter, followed by the words “Guide to Getting Published. “ There I was, just half a year from the release date of my first novel and I hadn’t even cracked the spine of this obviously important book. What an idiot! If there was any hope for my writing career, I needed to get reading immediately!


So I sat right down (a couple months later, after the summer guests departed, of course) and flipped through the book with amusement. To be honest the thing lacked a coherent plot and real characters, but it did have neat little illustrations, so I kept reading.

The first half was all about crafting a “hot book idea.” I know what you’re thinking --- I admit, I was excited too --- but there wasn’t even the slightest suggestion of sex. So I leafed my way through the text, looking for things that I should have known, or things that might have gotten me published in the US, since my novel will only be available in Canada. (I know what you’re thinking. I sound like that kid in junior high who claimed he really did have a girlfriend, only she lived in Canada. Well, this girlfriend is real, and I just happen to love her, so lay off.)

Midway through the book I hit upon the stuff that mattered, such as “Proper Care and Feeding of Your Editor.” I read this title and my heart stopped with the suddenness of a clichéd knife hitting the bottom of a butter plate. My editor lives in Toronto. I’d only exchanged emails! I’d never met her, let alone fed her! I needed a common sense Alaskan solution and quick! The answer was obvious. Send salmon. Then I looked into how much it cost to actually send salmon to Canada. (An equation more complicated than the numbers and percentages in my publishing contract.) But don’t worry -- I came up with a suitable salmon substitute. To be honest though, I haven’t heard if she appreciated the emailed photo of the fish.

****WARNING SPOILER ALERT****

Sadly, the book lacked as much of a climax as it did a plot. So much for hot book ideas. By the end I mostly learned about all the ways I’d goofed up the whole publishing process. I was Monday night quarterbacking, old school Alaskan style, complete with the delay, where the Monday night game is over in the real world, and back here in Alaska people are still cheering and betting. Had I read the book in time there might have been hope. I could have followed the “quick and easy guidance,” could have used the “expert advice,” and I might have even landed a US publisher by “creating sensational ideas.”

I closed the book and felt like a complete idiot and/or dummy.

BIO: Don Rearden doesn’t really have a girlfriend in Canada.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

First, a big thanks to those of you who are using a small part of your PFD checks to support 49 Writers by joining and donating.We appreciate your support of programs that benefits Alaska’s writers and books. While we’re on the subject of support, we’re enjoying a great response to our book bag fundraiser. If you have autographed books or literary services to donate, please email us. Book bags go on sale Nov. 11.

A big week as well, as we wrap up a hugely successful yard sale with thanks to a great team of workers and to Jana Latham at Arctic Rose Gallery, who donated boutique clothing and shoes – the remainder are now on consignment at The Closeline. The yard sale proceeds exceeded our expectations, and even as our first week of classes got underway, we’re looking ahead to our move to 645 W. 3rd Avenue on Nov. 1.

Speaking of classes, the first two are now closed, but we have great options ahead. On Oct. 16, expand your creative potential in Sandy Kleven’s one-day workshop Working the Edge: A Guide to Creative Risk-taking. On Oct. 23 and 30, Deb will help you infuse new life into old projects with Revision Intensive. And come November, we’ve got David Marusek’s Flash Fiction, along with Dana Stabenow’s Promoting Your Book in Your Pajamas. December brings Deb’s Crash Course: Characters and Cindy Dyson’s gift to us Writer v. Grinch: The Fine Art of Micro-Editing.  Did we mention investing some of your PFD in yourself and your writing? Or that writing instruction makes for great holiday gifts?

Looking for something totally free? We’ve got a few slots left for our 49 Writers Benefit Book and Tea Talk Sunday, Oct. 17 from 2- 4 p.m. at 415 L St. Alaska tea matron Marge Arnold plans to share the history of tea and methods of brewing. While we sample fourteen different blends, we’ll hear from Sara Juday, Wayne Mergler, Carol Sturgelewski, and Rachel Epstein about their favorite Alaskan books. Of course we’ll be happy to take your donations. Spread the word to bookies and book groups – we’d love to make new friends at the event. Email to hold a spot.

We’re looking for a few great volunteers: “posters” responsible for hanging flyers in their part of Anchorage; facility staff to help with the move-in and upkeep at 645 W. 3rd Ave. (nothing like all that work at 415 L!); a numbers person with 5 hours a week to devote to our bookkeeping; and volunteers to join the great people already at work on our fundraising team (especially with that fun book bag fundraiser looming). Email if you’d like to help with any of these projects.

Peggy Shumaker has been announced as the new Alaska State Writer Laureate for the 2010-2012 term. See Dermot Cole's article at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Andromeda's post here earlier this week.

Don’t Blink One-Page Play Marathon is going up on October 9 & 10 at 7:00 p.m. at Grant Hall. The evening will feature 30 performances of tiny plays by Alaskans and writers from across the country. The Alaskans in the line-up this year include Clif Bates, Paul Brynner, Ryan Buen, Fawn R. Caparas, Matthew S. Fosberg, Steven Hunt, Arlitia Jones, Kyra Meyer, P. Shane Mitchell, Dawson Moore, Tom Moran, Mollie Ramos, and Billy Wilder. Admission $12. More info: Dawson Moore, Prince William Sound Community College, (907) 255-5325 or (907) 834-1614.

On Wed, Oct 13, 4:00pm, at the UAA Anchorage Campus Bookstore Steve Kahn discusses his book, The Hard Way Home: Alaska Stories of Adventure, Friendship, and the Hunt. Everyone is invited to attend this presentation and uncover the uniqueness in living here. This event is free, open to the public, with free parking. For more information contact Rachel Epstein at (907) 786-4782.

WritingRaw.com are currently looking for Halloween related material for their October 15 issue. So, let the dark side in you take over… send your Halloween related submissions – short stories, poetry, essays, etc – to weeb@writingraw.com. Stop in at www.WritingRaw.com today and discover a new and emerging voice.

UAA Professor Jo-Ann Mapson’s Solomon’s Oak (Bloomsbury), will be on sale NEXT WEEK (including Target Stores nationwide). On October 12th, look for an interview with her on Caroline Leavitt's blog.

Blue Hour Press has published a long poem by 49-Writers board member Jeremy Pataky as a digital chapbook called Fata Morgana, accessible here.

Good news for those of you who already have a stake in the National Gallery of Writing beginning this year individuals may submit more than one piece of writing per gallery! Do tell your friends and colleagues and encourage them to join you. The National Gallery of Writing now boasts over 24,000 pieces of writing housed in over 2,500 partner and local galleries. While this first year accomplishment was worthy of the Association’s Advance America Award, the Gallery is looking to double its content by October 20, the second National Day on Writing. Resources include: Association’s Advance America Award, The National Gallery of Writing, Start a Local Gallery.

Read a new interview with UAA's new associate faculty member, Carolyn Turgeon titled, “You Will Believe,” on UAA's CWLA website, under the heading LITERARY CAFÉ.

A follow-up to the notice about the radio program Kids These Days! in last Friday's roundup. They are looking for contributors and are able to offer a small sum of $50 for personal commentary/essays. They would like to include more voices and points of view on all childhood/parenthood-related topics on the show. Some upcoming topics through the end of the year that could be perfect for an essayist to address are:
"The Family Vacation"
"Raising a Family in the Digital Age"
"Grandparents These Days" - what does modern-day grandparenthood look like?
"Family Nutrition" - what I feed my kids for dinner, how I get my picky kids to eat, how I deal with my overweight child's hunger.
"The Pediatric Mental Health Care Crisis in AK" - or, the lack of providers available in the state.
Contact the producer, Sarah Gonzales with submissions by email or phone - cell: 907-315-0006 or show: 888-KTD-RADIO

Congratulations to Paula Bryner - 49 Writers volunteer and First Friday co-ordinator, for winning the 200 word Very Short Story contest for the week of 9/20 on Twitter. You can read the piece over at her blog.

Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University is accepting submissions for the 2011 Colorado Prize for Poetry from October 1 through January 14, 2011. This year’s final judge is Cole Swensen. The prize is given annually for an outstanding book-length collection of poems.  The winner will be awarded a $1,500 honorarium and his or her book will be published by the Center. Anyone may submit (with the exception of friends and students of the judge and CSU students, alumni, and employees). The $25 entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Colorado Review. For complete guidelines, please go to the prize's website or call 970-491-5449.

Elizabeth Bradfield, founder and editor-in-chief of Broadsided Press is excited to announce a writing contest. It's a writing contest, it's a collaborative grab-bag, it's a panoply of voices and visions.... it's the Haiku Year-In-Review. To celebrate, examine, and honor the coming of 2011, Broadsided Press would like to publish your haiku addressing the events of 2010 alongside visual work by Broadsided artists. See their website for a full explanation and guidelines. Deadline for haiku submissions: November 1, 2010. December 5, 2010, they will post the five best haiku for each season online, along with the art created by the four artists. You will have a chance to vote for the haiku that best fits the art for each season. Deadline for voting: December 20, 2010.

Alaska Writers Guild member, Elizabeth Tower, passed away at her home on September 27. She had written more that seven books including Icebound Empire which received the Alaska Historical Society's 1996 Historian of the Year award. Her online obituary.