Andromeda: Write-a-thon report, plus a caffeinated poetry contest to inspire

They're neck and neck, separated by a mere penny: Dawnell Smith has raised $364.62 for 49 Writers via her Raven Write-a-thon pledge sheet, and Kirsten Dixon has raised $364.61. Bill Sherwonit is close behind and closing the gap at $359.61, much to his own surprise, because he was one of many who wasn't sure that raising pledges would be this easy.

They're doing it because they support 49 Writers, not to win anything (though the top winner will receive a donated prize, thanks to our sponsors), but it's fun to acknowledge that all three of these great writers and all-around community supporters have been known to express the competitive urge on occasion. Dawnell is a fearless Rage City rollerderby rookie, Kirsten has competed in "iron chef" competitions and managed to feed hordes of Iditarod mushers without breaking a sweat, and Bill was once an aggressive sportswriter, now mellowed into a nature writer who still enjoys the occasional journalistic spar (article today on wolf control in the Anchorage Press).

We wish them all the best and thank them for their efforts -- as we thank the amazing 26 pledge-raisers in total who have help us reach 89% of our goal. You can find them all using the links at right, and help us jostle up this little competition, which also includes teams. (Top teams at this moment: Wild Writers, Fiction Workshop, and Stirring Words.)

Would you like to join us? One week is plenty of time. As most of us have found, it's as simple as registering online, posting a notice on Facebook or sending out a single email to friends.

NEXT QUESTION: If you come to Snow City, or set aside 4.9 hours next week for your own private write-a-thon, what will you write? Of course, you could work on a serious ongoing project. But if you'd like to try something new in the spirit of national poetry month, you should know about a poetry contest sponsored for the very first time by Raven's Brew Coffee, the brand that is well-known for its great Ray Troll logos as well as its strong support of literary events. (They sponsored Heather Lende's book tour and they donate coffee and merchandise to 49 Writers events as well!) They're looking for "poetry that illuminates coffee" and they may end up using some of these poems on future merchandise. Raven's Brew is headquarted in WA with lots of coffee sold in AK. Who better than our readers to stun them with some raven-inspired, caffeinated poetry? Three of our 49 Writers volunteers will be helping to judge the contest with Raven's Brew staff. Link here with flyer and details. Deadline is April 18.

Prescott: Uppity-Downity -- The Art of of Flash Writing Sessions

A few weeks ago we announced the launch of the Raven Write-a-thon (event April 8, registration still open with plenty of time to get involved via links at right) and we asked blog readers to send posts about how they stay in the chair and get the writing done. Vivian Faith Prescott of Alaska and Puerto Rico sent this inspiring post. It's not only about cookies and writing, it's about building community wherever you are.

Every week, I bake a batch of cookies for my teen writers group. I'm mentoring five teenagers. We meet every Monday for one hour after school. The first day, I baked cookies for them; after that they expected cookies every week. Cookies and writing became our 'thing.' Funny, though, I inadvertently discovered that writing and baking cookies go hand in hand. It literally keeps my butt in-and-out of the chair.

Baking cookies keeps me writing? Well, it helps that my office is in the living room and the kitchen is within running distance when the oven timer goes off. It's kind of the reverse Ron Carlson advice combined with flash sessions; something like speed dating.

First, mix the cookies and while you're doing that have your writing plan mulling over in your mind, like the short story idea that's been in your notebook all week. Put the cookies in the oven and set the timer for twelve minutes and head to the computer.

Now you have twelve glorious minutes to write. So write. It's amazing what can be done in twelve minutes. But then the timer goes off and you have to stop, even though you don't want to, even though you were mid-thought or mid-sentence. Head to the kitchen and take the cookies out of the oven. Of course the cookies have to cool before you slide them off the tray so here's where you get an additional fifteen minutes of writing. Set the timer for cooling and then head back to the computer. You get the picture. Write for fifteen minutes and when the timer goes off head back and take the cookies off sheet. Repeat write-cookies-write-cookies until the batch is done.

Now you have to figure out what to do with the cookies. Maybe, like me, you can become a mentor. It doesn't take renting a building or even a lot of time. It takes some cookies, enthusiasm, and a bit of word-of-mouth. I started with one interested teenager who asked me about starting a group for teens since she wasn't old enough to join my adult writers group. I said that if she found two other teens and came up with a day and time that worked for all of them, then I'd do it. Within a week, the teen had organized a small group. Word got around and soon I had two others who joined. Though I opened my home, I'm sure there are free places you can meet. Keep in mind, though, that teens are soooo full of energy so keep your mentoring group small. And have your notebook ready and your pencil sharp because not only are you mentoring them, they will fill your head with ideas and you'll come away remembering what it was like to be young. It's intoxicating, really. Oh, yeah, and have cookies on the table, too.

And it all starts with cookies; baking cookies keeps your butt uppity-downity in flash writing sessions. It's amazing what the muse can do under pressure and the promise of a chewy chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven.

National Poetry Month Begins Friday: A Guest Post by John Morgan

You catch a whiff of something on the border of consciousness. A phrase floats into your head and you recognize the voice. A fly buzzes at the windowsill; you wonder what it thinks it’s doing. Usually we dismiss such occurrences. They seem to have no practical use. But the suspicion lingers that these events may be trying to tell us something, to point out a meaning that, in the course of our busy lives, we’ve been too distracted to face. Everyone has such moments, but what do you do with them? What do you make from them? What purpose can they serve?

Robert Frost called the poem, “A momentary stay against confusion,” and the poet Greg Orr explains: “We are creatures whose volatile inner lives are both mysterious to us and beyond our control. How to respond to the unpredictability of our own emotional being? One important answer is the personal lyric, the poem dramatizing inner and outer experience.”

In other words, poetry gives form to our feelings and helps us come to terms with them. Facing the emotions of a personal crisis, a poem can be the beginning of healing. The crisis may be small or massive—a cut finger or a child in a coma—but in either case poetry is one possible response. The widespread rediscovery of poetry after 9/11 illustrates this point.

But if poetry is good in a crisis, it’s also a way of reaching out for new experiences and renewing our lives. Poems place themselves between the world of dream and what we might think of as the prose of reality. Using metaphor, seductive sound and fantastic narrative, poems can evoke mysterious states. When I’m working on a draft, it’s this feeling of otherworldliness, no matter how ordinary the subject, that tells me I may have a poem going.

But how do you recognize a poem, when you sense one buzzing around the room? Well, of course there’s not just one way to go at poems. A phrase pops into your head, or a rhythm, a mental image, a smell, or sound. Things are always floating into our heads. Usually we brush them aside, but maybe there’s a poem there. Even that fly on the windowsill—as in Emily Dickinson’s disturbing and wonderful poem, “I heard a fly buzz when I died…”

It’s my contention that poems are happening all the time. In a quiet moment, you can cultivate one. I sometimes go out to a spot overlooking the Tanana River and just sit and wait. Soon I’m noticing things that hadn’t been apparent at first. And what I see draws new thoughts to mind that I’d been too busy to notice. I step back and start taking mental notes on what I’m seeing, hearing, thinking, and as often as not these things begin working themselves into a poem. Here’s an example:



ABOVE THE TANANA: APRIL

for the New Rochelle High Class of '61

A crane, in snow showers, drifts above the river
where, this morning, two jet fighters buzzed

the flats. I look for other signs of life.
A scrap of blue-green color on the ground

turns out to be the wrapper of a half-inch
firecracker. Did Jeffrey—ten next Thursday—

set it off? Last fall (as thought steps back)
at our 25th reunion, Molly, now a writer of romances

seemed old in flashy make-up and long lashes.
We danced in the 9th grade to Buddy Holly

holding close, and once, in nursery school
as I recall, we shed our underpants

to have a look. Now 'Muzzy' (John Mazzulo)
is a medical professor, adamantly gay.

And most bizarre—John Seaman, our
annual class president, still "a real

nice guy", has made himself a star
in porno flicks. But look at me. With hair

down to my shoulders, back east from far
Alaska and a poet—I'm one of the exotics

of the class. We sat on the grass beside
the whitewashed Tom Paine Cottage—kept

as it was by those radical D.A.R.s—and talked
about the ones who weren't there. Steph,

my hopeless crush in the third grade,
dead of a brutal tumor these ten years,

and Andy Miller, 6-2 white point-guard, who
turned to drugs and dealing, and got blown away.

I said we'd put on masks: balding, gray,
and wrinkled "monster" versions of ourselves.

And now banning that thought, knitting
my brows, I spot a spider netting two

spruce bows. What's near at hand grows deeper
in the evening light. Beyond her web

the mountains darken under storms. A crescent moon
flies suddenly among the splotchy clouds. The river's

mud-green current swells under thinning ice.

Most poems don’t give their full meaning away easily. It can take a week or a month to bring one to completion. I spend some time every day working on a draft, and this daily contact is renewing, as the poem grows and shapes itself. In the course of revision I’m learning from the poem what it really wants to say.

And along with writing poems, I read them. If reading poetry seems hard at first, it’s probably because you’re out of practice. Like anything else, it gets easier the more you do it. Find an anthology and check out some old favorites. Then read around in the book and see if you can make new discoveries. When you find a poet you like, check in the library for a collection of his or her work.

For some, poetry expresses itself through dance or music, but in its root form, of course it’s language. Language that dances. Language that sings. Poems remind us, consciously or not, of our first burblings and vocalizations and the pleasure they gave us as infants. Then came nursery rhymes and the jingles of jump rope and hopscotch. As we grow up, we ask other things from poems, but we should never forget that first sensory intoxication.

That’s why, even when it shocks us or brings us close to tears, one underlying theme of every good poem is a celebration of human experience.

Fairbanks poet John Morgan studied with Robert Lowell at Harvard, where he won the Hatch Prize for Lyric Poetry. He was awarded the Academy of American Poets’ Prize at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop and served for many years as director of the creative writing program at UAF. He has published four books of poetry as well as four chapbooks and his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, The Alaska Quarterly Review, and many other journals, as well as in more than twenty magazines. Morgan has won the Discovery Award of the New York Poetry Center, a Rasmuson Fellowship and two writing fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts. Last June, he was selected as the first Writer-in-Residence at Denali National Park.


Morgan will teach a three-hour class “A Formal Feeling: Getting Started in Poetry” in Anchorage on Saturday, April 16 from 1-4 p.m. at the 49 Alaska Writing Center, 645 W. 3rd Ave; registration is at www.49writingcenter.org. That evening at 7 p.m., Morgan will read with poet Kelsea Habecker at the MTS Gallery, 3142 Mountain View Drive, in a free 49 Writers Synergies-Still North public event “Land Beyond Landscape: Honoring Alaskan Poetry” which also includes a video documentary-in-progress featuring the late poet John Haines.

How far would you go for a story?: A Guest Post by Karen Benning

On Friday April 1, New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean joins Julia O'Malley in a literary conversation, "To Tell the Truth: Writing People and Place." The second in our CROSSCURRENTS series, the onstage discussion will be at 7 pm in the Anchorage Museum at Rasumson Auditorium, followed by a book signing. The event is free to 49 Writers members and Anchorage Museum members; for others, a $5 donation is suggested.  Many thanks to our event co-sponsors:  the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Bookstore, the Alaska Travel Industry Association, and the Copper Whale Inn.

Orlean is in Anchorage to keynote the Alaska Press Club Conference. All workshops are open to the public for a $15 per workshop drop-in fee. Kim Severson's food writing and feature writing workshops might be of particular interest to our readers

An unabashed fan of Orlean's work, local writer Karen Benning is our volunteer coordinator for this event. She is also one of the Directors on the 49 Writers Board.

Perhaps I am wrong about this, but I have a theory that most people, faced with a man who had run-ins with the law, was missing his front teeth, and said things to a judge like, “Frankly, your honor, I’m probably the smartest person I know,” might not go out of their way to spend time with said man. Maybe they would cross the street to avoid him. Most people would not travel across several states to track him down and then decide to spend two years of their lives hanging out with him. But that’s the kind of decision that sets Susan Orlean apart from most people, and even most writers.

Orlean saw in John Laroche, a dreamer with schemes of huge proportions and low returns, a great story. She was right. The Orchid Thief is a strange and often surreal, yet true story. In it, Orlean ventures into an entire subculture dedicated to, of all things, a type of flower.

Early in The Orchid Thief, Orlean writes, “I wanted to want something as much as these people wanted these plants, but it isn’t part of my constitution…. I suppose I do have one unembarrassing passion – I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately.” One only has to follow her into Florida’s alligator-infested swamps or along on a trip in John Laroche’s van (“I kept my eyes glued to the road because I thought it would be best if at least one of us did”) to deduce that Orlean must care about at least one thing passionately: stories of real places and real people, but more than that, the deeper stories most of us miss. Orlean always manages to find, in the many pieces she has written for The New Yorker and other national publications, the strange in the mundane, the unique story underneath the everyday life.

Her collection The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup illustrates part of what makes Susan Orlean a great nonfiction writer: her ability to reveal the multi-layered aspects of a fellow human, including the less likeable characteristics, without ever coming off as judgmental or poking fun. Reading her profiles, you can get with the sense that if Susan Orlean were to call you a loser, you’d probably smile, thank her, and come away feeling like she had paid you a compliment.

In one piece in Bullfighter, a mini-profile called “Nonstop” about Peter Benfaremo, the self-proclaimed Lemon Ice King of Corona, she finds a way to convey the kind of personality who never lets you get a word in edgewise. She does this by removing the narrator’s voice completely. The entire piece is in the subject’s directly quoted words, taking “Show, don’t tell” to an entirely new level for nonfiction. The effect is stunning. It is as if she has eliminated the need for a narrator by crawling inside the mind of her subject.

Which brings me back to The Orchid Thief. Often, it does feel like the reader is being taken along for a weird ride in John Laroche’s obsessed, quirky, yet oddly fascinating brain. It took a commitment of two years hanging out with Laroche to fully develop that story, which, as it turns out, is so much more than a tale of flowers and the people who love them. Perhaps nothing says it better than the book’s subtitle: “A Tale of Beauty and Obsession.” And who better to dig into the subject of obsession than a writer?

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

April is bursting with events, from our April 1st Crosscurrents event (only a week away) with Susan Orlean of Orchid Thief fame: "To Tell the Truth: Writing People and Place", at the Anchorage Museum at 7 pm; to our April 16th poetry event in the Synergies Series: "Land Beyond Landscape" with poets John Morgan and Kelsea Habecker, as well as a documentary tribute to John Haines, at MTS Gallery at 7 pm. All the details on our website.

The Raven Write-a-thon is approaching fast and participants outside of Anchorage have been signing up. If any Homer readers are interested in getting together for a satellite write-a-thon, feel free to email Ela directly.

April courses still have some space as well: Beginnings: A Workshop (starts April 2nd), and a poetry class perfect for National Poetry Month, A Formal Feeling (April 16th).

For those eager to get away, registration is also open for our Tutka Bay retreat with Dani Shapiro, September 2-5th. Half-full now; don't delay!

Tonight, Friday March 25th, at 7.30pm, Buddy Wakefield and Gaby Moreno feature at UAA, Arts 150.

Buddy Wakefield is the two-time Individual World Poetry Champion who has been featured on NPR, the BBC, HBO's Def Poetry Jam, and most recently signed to Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records.  Emmy nominated, Gaby Moreno is immensely talented with a guitar and gifted with a soulful voice beyond her years mixing Spanish and English vocals. Gaby's songs have been played on MTV's "The Hills", NBC's "Parks and Recreation," and ABC's "Off the Map". General Admission: $10.00 in advance, or $15.00 at the door.

Former Alaska Poet Laureate and one of Alaska's finest writers, John Haines passed away on March 2, 2011, at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.  The public is invited to A Tribute to John Haines, which will be held in Fairbanks this weekend: Saturday March 26, 4pm; Unitarian Fellowship, 4448 Pike's Landing Road.Please bring a potluck dish to share.

Rilke's Duino Elegies Discussion Group meets again on Sunday March 20th, at 2:30pm. Fireside Books, 720 S Alaska St., Palmer. They're reading Stephen Mitchell's translation.

On Monday March 28 from 1:00pm-2:30pm at the UAA Campus Bookstore, Sam Kean presents Love, Bubbles, Bombs, Money, Poison, Crime, and even Science: The Hidden Tales of the Periodic Table.

Sponsored by Complex Systems Summary:Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? Why did the Japanese kill  Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? Why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? The periodic table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it's also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The tales in Sam Kean's best-selling book, The Disappearing Spoon, follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold, and every single element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, medicine, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.

Later on Monday March 28th at the UAA Campus Bookstore, from 5-7pm, Michelle Scaman will speak on Dream Sharing and the Social Construction of Reality.

On Monday, March 28th, at 7:30pm, at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3611 Providence, Anchorage, Dr. Mike Brown, author of "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming," will give a free public lecture. Brown is the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. Among his numerous scientific accomplishments, he is best known for his discovery of Eris, the largest object found in the solar system in 150 years, and the object which led to the debate and eventual demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. 

On Monday March 28th, at 6.30pm, there will be a reading and signing at Hearthside Books and Toys, Nugget Mall, 254 Front Street, Juneau, by Cara Lopez Lee, author of the memoir They Only Eat Their Husbands. Cara is the creator of Girls Trek Too, a blog, group, and workshop dedicated to inspiring women to approach life as an adventure. 

Author Lael Morgan is in Anchorage for the book launch of Eskimo Star: the Ray Mala Story, which will take plane on Tuesday, March 29th at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.  Along with booksignings, clips will be shown from several Ray Mala films. The new biography from Epicenter Press tells the story of Ray Mala, an Inupiat from Candle, Alaska, who in 1933 at the age of 27 became the first non-white actor to play a leading role in a Hollywood film.  He became a matinee idol after the release of Eskimo from MGM, the first major studio film made in Alaska.

The Alaska Press Club conference will take place March 31st to April 2nd. The conference schedule at this link includes this event, free and open to the public: a Sunday, April 3rd book signing (Barnes and Noble, 2 pm) with food writer extraordinaire Kim Severson. 

On April 2 from 11:30 - 1:30 p.m., Don Rearden will be at Fireside Books, 720 S. Alaska Street, in Palmer to read from and sign copies of his newly released novel The Raven's Gift.

A special exhibit titled “Wrangellia: The Art of Breakup,” , a WMC benefit, will take place at the MTS Gallery in Anchorage on April 15th (third Friday). A new series of artwork by photographer Sarah Davies will be featured, along with work from many of Alaska’s outstanding visual artists and craft artists. 

Next month's Poetry Parley (third Wednesday of the month) will be celebrating the poetry of John Haines: readers are needed! Please contact Jonathan Minton if you are interested. The featured local poet will be Elizabeth Thompson.

The Alaska State Council on the Arts deadline for the Artist in School Grants is coming up on April 15th. Career development grant deadline is coming up on June 1st. To apply, go to http://alaska.cgweb.org/

The Island Institute's Residency Fellows Program provides opportunities for at least four writers to each spend a month in Sitka, Alaska, pursuing their own work and getting to know this unique island community in the forested costal mountains of Southeast Alaska. The application deadline is April 15, 2011 for positions in September 2011 and January and April 2012. Please visit http://www.islandinstitutealaska.org.

The Anchorage School District Language Arts Department is compiling a database of authors who are willing to work with young writers in their classrooms.  Please visit this website to become part of the database.

The Hope Community Library is celebrating its 25th anniversary the first Saturday in June!  We are inviting authors to come help the community to celebrate this memorable occasion by bringing your books and participating in a book signing event to be held at the library on Saturday, June 4th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (You are, of course, welcome to sell your books, too!)  In addition to the book signing event, the library plans to have arts and crafts for sale, a silent auction, food and music and clogging throughout the day.

The Hope Community Library is housed in one of the last remaining territorial schools still standing in Alaska.   Please come join the community of Hope in celebrating this event. To confirm your attendance please either email Sharon White Wheeler by May 15th or contact librarian Susan Anderson at 782-3311.

Ivey: The Turkish Delight of the Writing Life

Books on writing are dangerous things. They hold a small but powerful trap hidden in their pages – the illusion that I am furthering my writing without having to come up with a single word.

The bait is doubly seductive. There is the promise of becoming a better writer. And it’s wrapped in the writer’s equivalent of Turkish delight – a book. I am weak. In the walk-in closet I converted into my office, my shelves bow under the weight of writing books, and I know I’m not alone. I recently talked with a woman who confessed that while she was still somewhat fearful of putting pen to paper, she had her own lovely collection of books about how to do it.

But we should not be entirely ashamed. Writing books have their place. Books like The Artist’s Way and Wild Minds helped me realized I really did want to write fiction. Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life and E.M Forster’s Aspects of the Novel helped me to take my efforts more seriously. I’ve read everything from the inspirational to the academic, books on grammar, literary criticism, structure and form, and the literary life. And I keep them all on the shelf.
But a few I keep closer, within an arm’s length of my keyboard.

Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. If I could only have one book in the world, this would be it. I can’t begin to describe what a heavenly book this is. Words fail me.

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, two volumes. I covet the real, 20-volumne OED, but without the money or space, I’m incredibly grateful for this shorter edition. It even came with a DVD that enabled me to download it onto my computer.

Love Medicine, Beloved, The Shipping News, Cold Mountain. These are a few of my very favorite novels, but when I open them to random pages I am reminded that there is no pixie dust sprinkled on their pages -- they are just made up of words. Even Toni Morrison and Louise Erdrich have to occasionally write something as mundane as “she said.”

The Practice of Poetry, edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell. As a novelist and former journalist, I lean toward the linear, the logical. The exercises in this book have led me to surprising creative places. And the truth is, while my favorite novelists sometimes use mundane words, it is rare. They write like poets -- every word counts.

Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass. Usually I’m not big on the “formula for success,” but this one very succinctly and convincingly looks at why readers care about certain characters, how plots pull them in, and why universal themes can add depth. It then gives concrete advice on how to achieve these goals. Maybe it should have all been obvious to me without this book, but no such luck.

On Writing, Stephen King. This is almost embarrassing to mention because it has become so ubiquitous, just like all of King’s writing. Is there any aspiring novelist out there who hasn’t read it yet? I own it both in paperback and audio, with King reading it himself. A gritty, funny, incredible reminder of the realities of doing what you love.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Rennie Browne and Dave King. A very practical, fiction-specific handbook. I took several of their points and combed through my novel with them in mind. The changes, I think, definitely improved the manuscript.

Making a Literary Life, Carolyn See. This is one of my newest favorites. Among other great advice, she says that every day, five days a week for the rest of your life, you should send a note of gratitude to an author. I haven’t been that diligent, but on her urging, I reached out to a few of my favorite writers and told them “Thank you.” Including Carolyn See herself, who emailed me back! We’ve written to each other a few times now, and I am incredibly grateful for her encouragement.

These are just a few of my favorites, but I’m sure I could squeeze a few more into my office. Any suggestions?

Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel THE SNOW CHILD is set to be published next winter by Little, Brown & Co. She is a bookseller at Fireside Books in Palmer.

Rachel Epstein remembers John Haines

I would like to share something with you about my relationship with John Haines. This is not a simple matter given the intimate sides of friendship and the private/public lives we all live. It is only a poor attempt.

I think it was in 1995 that I attended a poetry reading at Borders Books featuring John Haines. A tall, elegant looking man approached the entrance door the same time I did. He opened the first door and I opened the second. With a subtle nod and grin, he thanked me.

Fourteen years later, I am waiting for the same man to appear at the Anchorage airport. I had invited John to speak at the Alaska Writer Laureates event at the UAA Campus Bookstore. After checking each passenger arriving from Fairbanks—those with backpacks, strollers, wheelchairs, alone—I saw no sign of John. I asked a security guard to page him. She suggested I go to baggage claims to make an announcement. Down the escalator there was a small man with a cane in a wheelchair. An airline attendant was with him, looking around. John. When I approached, he asked me why I had not waited for him at the exit…

Once we were in the car things got better. We started to talk. John asked me about my family and I asked him about his family. He said I reminded him of a colleague from New York and then somehow mentioned Rosa Luxemburg, a Polish Jew murdered for her political views during the commencement of the Weimar Republic. From that moment our friendship was cemented and my life changed.

From April 2009 until February 2011, every other week like clockwork, John and I exchanged cards/letters. Each tidbit was a little treatise on love. John had much to say about literature, poetry, social history, women, teaching, students, academia, 9-11, homelessness, and writers he respected. We shared different views and similar views. John was especially fascinated with the life of Irene Nemirovsky and her book Suite Francaise.

John spoke two more times at the UAA Campus Bookstore: “Tea and Conversation with John Haines” and at “Rosa Luxemburg Remembered: A Panel Discussion”. Here is John’s reading from that event.

In Memory: Rosa Luxemburg, 1871-1919

Dear Rosa, I want to say: Come back, we need you now. We know you are gone, have been for near a century.Yet you are here, have been and will be, for those of us who read, who listen and remember. We need your thought, your love, your unfailing memory of events and losses, with no remembered love forsaken.

As you have spoken in a letter to a friend: “Oh, this ‘sublime silence of eternity’ in which so many screams have faded away unheard. It rings within me so strongly that I have no special corner of my heart reserved for the ghosts. I am at home wherever in the world there are clouds, birds, and human tears.” (Letter to Mathilde Wurm)

Towards the end, like a relentless plague, John’s financial torments, declining health, loss of senses, and pain became overwhelming. Age caught up with him and there was little he could do to manage it. He died on March 2, 2011 in a hospital in Fairbanks with friends nearby.
John Haines came from and returned to Alaska many times during his lifetime. He valued friendship and a place that felt welcoming. Those who knew him and experienced his generosity, outspoken manner, fragile make-up, and kindness, sense the magnitude of consciousness in his work and can ponder John’s legacy. It is a legacy yet to be determined. For those who are unforgiving, who are drowning in the youth of Winter News, who are still scarred by John’s bluntness, I can only offer you John in his own words: “Ah, what the hell”; and “Love, always”.

New Beginnings: A Guest Post by Marybeth Holleman

Marybeth Holleman is author of Heart of the Sound and co-editor of Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment. Her essays, articles, and poems have been published in a wide range of journals, magazines, and anthologies. She has taught creative writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and has led intensive writing workshops across the state.  Her 49 Writers course, "Beginnings: A Workshop" begins Saturday, April 2 at 1 p.m.

What can I say in this first line that will entice you, dear Reader, to keep reading this post? That's the question we'll be exploring in the class "Beginnings" which runs two Saturdays, April 2 and 9, from 1 to 4 pm.

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in India. This morning I walked with cows on Om Beach. Today we fly to Jaipur to ride elephants up to the Amber Fort, and later we'll travel to a wildlife reserve to search for tigers. Yet telling you this does nothing for a story. If I were to write about this trip, how would I begin?

We writers feel our good stories inside us, and it's often disheartening to learn that no, this or that journal or publisher is not interested. Most of the time it's not the story, it's the writing; it's that first line or paragraph that either makes or breaks it. What can we learn about how to begin our stories so that their greatness is revealed?

We all were taught, when we composed our first resume, that most employers rarely get beyond the first page. This is true of publishers and agents as well. I once had a writing teacher who said writers often back into their stories, so in revision he had us consider cutting the first two pages of every draft.

We all know some great first lines by heart: "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times" We know one when we read one. So let's take a close look at some, let's practice them together. Let's get our stories read beyond the first line.

Mariah Oxford interviews Sean Schubert: Infection

Sean Schubert has just published the first of a planned three-novel series about a horrific disaster in the Anchorage area. Infection details the surprise discovery of a zombie trapped in glacial ice, the horror inflicted on the Anchorage population, and the desperate survival efforts of a group of men, women and children. A graduate of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Schubert lives in Anchorage with his wife and two children.  Our thanks to 49 Writers volunteer Mariah Oxford for the interview.

Infection is a fast-moving novel about a horrific disaster, namely zombies taking over Anchorage. How did the concept come to you?

A few years ago, I read an article in a history magazine about a WWII era fighter-bomber that was lost over the Rockies circa 1945. Several years (decades) later, a group of hikers was traversing a section of the Rockies and came upon what appeared to be fuselage of a plane protruding from receding snow and ice. It was the lost aircraft with its crew still buckled into their seats and largely preserved. That became the genesis for part of the story, but the other big piece came after I started to think about how Anchorage residents would fare if the city were to experience a massive natural disaster. There are only two ways, by road, out of Anchorage. If those two routes are pinched, Anchorage doesn't offer many alternatives other than air or boat, which would leave many residents without a lot of hope.

I know there are several books out there in the zombie genre. In Infection there is some question about what attracts the zombies and how to defeat them. Is there a uniqueness to your story that will surprise avid readers of this genre?

There are two major departures from the typical "Romero" zombie theme. First, in the Romero movies, anyone who died, whether infected or not, would reanimate into a walking corpse. That isn't how I've crafted my story. For me, the undead are coming back due to a change, albeit somewhat supernatural, to their physiology. The infection is just a long dormant bug that has been tragically reintroduced into an unfortunately unprepared population.

The other difference is that my zombies go through the same decaying process as a normal corpse – you know, one that isn't still walking around. So, when the undead body first reanimates, the body's capabilities are far more normal, perhaps even better than normal. The creatures can run and jump and act like any other animalistic predator from the wild. They, however, do not get fatigued or feel any pain, so your average human trying to put some distance between himself and his pursuer is really challenged. As the days pass though, the zombie starts to slow down as its muscles and tissue become desiccated and less functional. They start to actually resemble walking corpses rather than the ravenous and seemingly unstoppable predators they are when first reanimated.

For me, the zombies are very similar to the shark from Jaws. Richard Dreyfuss, playing Hooper, says that the shark is "a perfect machine that only eats and makes little sharks" or something to that effect. That pretty much sums up zombies too. What is more terrifying than the prospect of being eaten alive, bit by bit, especially by someone that you might know?

The other thing about Infection that is somewhat unique is the setting for the novel. The story is a travelogue of sorts of Anchorage. I don't think the Anchorage Convention and Visitor Bureau would be too terribly pleased with what I've done with our fair city, but I had fun nonetheless. Readers have expressed to me that recognizing landmarks and knowing where the action is taking place was very attractive to them.

While zombies probably aren't a realistic disaster for Alaska, there are other scenarios that could cause effects similar to those depicted in your book. As you were writing, did you come to some conclusions about how Anchorage residents could best prepare for an emergency of this magnitude?

That's a great question. George Romero once compared his zombie apocalypse stories with those of any natural disaster. Instead of a giant wave, or a volcano, or a meteor, he dealt in zombies. I think that best sums up my position on the genre. I've always been attracted to those scenarios and those kinds of movies – The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Day After Tomorrow (not necessarily the greatest movie but I liked the story). The reason why I like them so much, just like war movies, is that the story provides a backdrop in which people show their true colors and everything that is good and/or bad in them. Look at the mayhem on the Gulf Coast during the aftermath of the hurricanes recently.

I think it's really a matter of preparation and a willingness to be adaptable. With Costco and Sam's trips, most households are pretty well stocked in the event of most situations. I remember the days of blizzards in the Midwest and my mom and dad contemplating an excursion out to the store for milk. I don't think things are like that anymore for most. The other thing that I think is important is knowing the people around you. It's amazing how many people have never introduced themselves to their next door neighbors. In the time of crisis, cooperating numbers might make all the difference...erecting the barrier to hold the flood at bay, sharing food during a prolonged disconnect, and the notion of safety in numbers.

Certain characters (in fact, lots of people!) die in the story. How did you decide which ones? Did you plot it all out from the beginning, or were there surprises along the way?

Infection evolved very organically. I found myself mapping certain scenes before I would get there and then suddenly the story never led to that moment. Then I had a couple of scenes and nowhere to put them. I often knew that someone was going to meet his or her fate, but wasn't certain who that someone was. When the last character to die in the book did, her death caught me off guard. I hadn't seen that one coming, but as the story unfolded in my head and my fingers struggled to keep up, it just kind of happened. In writing Containment (book 2), you would have thought that I had learned my lesson, but apparently not. I had a definite plan for the path that my characters were to head and then, once again, it didn't work out. In this instance, I worked it out in dialogue between my characters while I made my decision. And, of course, my survivors chose to go a different direction than my first thoughts about the story. It was a challenge, but, in the end, it just made sense.

How do you balance work, activities, life as a dad, and being a writer? What is your writing process?

Balance? What balance? I beg, borrow, and steal time whenever and wherever I can. Kids' soccer practice, short creative breaks at work, rising early mornings on the weekend (unless of course there's a good English Premier Game on Fox Soccer), and the occasional late Friday night. I'm finding myself most fresh and creative in the morning but I'll take what I can get. I just love writing. I always have. As for my process...I tend to write most things out by hand with ink and paper first. At that point, I'm usually just laying out the story. It's more than just an outline, but when I transcribe what I've written onto the computer the finished product is typically very different that what I've originally written. This process can take longer, as you have to account for an extra step, but I also use this step as a first edit.

Tell us about the joint publishing process. How did you find a publisher? Was it straightforward? Challenging? Surprising?

I contacted several literary agencies with no success. "Not taking on new clients." "Not interested in the genre." "No unsolicited manuscripts." A friend I have, who has also written a couple of books but hasn't had any success in publication, mentioned something about joint publishing and a company called Strategic Book Group. I shot them an email and took steps from there. The basic process is not that different from self-publication, but Strategic and its subsidiary, Eloquent, have helped with some initial steps, such as the ISBN, copyrighting, and then some national marketing.

I didn't have to contact or entice Amazon.com. The book just showed up there one day. Eloquent has helped to forge a relationship with Todd Communications, which I hope will help to expand the book's exposure. I don't think I would have been as successful without Eloquent to help with that. So far, I have no complaints. I did, however, read some online complaints about Strategic and several other similar publishing outfits, so I've been somewhat cautious. But, as I said, I've got no complaints. It's been an exciting and, so far, painless experience. Hopefully it's not like the guy who jumped out of the building and onlookers kept hearing him say as he fell, "So far, so good." Regardless, so far, so good.

In talking with you about Containment, you referenced your characters as "my people." Could you talk about the relationship of author to characters, and your personal feelings about some of your characters?

There are some that I love and some that I hate. There are a couple or more that I feel like I've kind of ignored, and then they're suddenly dead. I actually felt guilty about that in one scene in Containment. She was just gone and I got to thinking that she had been an awfully quiet character. I went back and reread some earlier scenes with her to see about perhaps augmenting them or adding her to other scenes, but I chose not to do that. Whether I felt guilty or not, that was just how it was with her.

Maybe that's how it is in real life. Blake Edwards died not too long ago and I sat there reading the CNN post about it lamenting his loss. At the same time though, in the back of my head, I thought that I hadn't watched any of his movies for quite some time and hadn't had even a passing thought about him. And then he was gone. (Of course, that night we watched Revenge of the Pink Panther in his honor.)

Writing this kind of book, or series of books, is a challenge because people are going to die. It's just the nature of things in survival horror. Not everyone is going to make it and that's a fact. The ending of the second book was very emotional for me because a **spoiler alert** major character is infected. And again, it just kind of happened. I wrote the ending and then went back in to change some things but I couldn't change what happened because I think it would have been like trying to change the past. I just had to say good-bye and move on, much like "my people" were forced to do.

Where can we find Infection, and when can we expect the next title in the series?

Infection is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes andnoble.com. In town, it can be found at Bosco's in the Dimond Center and on Spenard, the UAA Bookstore, and at several of the Once in a Blue Moose giftshop/bookstores. It is available in both paperback and Kindle/ePublication varieties.

Containment is done and is being edited at present. With any luck, it will be available late spring/early summer. I've just started writing the third and potentially last book in the series, Mitigation.

Andromeda: Ten reasons to join the Raven Write-a-thon

The Raven Write-a-thon event is April 8, but the month leading up to the event -- that's now! -- is where the fundraising action is. Eleven people have signed up and helped us reach 26% of our goal in the first week. One of our top fundraisers is based in Juneau, not Anchorage, but she's leading the pack! Truly fantastic.

I'm posting on a Saturday to urge you to become a participant. Your top reason for not doing so may be the idea that it's tricky to sign up (click here to start and youll see how easy it is). Or maybe you're thinking it will be tricky to get people to pledge you. Several of us found out, this week, how easy it can be. By posting a link at Facebook, I've received a few pledges from strangers or distant acquaintances-- and now I'm nearly to my personal fundraising goal. How surprising is that? The cause speaks for itself. Sign up, share what you're doing via email, FB, word-of-mouth, or telepathy (well, maybe not that), and then see what happens. It's one of the easiest things you'll do this week to help give our literary community a helpful nudge.

Here are ten additional reasons -- besides the 'easy' (and happy) factor -- to take part:

1. To aid and celebrate your writerly self-discipline. On the event day itself, you'll set aside five hours with your laptop or notepad, no email, no one telling you to the dishes, fellow writers cheering your efforts, community recognition for what you need to do to make the writing happen. Take part in a festive group setting at Snow City café, create your own satellite write-a-thon, or go it alone – but in either case, mark the day and take part.

2. To raise money for 49 Writers and the 49 Alaska Writing Center. Yes, we need money to support our upcoming events, classes, the blog, and more. This is our big April push. If we raise enough, we can spend more of the rest of the year on non-fundraising tasks. Wouldn’t that be great?

3. Because it’s worked elsewhere. In San Diego, the 2nd Annual Blazing Laptops event involved 40 writers and raised $17,000, while fostering a better sense of literary community. Wow.

4. Because some of the money will be going to develop youth programming: a new program called Raven Words, in partnership with the Alaska Writing Consortium. Kids need to write, too; help us make it happen.

5. Because we’ll treat you really well during the event itself. On the menu: bottomless coffee and soda, chevre toasts, Asian chicken skewers with noodles, halibut bites, grilled vegetables.

6. Because we’ll shower you with wonderful prizes each hour: donated gift cards to Bear Tooth, Moose’s Tooth, Snow City Cafe, Spenard Roadhouse, Title Wave Books, Fromagio's Artisan Cheese and much, much more. (No kidding!) This goes for people who register and participate alone or in another community -- some prizes are being specially reserved for satellite participants.

7. Because we’ll reward you with an after-party featuring notable Alaskans made to perform Pen-under-Pressure writing feats, a cash bar, and all that good party stuff. Come to watch notables like Ethan Berkowitz, Mark Muro, and Rage City Rollergirl JENetically Evil compete to write poetry and prose. Listen as interpretive judges Maia Nolan, Sherry Simpson, and Bruce Farnsworth debate which game-player has exhibited the greatest spontaneous brilliance.

8. Because your friends are doing it. Join them!

9. Because your friends aren’t doing it. Be contrary. It’s an excellent trait for a writer to have.

10. Because you don’t want to do your taxes yet. Down with numbers. Up with letters!

Get started here -- and thanks.

P.S. Raising money so far -- and the link where you can see the latest fundraisers list:
Note that new teams can be created and individuals can join existing teams.
In random order:
Bill Sherwonit (Team Wild Writers)
Brian Lax (Team Lax)
Karen Benning (Team Fiction Workshop)
Don Rearden (Team The Raven's Gift)
Therese Harvey (top non-Anchorage fundraiser!)
Morgan Grey
Tziporah Lax (Team Lax)
Deb Vanasse (Team Fiction Workshop)
Andromeda Romano-Lax (Team Lax)
Sandy Kleven (currently in the lead!)
Olga Livshin (Team Olga)

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Create a team, join a team, register as an at-home participant from any corner in Alaska, or register and plan to come to our Snow City RAVEN WRITE-A-THON (and extremely creative afterparty) on April 8th from 5 to 11 pm. You're a rugged Alaskan individual, so we won't be surprised if you have your own way to participate-- and that's just fine! (Click here to register yourself, support another participant, or just to see more about how this event works.) We're twenty percent of the way to our minimum goal, with eleven individuals and four teams registered so far. Great sponsors have been showering us with prizes to pass on to participants. Maybe we should send something special to the farthest-away-AK-participant? (Other ideas? Leave them in the comments box.)

Registration is also open for our Tutka Bay retreat with Dani Shapiro, September 2-5.

We're one-third full for that beautiful and rigorous weekend opportunity, made possible by Within the Wild Alaskan Adventure Lodges. Some great photos here at the lodge website.

Next classes coming up: Publishing in the Literary Market (March 26th), Beginnings: A Workshop (starts April 2nd), and a poetry class perfect for National Poetry Month, A Formal Feeling (April 16th).

The ladies of the Pulpwood Queens Book Group share their love of reading during an extra special story-time the second Saturday of every month. Saturday March 19th, 1pm; Barnes & Noble, Anchorage.

Brad Matsen, a Seattle writer with strong Alaska links (author of Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss) , invites Alaska marinophiles to join him, William Beebe, Otis Barton, and billions and billions of deep-ocean creatures on Saturday March 19th, for the airing of Fatal Pressure, the third episode of the series, The History Channel’s Underwater Universe, at 5:00 PM AK time.

Rilke's Duino Elegies Discussion Group meets again on Sunday March 20th, at 2:30pm. Fireside Books, 720 S Alaska St., Palmer. They're reading Stephen Mitchell's translation.

The Anchor Park Reading Group will meet on Tuesday March 22nd for a discussion of this month's selected book from 7 to 8pm. Barnes and Noble, Anchorage.

On Wednesday (and every Wednesday) at 6pm, the UAA Student Union Den holds an Open Mic. 2921 Spirit Way, Anchorage.

On Friday March 25th, at 7.30pm, Buddy Wakefield and Gaby Moreno feature at UAA, Arts 150.

Buddy Wakefield is the two-time Individual World Poetry Champion who has been featured on NPR, the BBC, HBO's Def Poetry Jam, and most recently signed to Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records.

Emmy nominated, Gaby Moreno is immensely talented with a guitar and gifted with a soulful voice beyond her years mixing Spanish and English vocals. Gaby's songs have been played on MTV's "The Hills", NBC's "Parks and Recreation," and ABC's "Off the Map". General Admission: $10.00 in advance, or $15.00 at the door

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, March 9th

Tickets available in advance here, or the UAA Student Union Info Desk. For more information, please call (907) 786-1204.

On Friday, March 25th, at 7pm, the UAF Visiting Writers series presents poets Mark Doty and Paul Lisicky. UAF Museum of the North, Fairbanks.

On Saturday, March 26th, at 2:00pm, critically acclaimed novelist Don Rearden will be at Fireside Books, 720 S. Alaska Street, Palmer, to sign copies of "The Raven's Gift."

On Saturday, March 26th, from 2-4pm, author Kris Farmen will be signing copies of his novel, The Devil's Share, at Gulliver's Books in Fairbanks.

You are invited to attend the book launch of Eskimo Star: from the Tundra to Tinseltown: The Ray Mala Story. By Lael Morgan, author of the best-selling Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush. Tuesday March 29th, 6-9pm at the Anchorage Museum. The Mala Film Festival kicks off Wednesday March 30th at the Bear's Tooth, with showings of Igloo and Last of the Pagans. On Thursday March 31st, the Bears Tooth will show Eskimo twice.

You are invited to enter Arctica Magazine's Writing Space contest. Categories are poetry, creative non-fiction and short fiction. Submit a long poem (up to five pages) or poems (up to five), short fiction or a non-fiction essay (up to 3,500 words maximum) that explores the theme of space and the circumpolar region—literally or figuratively, it's up to you.

Entries can be submitted by anyone, from anywhere. First prize in each category is $200. Runners-up receive some Arctica swag. Deadline is midnight April 1, 2011 (no joke).

Email your entry or submit online.

49 Writers member Sue Pope received notice that one of her essays has been posted to the online journal Persimmon Tree. Here's the link. The title of the essay is My Shadow.

Writer and UAF MFA graduate David Abrams shares his tribute to John Haines on his blog here:

LitSite Alaska is highlighting the Iditarod this month… See their website for this and much more.

F Magazine is now accepting submissions for their special June issue: their inaugural annual statewide writing competition, open to all genres and styles. Submit 1-2 pages of Poetry or 1,000-5,000 words of Fiction, Essay, Creative Non-Fiction.

Deadline: April 24th

$5 reading fee per submission, payable on via PayPal on their website under "Donation."

Send electronic submissions to fwritingcomp@gmail.com and include the PayPal receipt number in the email content.

Send paper submissions, with a check payable to F Magazine, to:

F Magazine

Writing Competition

3142 Mountain View Drive

Anchorage, AK 99501 Postmark deadline: April 20th