The Memoir: A Guest Post by Kim Rich

Recounting her childhood as the daughter of a gambler and a stripper, "amid the denizens of Anchorage's nightlife--pimps, con men, gamblers, prostitutes, heroin addicts," Kim Rich's acclaimed memoir Johnny's Girl was made into a television movie.  Though Rich now lives in Texas, she returns to Alaska this summer for a retreat weekend of writing, teaching, and critiquing hosted by the 49 Alaska Writing Center. 

An M.F.A. writing student once quipped to me "90 percent of fiction is true and 10 percent of nonfiction isn't."  Wise words.  True?  In part.

Memoir writing is a search for  'what happened' and more importantly, 'why' it happened.  Why did one's parents fall in love?  Why did they marry?  What was it like when they had me?

Memoir writing is also a search for justice.  This can mean justice on a personal level or a societal level or even justice in the arena of the courts.  But true justice can only be obtained through an accurate and fair -- as much as possible -- exploration of the 'what happened' and again, the 'why.'

Memoir writing is often a journey into pain and loss.  Psychologists like to tell the theory of how those who suffer dysfunction in their childhoods will find a way to repeat that dysfunction in their adult lives as a way of saying, "See, it was OK what happened."  Memoir writing takes a sledgehammer to this notion of the past becoming prologue.  It's the writer saying 'the buck stops here.'  The pain needs to be done.

Memoir writing is also about exploration of true adventure and even joy.  Not all memories -- as children or as adults -- are riddled in loss.  What then would be the point?  Even with a seriously mentally ill mother and a father who was sometimes violent and later murdered, I found true happiness here and there; the first Christmas I could remember; my mom standing with me at the window, looking out into the night and her pointing and saying, "See, there . . . there goes Santa's sleigh."

And I believed with all my might. 

Memoir writing is a lot things, but one thing it is not.  It is not for the easily discouraged, those who wish to offend or hurt others, or those who wish to settle a score or even bury a hatchet.  It's none of these things.  It has nothing to do with catharsis, though this might be its outcome. 

Memoir writing is about courage even when the writer has no idea that's what's needed.  As one college professor pointed out: "It's OK to be afraid, it's what one does with fear that matters."

In the end, memoir writing is about confronting and overcoming fear.

Family mythology, the balance between fact and story, debunking and reinforcing inherited tales, and the motivation behind memoir writing are among the topics Rich will explore with local writers in "Memoir Weekend with Kim Rich."  The twelve-hour weekend retreat begins Friday, June 24 at 6:30 p.m.; the cost is $179 for members and $199 for non-members. 

John Haines, An Old Friend Remembered: A Guest Post by David Budbill

My friend, John Haines, died on March 2nd.

I remember clearly reading his first book, Winter News, in 1966, the year it was published. I was a graduate student in New York City. The haunting and simple quality of the poems in that book appealed to me greatly. I was a city kid living in the city, yet with a deep yearning to go to the wilderness, to go north, "into my own," as Robert Frost said.

I'm from a working class family and I've always been embarrassed by the airs the literati put on, the way people use literature, poetry, as a way to distinguish themselves from the rest of humanity. The direct and simple speech in John's poems appealed to me. There wasn't anything fancy about John or his poems. They were about the most basic, primal events in life: killing and eating, building a place to live, animals and birds, cooking, the weather, a new pair of slippers for a loved one. And there was never anything fancy about John either. For many years after he left the homestead in Alaska, he continued to wear Dickey work shirts and Dickey work pants, his uniform.

John's poems pared down human life to its raw essentials. Nothing could be more important now in this age totally removed from the natural cycles of life than attending to the content of John's poems.

I wrote and published a review of Winter News in 1967 or 8. I must have sent John a copy of the review--I can't remember now exactly--because we began a correspondence, he at Mile 68, Richardson Highway, Fairbanks, Alaska, and I at 122nd Street and Broadway in New York City. I suppose our correspondence began the way most begin between a writer and a would-be writer, but the subjects of our letters soon turned to what both of us were really interested in: living in the wilderness and the north. John and I continued to correspond about life in the woods. Such a life had been my dream since I was a child on the streets of Cleveland.

I moved to the remote mountains of northern Vermont in the summer of 1969, intending to buy and clear land, build a house and settle into a new life, inspired in no small part by John's experience. I became what was called back then a "back-to-the-lander." Now John's letters to me really were a practical guide to the details of my new life. I remember one letter in particular, in which he explained to me in detail how to make jerky.

We talked some about writing and the life of a writer, but only some. I remember one particular quote--I'm doing all this from memory--in which John said, "Live your life and don't be literary about it." No better piece of advice has ever been offered and none also so completely and by so many ignored. In that simple sentence lay the essence of why John wrote what he did.

John came to Vermont for his first visit in April 1971. I know this specifically because it was on that visit that he signed our falling-apart copy of Winter News: Dear David and Lois, I owe you a great deal for this weekend, moving as it was, my Winter News renewed, my Snowy Night restored--but, where are the owls? --Love, John, 4/12/71

By 1971 John was not living in Alaska anymore and northern Vermont, as he mentioned often while he was here, reminded him a lot of interior Alaska. Also, although it was the middle of April here in northern Vermont, we had lots of snow still on the ground.

John won the Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship for 1976-1977. I can't remember where John was living and teaching then, but he drove his VW bus, the camper type, to here and we drove it out back into the woods to a place I had cleared for it, put it up on cement blocks and John headed for England and Scotland for the year. The VW bus had two bumper stickers. One said ONOMANOPIEA and the other said POETS ARE CUNNING LINGUISTS.

It might have been on this visit that one evening while we were fixing supper, John remarked that ours was the first house in the lower forty-eight he'd been in where the knives were sharp. We talked about the need for a good sharp knife and John told a story of how once when he was skinning an animal the knife slipped and he almost cut off his own nose.

When John returned from his yearlong British Isles sojourn, he had with him a bottle of scotch from a distillery in the Orkney Islands. It was the best scotch I'd ever drunk. We visited a few days at the end of that trip, and then John was off to somewhere and out of my life.

But our letters to each other continued. I have letters from John from Mile 68, Fairbanks, Pacific Grove, CA, Washington, D.C., Athens, Ohio, Montana, England and Scotland, Lenox, MA, and elsewhere. This poet who wanted to spend his life in one place observing that place's minutia--as he did once while he watched wasps peel transparently thin pieces of wood off the side of a building--spent his life instead as a wandering poet doing exactly what he didn't want to do.

There is something wrong with the academic system in this country when the finest poet Alaska has ever produced could not get a permanent position at a university in Alaska. Another example of this comes to mind. My friend Hayden Carruth who was for nearly 20 years a Vermonter, had to leave Vermont to find a teaching job. He wanted to stay in Vermont, wanted to stay in the worst way, but he ended up going to Syracuse University instead, where he was more than welcomed.

Mentioning Haines and Carruth in the same paragraph reminds me of another story. I can't remember when it was exactly, maybe after the publication of The Stone Harp, (1971) John's second book. But Hayden was at that time writing reviews for The Hudson Review. Hayden spent most of his life in Vermont as a free-lance writer, ghostwriter, book reviewer, encyclopedia article writer. Hayden had published an article in The Hudson Review about prosody and had said that John's poems read just as well laid out as prose. John was irritated and I was in the middle. I was good friends with both men. I knew the two guys would like each other if they ever could meet in some kind of human and humane circumstance--over food for example--and away from literary sniping. Not long after Hayden's review came out John was here. I invited Hayden and Rose Marie--they lived just 20 miles west of here--over for dinner. The whole evening went easily and well. Then a couple of days later John and I drove over to Hayden and Rose Marie's in Johnson for homemade ice cream. Hayden and John became dear friends, and Hayden championed John's poetry for the rest of Hayden's life.

Sometime during the 1980s, I think it was, there was a little literary magazine out in Kentucky or Tennessee that did a special issue on John and I contributed a selection of passages from John's letters to me over nearly 20 years.

John wrote the introduction for From Down to the Village, my second book in a series that began with The Chain Saw Dance and ended with the Judevine: The Collected Poems. John's introduction is dated September 1980, Fairbanks, Alaska. A year or so after the book came out, John wrote to me of his regret that the introduction wasn't more enthusiastic. I thought the introduction was terrific. I think John's regret is a window into his life where John is always sorry for being so dark and gloomy. Known to most as a dour curmudgeon--all things he was and most certainly was not--I think John felt he was a victim of his own darkness.

As the years wore on our correspondence tapered off. We stayed in infrequent touch. John wandered from teaching position to fellowship to residency, always wishing he could find gainful employment in Alaska but never finding it until very late in his life.

His last visit to Vermont was four years ago. It was in early winter, as I remember. He'd come to visit here and to give a reading at The Center for Northern Studies, near here. John had some kind of residency in Lenox, Massachusetts, at the time, and the car he drove up here, into the snowy north, didn't have snow tires. He went off the road and into a ditch about a mile from our house. John was over 80 at this time and quite lame. Our local school bus passed John limping along the dirt road. The driver stopped and gave John a lift up to our house. This little act of kindness by a total stranger--and something very much illegal--touched all of us and saved John from possibly serious trouble.

He did his reading and lecture at The Center for Northern Studies and was off again out of my life, but this time it was forever.

My last letter from John is dated 18 May 2009 and it came with a copy of his double CD, WINTER LIGHT, and said in part:

I haven't been in touch since my visit there in Vermont a couple of years ago. It was good to see you and spend some time together. I can't imagine getting myself back there again, alas.

. . .

I'm still here in Fairbanks, have continued to teach a semester seminar in writing at the university, but time is getting on, and I will have to quit on it soon. I'll be 85 in June! No celebrations for me, none.

. . .

I hope things are well there in Wolcott, on your Hill Rd.

Winter Light is a wonderful collection of 77 poems and four essays in John's own deep, resonant, articulate voice. As the jacket of Winter Light says, Friends of John's created this CD because, quite simply, John Haines' voice is every bit as compelling as his poetry; his words in his own voice are a magical combination.

I hope many people will listen to Winter Light.

The letter that came with the CD was on my desk, unanswered, when I heard of John's death.

DAVID BUDBILL is a poet and a playwright. His most recent book of poems, Happy Life, will be published by Copper Canyon Press--his third with CCP, in September of 2011. David's latest play is A Song for My Father. His website is at: www.davidbudbill.com.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your outpouring of support in response to our annual appeal!  We so appreciate your help in sustaining and growing our programs  for Alaska’s literary community.  If you haven’t given yet, there’s still time – our appeal ends May 31.  Just fill in the amount of your gift and click “My Donation” in the sidebar to the right to be redirected to our secure credit card site.

Thanks are also in order for Rich Gannon of Front Range Web and Mariah Oxford of Alaska Moxie, both of whom volunteered time to bring a fresh, updated look to our website.  We’re always adding content, including an update early next month with a fresh list of donors from our annual appeal, so bookmark us and stop by often.  And if you’re not following us on Facebook and Twitter, we hope you’ll add us to your favorites there, too.  Social media volunteer Max Wentzel loves hearing from you.

Our Raven Words Summer Youth Writing Workshops got a big boost this week from New Jersey-based traveler writer Jenna Schnuer, who will be volunteering her time to teach a travel-writing course for kids ages 10-13 during the week of July 18-22.  Thanks to her generosity, we’ll be able to offer five scholarships to young writers.  Stay tuned for details, and in the meantime keep directing young writers to Jumpstart Your Write Brain, Comic Adventures, and Ravens and Tigers and Bears.  It’s all part of the fun at Raven Words, with summer workshops July 18-29 at Winterberry Charter School in conjunction with the Alaska Writing Consortium. 

If you’re interested in helping us grow our Raven Words Youth Writing program, we’d love to have you join our planning team.  Our first meeting is tentatively scheduled for June 22 at 7 p.m. at 645 W. Third Ave.   Email 49writers@gmail.com if you’re interested.  And speaking of teams, thanks to our fabulous volunteer grantwriting team, which took on the challenge of writing six grants for various programs and needs without so much as a proverbial eye-batting.

Ela, your friendly round-up coordinator, is coming up to Anchorage from Homer to participate in the "Live and Moving: Poets in Full Meter" event on June 9 (see below). She needs to get back to Homer on the 10th for the Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference. Are there any folks interested in carpooling down from Anchorage for the Conference? Please contact Ela directly if you have space for her (she'll gladly chip in for gas), or comment here if you're interested in talking carpool more generally.

The event "Live and Moving: Poets in Full Meter" is part of the Spenard Jazz Festival: Thursday, June 9 at 7pm (aim to arrive around 6.30pm). Hugi-Lewis Studio, 108 W. Northern Lights Boulevard, Anchorage.

Seventeen poets on the tip of your tongue. Taste. Slurp. Toast. Poems memorializing John Haines will introduce eight crafted schematics. Functions will shift, braiding music and movement with the work of the poets in theme houses, such as protest, witness, love and loss, mother (and all she's done), and other (often mystical) phenomena. Curated by Sandra Kleven. Assistant Curator: Elizabeth Thompson; Creative Consultant: Gabrielle Barnet; Partner: Teeka A. Ballas; Publisher F. Magazine. Central Committee Members: Michelle Stephens, Joshua Lopez.

Tickets: $15/$10/passes/punch cards

On Saturday May 28 at 11.30am, come to Fireside Books, Palmer, to meet Michael D. Travis, author of Melozi: a coming-of-age memoir set in the '70s, when the teenage Travis took a job helping an older couple build a lodge at Melozi Hot Springs.

On Tuesday June 7, from 1.45-3.45pm, the UAA Campus Bookstore will host a panel on Language Changes, both Written and Oral, in Alaska.

Panelists will include UAA Faculty Members D. Roy Mitchell (Anthropology), David Bowie (Linguistics), and Paul Ongtooguk (College of Education) with special guests Diane Benson (Poet and former candidate for Alaska Lieutenant Governor) and Joan Kane (Poet and recipient of the prestigious national Whiting Writer's Award).

Themes to be addressed include: how people express themselves in multilingual environments, how formal English affects that expression, and how academic institutions manipulate ways of thinking and expression. Free and open to all, with free parking. More information: Rachel Epstein 786-4782.

Melinda Moustakis

Congratulations to Alaska-born Melinda Moustakis, who won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction, for a collection of stories based in Alaska. See this feature on her in the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Her story collection Bear Down Bear North: Alaska Stories is available for pre-order from UGA Press  (release is September 15) Stay tuned for an interview with Melissa on 49 Writers soon. 

Andromeda/Your Turn: Summer Salmon Reading

Sitting in the orthodontist's chair talking books this morning (I'm lucky that my orth is a big reader), and talk turned to Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod, a little book that ended up having significant staying power and influencing an entire generation of quirky, narrow-subject books.

Back home today, on a summer afternoon that is proudly announcing that fishing and gardening and grilling are all right around the corner, I browse my bookshelves for other natural history classics and favorites, about everything from tidepools to butterflies. And it occurs to me: Do we really not have a single well-read work of creative nonfiction about Alaska salmon? We do have Nancy Lord's Fish Camp, which encompasses the life of the salmon fisher. We have the more recently published Salmon in the Trees, in a photo book format with essays (I haven't read it but I plan to!), and many general works of natural history, as well as great salmon cookbooks, and wonderful examples of fishy art and popular science writing by the wonderful Ray Troll. And in the Lower 48, there have been some more general books about destroyed salmon populations. But has anyone told the Alaska salmon story in a concise and engaging manner?

If anyone has recommendations, it will be readers of this blog. I'm putting together a creative nonfiction summer reading list. Please let us all know here.

Andromeda: Super Funny Shteyngart & Book Trailer Vogue

It's been a while since I saw a book trailer I actually wanted to watch multiple times. Bookish websites and even the New Yorker are all abuzz about novelist/satirist Gary Shteyngart's book trailers for his Super Sad True Love Story. The first trailer featured Ph.D. lit student (oh yeah, and Hollywood star) James Franco, who was one of Shteyngart's Columbia students. Jeffrey Eugenides and other writers also contribute some deadpan interviews.

The second trailer featured Paul Giamatti as Shteyngart's roommate, visiting a women's club full of hot "cougar" women who have little interest in the author as personified here (a very weird shtick indeed). I can't get enough of Giamatti, from Sideways and John Adams to Win Win. If he wants to start making book trailers, too, I'm all for it.

Neither trailer really discusses the novel in question; both are made purely for laughs, fitting for an author who just this week won the Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction -- a first for an American author.

So first, go watch those trailers, especially if you're a fan of Shteyngart, Giamatti, or Franco.

And second, do trailers work?

In Alaska, we've seen book trailers from Homer memoirist Miranda Weiss (winter razor-clamming) and from mystery author Dana Stabenow (a lighthearted overview of her Kate Shugak Series). Are there any others we should know about?

If your book doesn't have a humorous angle -- and/or you don't have Hollywood friends willing to do cameos -- will anybody watch? Shteyngart's first trailer got over 146,000 views on youtube, but would the average author find it worthwhile to make a video for 1,000 views?

Given the ease of making and posting, and the blossoming of filmmaking talent in Alaska, I thought we'd see a much bigger explosion of book trailers by now. Any thoughts?

P.S. Thanks for the comments so far -- I knew we'd be able to dig up a few more. I'm adding mentioned book trailer links here, for easier access:

Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code

Don Rearden, author of The Raven's Gift

What a Difference a Year Makes

How long has 49 Writers been around? It depends on when you start counting. We began with an online community back in 2008, expanded in 2009, and in 2010 we incorporated as an Alaska non-profit. Last year at this time, we’d just signed a three-year lease on a cute historic house on L Street and a crew of amazing volunteers joined forces to transform it into the first Alaska Writing Center, out of which we also ran a guesthouse to pay the rent.

What a difference a year makes. The building was sold, and we scrambled to find another place out of which we could run writing programs without breaking the bank. Our first landlord prorated back the improvements our crew had made at the L Street facility, making that our first big fund-raising effort. We’ve been fund-raising ever since, under the direction of our energetic and capable co-founder Andromeda Romano-Lax. With a successful holiday book bag extravaganza and a popular write-a-thon under our belts, we’re now nearing the home stretch of our first annual appeal for donations from our friends, fans, and followers: you.

But perhaps some of you are secretly waxing nostalgic, longing for the good old days when 49 Writers was nothing but a free-spirited online gathering place with no bank account, no Board of Directors, and no need for cash. There’s only one tiny problem with that sort of thinking: we could never have sustained that online volunteer effort over the long haul, much less offered the courses and events that have drawn raves from Alaska’s literary community. It simply takes too much time and energy. Look at the hundreds of thousands of blogs that launch in a burst of enthusiasm only to languish and die. Rather than burn out, we chose to become sustainable. That requires a Board of Directors and a bank account and yes, cash.

Almost daily, we receive emails and comments affirming what our recent online survey quantified: Alaska’s writers hanker for what we offer. For you, our literary-minded readers and members and fans, we know the importance of making sure we’re sustainable. Like most non-profits, we’re funded through our programs, through our fundraisers, and through direct public support. We’ve assembled a great grant-writing team, all volunteers, to apply for designated funding through formal channels. But we can’t depend solely on grant funding, nor can we raise enough through our programs if we’re to keep them vibrant and affordable. In the end, we depend on your help.

We’re so grateful to those who’ve already answered the call. So far this month $1870 has come in. Coupled with $5990 donated through our April 8 Write-a-thon, we’re about halfway toward our 2011 budget goal for individual and business contributions: $16,300.

What difference will the coming year make? In addition to offering high-quality instruction and sponsoring inspiring events (Dani Shapiro, Steve Almond, anyone?), we hope by this time next year to also brought you a successful series of youth writing workshops, the first-ever Alaska Book Week (Oct. 15-22), and a game plan toward more expansive physical space where Alaska’s writers can gather. But we can’t do it without your support.

Last year, the call was to mobilize. This year it’s to make us sustainable, a goal we can only achieve with your help. Only one week remains in our appeal month of May. If you haven’t already, we hope you’ll support us by clicking the link in the right sidebar and donating what you can. Thanks so much!

Becoming Unstuck: A Guest Post by Gerri Brightwell

The other day, my friend Jen wrote on her Facebook wall, “What in the name of my sainted Aunt Sally made me think I could write a novel? This is too damn hard.” Naturally, several of us threw ourselves into the task of encouraging her on. One friend suggested Jen bribe herself with Cheetos. Another wrote, “BREATHE. Tomorrow is another day. You CAN do it.” Some of us were less kind and took the “Shuttup ya whining and write” approach.

I knew the solution to Jen’s problem wasn’t what I’d suggested (“Bum on chair, fingers on keyboard”), or at least, not exactly. She wrote back that producing a novel is a lot like knitting: the further you get into it, the more tangled it becomes. She’s right. The hitch with the suggestions she got from us, her well-meaning friends, is that you can bribe yourself with all the Cheetos you want, you can walk away and come back tomorrow, you can sit at your computer all day and into the night, but the tangle won’t have gone away.

Of course, you can always go away from the tangle. You can do as Salman Rushdie did when he got stuck: he left his novel behind and took up an invitation to visit Nicaragua during the revolution. When he returned to London the problem of finishing the novel seemed minor, and his life felt quiet and safe (for a while, at least—the novel he was working on was The Satanic Verses).

Time away can help, but a novel can go cold. You might forget why the story gave you a tickle of excitement in the first place, or lose sight of the nuances that had drawn you in. But simply staring at the last page you managed to bash out isn’t a good strategy either. For most of us writing time is limited, and despair sets in as we watch the hours wheel away uselessly.

A few years ago I talked about this problem with a writer visiting Fairbanks. He suggested jumping ahead and writing a scene that would come later in the novel. I gawked at him like he had two heads, but he swore it worked for him. A friend of mine who’s come out with a book on novel-writing has a same-but-different strategy: she uses place-holders to mark where troublesome scenes will go (though once when she sent a manuscript to her agent he promptly phoned her back to ask, “What’s this?” because Chapter Ten had a gap with a note saying “big argument scene here”).

To paraphrase one of my professors, writers are either knitters or quilters—quilters jump around, knitters move in straight lines. I know now that I’m a knitter. I work with my eyes on the ground to uncover the small details I need to drive my story forward (which is why, in the days when I thought I should outline, I’d sit at an almost-blank screen for hours and get nothing more significant out of it than a headache). Not that I don’t outline at all. Occasionally I’ll jot down a few ideas for what could happen next in my novel. That’s as far as I go. It’s useful, and it doesn’t scare me.

Now that I teach writing, I tell my students they have to recognise what kind of writers they are. Are they quilters? Knitters? (For some students I substitute less domestic imagery, that of pilots flying overhead versus explorers hacking their way through the jungle, else they get a tight, worried look on their faces.) This knowledge is crucial: after all, if you’re an explorer type, no amount of promising yourself you’ll outline your novel is going to help, and the sooner you accept that the better.

Pondering Jen’s problem made me think back to the times I’ve been stuck and what I actually do: I go back to the start of my novel (out of desperation—I can’t bear my writing time to drain away with nothing getting done). I’ll correct typos, I’ll tighten up baggy sentences then, hardly noticing that I’m doing it, I’ll delete paragraphs or entire scenes but expand others, I’ll pick up small details and get that heady “Aha!” sensation of knowing how to play off them in a later chapter. Somehow—and it’ll be so clear I’ll wonder how come I hadn’t noticed it before—I’ll realise that a particular scene feels off-course, that it’s dragging the novel to the left when it needs to go right. I’ll delete it and steer the novel onto a slightly different course, a better one, because I’ll know what a better one is, or at least have a clearer idea. Not that I won’t get lost again later on. But by then, I’ll be farther down the road.

Originally from south-west England, Gerri Brightwell first came to Alaska in 1991 for three years but, after time away in Bangkok and Minneapolis, returned in 2004 to teach in the MFA program at UAF. Set in the late Victorian era, her novel The Dark Lantern considers secrets coming to light and respectable people not being all that they seem—or that they should be.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

With school letting out for the summer today in Anchorage and around the state, it might seem odd that we’re getting excited already about our fall term of writing instruction here at 49 Writers.  But we love reviewing course proposals (for fall, due June 1) from some of the state’s finest writers and putting together a schedule of courses to help Alaska get (and keep!) writing.  

Our course offerings fit (more or less; we like to stay flexible) into one of three categories:  Elements courses that are generally 6 to 8 hours long; genre-based workshops that typically run 12 to 15 hours; and special topics that are normally covered in a single session of 2 or 3 hours.  Elements courses include cross-genre topics like character, voice, narrative structure, point of view, description, beginnings, revision, and narrative time. We’ll do our best to cycle these as a series so that in a couple of years, a writer could take them all.

Workshops are by genre, alternating between fundamentals workshops for emerging writers (Fundamentals of Fiction, for example) and workshops exploring advanced techniques (such as Advanced Poetry Techniques).  In workshops, students draft and revise within their genres. Finally, while we hope all of our courses are feisty and fun, our special topics courses are intended to be especially so, with an exploratory bent. 

Of course, we’ve got great summer offerings already scheduled:  June 16 Funny Business: Seven Secrets of Writing Humor (Bruce Hale); June 24-27 Memoir Weekend with Kim Rich; and July 18-29 Raven Words Summer Youth Writing Workshops. 

Also on the learning front, we’re excited to announce our new Reading and Craft Talk series, replacing our First Friday book signings.  Volunteer coordinator Paula Bryner, who so beautifully orchestrated our First Friday events, is launching this series to provide opportunities for published authors to address informal audiences on topics related to writing.  Held at Metro Books/Café Felix in Anchorage, these free talks will begin with a 5-7 minute reading followed by a 20-30 minute craft talk followed by a question and answer session and book signings.  To schedule a Reading and Craft talk, contact R & C coordinator Paula Bryner.  

Congratulations to Alaska writer and 49 Writers friend Ray Troll, who joined an elite group of Alaska artists today by receiving the 2011 Rasmuson Foundation Distinguished Artist Award. Troll is the eighth Alaskan artist to receive the award, which was announced at a morning ceremony in Anchorage. The Distinguished Artist Award recognizes artists with stature, and a history of creative excellence and accomplishments in the arts with $25,000 in unrestricted funds.  

Kudos also to 49 Writers member Eowyn Ivey of Palmer (her debut novel The Snow Child will be published in 2012), who received a Project Award from Rasmuson which she plans to use toward a raft trip on the Copper River as part of the research for her novel in progress.  A Rasmuson Project Award also went to Mollie Ramos of Valdez to attend the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival and to research a novel.  Rasmuson Artist Fellowships were awarded to writer Rosemary McGuire of Cordova to canoe the Yukon River as part of a writing project, and to Jeffry Silverman for a screenplay documentary about Jewish pioneers in territorial Alaska.  

On Saturday May 21 at 1pm, the Pulpwood Queens book group share a special storytime, in tiaras. Barnes and Noble, 200 E. Northern Lights, Anchorage.

Also at 1pm on Saturday May 21st, Muldoon Library will host a special storytime event--"Around the World" through stories, songs and crafts. Intended for children aged eight and under.

On Tuesday May 24 from 12.30-1.30pm, the Chugiak-Eagle River Branch Library hosts "Monkeys and Apes," a child-adult learning experience for children aged 4-10, part of "Science in the Library."

On Tuesday May 24 at 7pm, the Anchor Park reading group will meet at Barnes and Noble to discuss this month's book.

On Saturday May 28 at 11.30am, Michael Travis will present Melozi--a 1970's era coming-of-age memoir of his time helping to build a lodge at Melozi Hot Springs. Fireside Books, Palmer.

Alaska State Council on the Arts reports that the Helen Walker Performing Arts Presenting/Touring Grants are now posted, and the next deadline is June 1, 2011. Guidelines are on their website and you are encouraged to call with questions if you're unsure your project qualifies. Contact Charlotte Fox, (907) 269 6607.

Mark your calendars for Thursday June 9th,  when the Spenard Jazz Festival at the Hugi-Lewis Studio will feature Poets in Full Meter, Instant Poetry and much more.

Andromeda: "A citizen of that other place" -- on sick-lit

Sick-lit, I discover today while net-surfing, is an entire misery-memoir subgenre. Its mainstay is the cancer memoir, and it relies on healthy doses of humor, as one can guess from titles like Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, by Miriam Engelberg, and Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can Be Really Distracting, by Meredith Norton.

No, I don’t have cancer. Nor am I a humorist, unfortunately. I’m just sick. And really, really bored with being sick. And not at all interested in writing about being sick, though I will try it today mostly as a stalling mechanism for avoiding other scheduled writing tasks, and also because I feel the need to explain a recent change in our organizational structure.

While I am continuing to be an active volunteer and supporter, I am no longer involved in day-to-day writing center administration, a job once shared with and now fully and capably handled by Deb Vanasse, with the help of our wonderful and energetic nonprofit board. Those who don’t often peek behind the administrative curtain may notice little difference, and I’ll still be co-running this blog, as I have since late 2008, but writing center titles and duties have shifted. Because we are a community-based organization and it is the community and volunteers that matter most, we hope that people continue to consider 49 Writers as it was always meant to be: an organization created for, supported and guided by all of us.

Formal explanation finished, I will return to the more personal issue, explored from the writer’s perspective – because that’s who I am, and what you as a faithful reader most likely are, and why this blog exists.

For the first time in my life, I have spent months dedicated to something about which I did not plan to write, ignoring the wonderful Henry James dictum to be someone upon whom “nothing is lost.”

Sorry, Mr. James, but at present, most of this seems lost on me: The years of low-grade facial discomfort and headaches, which became daily occurrences about six months ago; the two years of pelvic pain, diagnosed two years ago as adenomyosis and rediagnosed last week as a case of adenomyosis plus endometriosis with a side dish of uterine fibroids; the general abdominal throb and lower back aches. (A new symptom! But still dull…)

I have nothing interesting to say about any of it, except perhaps this, in the form of advice for other writers: If you plan to be sick for any length of time, choose one illness. One acute, definable, well-known illness – maybe – is a good story. Two perhaps unrelated illnesses that have progressed slowly and resisted both clear diagnosis and clear treatment are not a good story, whether in book form, or even as a quick email to people who may or may not have started noticing one’s absence, publicly or socially.

Were I a character in a movie, any screenwriter would know better than to divide audience sympathies by inflicting me with a long-term, lower-stakes condition above the neck (a jaw problem that goes back twenty years, for which I was treated surgically and retain small screws and wires in my face, and expected to be treated for again this June – alas, a plan that has changed recently, prompting anxiety about continuing headaches) and a newer condition, common enough to be extremely dull, below the waist, which millions of other women also have, and which I neglected to treat until recently because I was trying to get the first above-the-neck problem wrapped up (and paid for -- naturally, I am among the resentfully uninsured, still awaiting and willing to fight for national health care).

Divided sympathies are not good. It is also narratively confusing (not only to the reader or listener, but most significantly, to oneself), when one realizes that recent weeks of treatment may be causing more distress than the original, ill-defined ailments. The prescription meds and hormones I’m currently taking have induced nausea, dizziness, bloating, weight gain, intense fatigue, and a new and different kind of headache. Are they doing any good or only making daily life worse? It’s too early to tell. Bad story.

As narratively unacceptable as multiple ailments or cause-and-effect confusion is invisibility. If you are going to feel like crap and risk a loss of both creative productivity and income, a cast on the leg or a bald head can go a long way and even work as a sassy message to the world – sure, I’m not well, but I’m not going to hide it; in fact, I’ll adorn it! Daily headaches, sharp pelvic pains that feel like childbirth contractions, fatigue and general brain fog do not communicate well. There is nothing to show off and nothing to tattoo. People will say, “But you look fine,” or “I didn’t know,” or “It’s so private, no need to talk about it,” “Well, it’s not a life-threatening condition, at least.”

That “life-threatening” phrase isn't helpful when you're on pins and needles, awaiting second opinions, as I was last month. But this month I can say: That's right. Most likely not. Just getting older like everyone else, and getting older often includes sudden entropic accelerations that feel, if not "life-threatening," at least “life-changing.”

I have much more to say about this, darker and less-bloggy things to say, with reference to Virginia Woolf and William Styron and F. Scott Fitzgerald and Kate Chopin and other writers who were unwell or wrote brilliantly in fiction form about unwellness in others, but I’ll save it for an essay, to be written when I have more information, more retrospective clarity, and a longer allowable wordcount.

But this isn’t funny, is it? It’s certainly not the acerbic, sharply focused, character- and incident-rich fodder of sick-lit. So I won’t likely be authoring anything to compete with Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania by Andy Behrman, or My One-Night Stand with Cancer by Tania Katan.

But maybe I’m still seeing illness, and writing about illness, as something rare and separate from life. Perhaps the life and writing lesson I most need to learn is that feeling seriously unwell, by various and unpredictable degrees, is something that becomes an essential part of all of our stories, whether we like it or not.

That is the message from a passage from Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor, a work published in 1979, long before the memoir craze – a passage I received in the mail, completely by chance, the other day. No humor or hyberbole here, just some great writing: “Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, for at least a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”

Dani Haviland on Amazon e-publishing

I finished writing my third book almost two months ago. I sent it to Cathie Woods, my editor, and she did her “thing” to it, although not as quickly as she had hoped. Yes, life takes precedent over words, or should. Then the text was back to me for final care. I combed out all the snarls and primped it one last time and then, time to e-publish. Then the second challenge began.

If you’ve ever painted a house, you know what a chore it is. You’ve finally slathered on all the color and you think you’re done. You’re so proud of yourself then you realize you still have to paint the trim. And wash the sprayer and brushes. And clean up the drop cloths, wipe up all the spills, touch up all the blank spots, wash the brush again and hope you don’t accidentally put your hand in the wrong place. Yup, e-publishing is the same way.

First I had to change the file from .docx to .doc format and preview it to make sure there weren’t major discrepancies between formats. Then I had to save to .html format. Okay, I can do that. Then I had to install MobiPocket Creator and follow their procedures to change the files to .prc format. Then I had to install a Kindle reader on my PC and view the file again before finally saying it was done.

Then it was time to go back to KDP.Amazon and figure out how to upload the file from there. I became lost in the circular help file loop hell, not able to find a link to my control panel, so I logged out then logged back in again. From there I was then able to get to the right place to upload the .prc file. I wasn’t happy with the .doc to .html to .prc translated cover page but I could live with that.

My brother illustrated the book cover and, although the brilliant colors don’t show on the Kindle, they do while shopping on the Amazon site. Hopefully more people shop in color but if they don’t, hey, maybe I put together a decent story hook and the flashy cover won’t be needed.

I just wish I hadn’t wasted over six months writing query letters and trying my best not to let the form letters get me down. The only agent who was excited about my work wanted me to cut it in half so it would fit into the round hole of what most publishers want. Hey! I like being a square peg. I love reading long novels so that’s what I write, usually. Although my first published work is a short 69,000 words, the next three will be over 190,000 words.

Will I do it again? I’m already going there. I have three more novels ready to edit and fine comb and then they’re on their way to the Amazon store. Is it worth it? Ask any passionate writer if they’d trade their time for being published and I’ll bet every one of them says, ‘yes!’

The cost of e-publishing is zip. I didn’t pay anyone to design the cover, my friend, Cathie Woods, the best “healer” in the world, edited it and I did the file conversions and uploading myself in one evening. I’m only charging 99¢ per eBook and after Amazon deducts the data transfer fee and commission, I’ll get about 30¢ a copy. That’s not much but there are other writers out there doing the same thing and making thousands of dollars a month doing it. I’d rather have 30% of a buck times hundreds and thousands than 100% of one or two books sold at $9.99. Plus I know I’m being productive and won’t be getting any more of those, “Sorry, but I don’t feel like I’m the best agent to represent your work,” emails.

Look for more latest info at www.danihaviland.com on how this is working for me AND when my next book will be introduced.

Dani Haviland is the author of Dances Naked, a book in the Fairies Saga, available as a Kindle e-book.

Poems in Place: A Guest Post by Wendy Erd

Late last August I was running along a meadow trail when an undeniable idea arrived that Kim Cornwall’s poem, What Whales and Infants Know, should be placed on a sign at Beluga Point, in Chugach State Park. The astonishing beauty of Kim’s poem called to be in this place.

When I first met Kim she introduced me to William Stafford’s poetry and to his Methow River Poems. In 1993, two forest rangers in Oregon asked Stafford if he would create a series of poems to be placed on signs along the river. Kim and I planned to walk one day, along the Methow, to read his poems set in meadows and forests and river sounds.

In this same spirit, I hoped that Kim’s words could rise in the confluence of bright air, ocean currents and surfacing whales to grace travelers stopping by.

From the onset the idea was generously embraced and supported by Charlotte Fox, the director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, Tom Harrison, Chugach State Park Superintendent and Bill Kiger, Interpretive Panel and Education Director for Alaska State Parks who donated their energy, administration and staff design time. Friends and family donated additional funds for the sign’s installation.

Kim passed away early last summer. It is our hope that What Whales and Infants Know, will be the first of many poems in unusual places in Alaska. A seeding of poetry in the landscape, Poems in Place, serves as a tribute to Kim’s work and to the power of poems in special places.

Please join us for the dedication of Kim’s poem, and a celebration of the first Poem in Place in Alaska, on May 25th at 2pm at Beluga Point, Turnagain Arm.

For more information or directions to the dedication of a poem in place, please contact Wendy Erd @ wendyerd@gmail.com.

Messing With Books: A Guest Post by Gerri Brightwell

My middle son, Ross, has been ploughing his way through the Harry Potter series. He sits in our armchair with his legs dangling and a hefty book in his lap, and doesn’t hear when I call him for dinner. Sometimes we read together, but less often than last year when he needed help getting through the first Harry Potter book. Now he’s onto book six and charges through whole chapters on his own so that, when I read with him, I’m parachuted into the story.

Here’s the other thing that’s changed: the language we’re reading. Our copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is (as you’ll have twigged from the title) the British edition of the first book. After living away from Britain for years, it felt odd to read jumper for sweater or sweets for candy. Yes, I had to remind myself, that used to be my language. When you live abroad you learn to edit yourself. You soon find out which expressions are met with blank stares or sniggers and stop using them (back in the long-ago days when I smoked, I once came out with, “Can I bum a fag off you?”—my Canadian husband has made me promise never, ever, to say that again).

Reading the American edition of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Ross, I found myself editing the Britishness back in. It was one thing that the spelling was American, but quite another to find that Hermione “leaned toward Harry.” I converted it back to “leaned towards Harry.” Ross, who’s usually eagled-eyed, missed that small verbal edit, but he didn’t miss me changing “gotten” to “got.” I had some explaining to do: “Well,” I told him, “all these characters are British, and ‘gotten’ is American—it doesn’t fit.”

Being seven, Ross told me to get on with the story and not mess with it. But, I thought, it has already been messed with. It’s bad enough to change the spelling, but to change words and give the book an occasional American accent—what’s to be gained by that? Is British English incomprehensible? Or somehow offensive? Why did the publisher want the book to sound more American, or at least less British? It’s no more excusable than a British edition of Chandler’s The Big Sleep in which Philip Marlowe arrives at the Sternwood mansion and describes a stained-glass panel showing “a knight in dark armour.” Now, tell me that you didn’t notice that extra U. Doesn’t it look just a little—well—un-American for so very American a character?

When you read Ian McEwan’s Atonement in the States, you’re not reading quite what Ian McEwan wrote—colour is color, centre is center, despite the premise of the novel that it’s a story written by its British narrator. You might not notice—but I think you would notice the colour in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, and be reminded that your narrator isn’t American. The world isn’t flat. English in the States is not the same as in Britain, or Canada, or Australia. Why do publishers (at least some of them) insist on smoothing out the differences? Do they think readers will be tripped up by them? Are readers really so bumbling?

The question became pressing to me when the proofs for my novel The Dark Lantern (which is set in late-Victorian London) came back not only with American spelling but with other changes, such as areaway (which means nothing in Britain, and probably means nothing to most Americans) substituted for area (the sunken area outside a basement kitchen). I persuaded my publisher that such vocabulary changes were nonsensical, but I lost the fight on the spelling—“We’re an American publishing house,” I was told, “so we use American conventions.”

It’s a strange business, this translation of one English into another. Over here, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone became Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, despite the fact that the philosopher’s stone existed, as an ideal if not an object, whereas a “sorcerer’s stone” is pure, rootless invention. What do we gain from such messing with our books? Nothing much, I’d say. But we lose a lot. A couple of years ago when I flipped through an American children’s edition of Treasure Island that I’d planned to read with my sons and found Jim Hawkins talking about dollars and cents, I hurried the book out of the house. What can I say? I don’t want my children to be misinformed; I don’t want them coddled into thinking that everywhere is like here, the country they already know. Reading is about learning, isn’t it?

Originally from south-west England, Gerri Brightwell first came to Alaska in 1991 for three years but, after time away in Bangkok and Minneapolis, returned in 2004 to teach in the MFA program at UAF. Set in the late Victorian era, her novel The Dark Lantern considers secrets coming to light and respectable people not being all that they seem—or that they should be.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Apologies for the late posting: Blogger, the software platform that hosts this blog and many others, was out of action for the past almost 24 hours. Thankfully, all is returning to normal now: thanks for your patience.

Happy Friday the 13^th, and thanks so much to all who turned out for our volunteer Meet, Greet, Decide gathering.  We came away with ten positions filled – a huge help toward our watchword for the year:  sustainability.  If you couldn’t make the meeting but would like to lend a hand to a great cause,  we can still use a Clerical Assistant, a Membership Coordinator, and a Program Promotion Assistant.  We estimate each position would require only an hour of volunteer time each week.  If interested, email 49writers@gmail.com.

On the theme of sustainability, thanks so much to all who’ve responded to our annual appeal.  Your support is crucial to maintaining and growing our support for Alaska writers and their work, and it is much appreciated.  If writing that check is still on your to-do list, we’ve made it easy:  just fill in the amount in the sidebar box to the right, and click the “donation” button to make a secure credit card payment.  Our instructional programs are self-supporting, but for everything else we depend on your help.

A final note before leaving that theme:  our grantwriting team meets Monday, May 23 at 7 p.m. at the 49 Alaska Writing Center to go over grants, guidelines, resources, and procedures, with the goal of making assignments for grants (no more than one each is the plan) to be written in the next three months or so.  If you’re interested in joining us, email 49writers@gmail.com.  

Other dates to keep in mind:

June 1 Course Proposal deadline for fall term instruction 

June 16 Funny Business:  Seven Secrets to Writing Humor with Bruce Hale 

June 24-27 Memoir Writing Weekend with Kim Rich 

July 18-29 Raven Words Summer Youth Writing Workshops

Aug. 31        Crosscurrents with Dani Shapiro 

Sept. 2-5 Tutka Bay Writers Retreat with Dani Shapiro (only two slots remain) 

If you missed our last Crosscurrents event featuring Susan Orlean in conversation with Julia O’Malley, you can now catch it in podcast on KSKA’s Addressing Alaskans.  Thanks to KSKA and Mark Weber of the Anchorage Museum of Rasmuson for making that available.

The theme for Reading Rendezvous 2011 is "Many Stories--One World." Come to Z.J. Loussac Library grounds, Anchorage, Saturday, May 14, for many free activities with a literary theme.

Also on Saturday, May 14, at 1pm at Barnes and Noble, 200 E. Northern Lights, Anchorage, the Pulpwood Queens will present a storytime.

On Sunday, May 15, at 2pm also at Barnes and Noble, there will be a talk on Modern Buddhism. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has over 20 printed books, and a brand-new release called Modern Buddhism. Buddhist teacher Gen Kelsang Khedrub is an engaging speaker who has studied with the author and will be

presenting the book.

Wednesday, May 18 at 7pm is time for Poetry Parley at Out North, 3800 DeBarr Rd, Anchorage. This month's featured poets are Rainer Maria Rilke and local poet Jason Eisert.

On Thursday, May 19 at 1pm,  Dr E. J. David will present on Filipino-American Postcolonial Psychology at the UAA Campus Bookstore.

Dr David was born in the Philippines and raised in Pasy, Las Pinas, Makati, and Barrow, Alaska. He is assistant professor in the UAF/UAA Joint Clinical-Community Psychology PhD Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage and is author of the book Filipino-/American Postcolonial Psychology: Oppression, Colonial Mentality and Decolonialization.

The new issue of F Magazine is now on the stands. This issue is a retrospective of MTS Gallery, arts lifeline that is set to close this month. See the magazine for details of their big moving out party on May 21st.

Denali National Park and Preserve Seeking Artists-in-Residence for 2012
Denali National Park and Preserve News Release, Kris Fister, Kris Fister

Denali National Park and Preserve is seeking applications from visual artists and writers for the 2012 Artist-in-Residence Program. This will be the first season with an open call to writers to submit for a residency. The program is in its eleventh year at Denali, and many of the works created by artists-in-residence from previous years are on display in the Denali Visitor Center and the Eielson Visitor Center. For the last three years, the program has had resident writers (John Morgan '09, Nancy Lord '10, Carolyn Kremers '11) by invitation.

A link to the online application and more information about the program is available at http://www.nps.gov/dena/historyculture/arts-program.htm. Applications for the 2012 season must be submitted by September 30, 2011. Notification letters will be sent out by December 15, 2011.

Selected artists reside in the historic East Fork cabin, located 43 miles into the park, for a ten-day period between June and mid-September. In return for their residency, each artist donates a piece of artwork or written piece that was inspired by their time in the park, to the park’s collection. Artists also offer a public presentation for visitors at the end of their residency.

The Artist-in-Residence program is a national program that enables established artists to reside in a park while they create park-related art. Artists have played a significant role in raising public awareness of the natural wonders preserved within the National Park System and the need for their protection since the creation of Yellowstone, the first national park.

Hey! We're on the radio today!

As stated in the sidebar -- but even I don't always notice the sidebar -- 49 Writers will be on KSKA 91.1 public radio today at 2 pm and 7pm, thanks to an Addressing Alaskans broadcast of the April 1 Crosscurrents discussion with Susan Orlean and Julia O'Malley. Thanks to everyone who made it happen. Radio coverage of our events is something we've all been looking forward to, and it was exciting to hear the announcement made on KSKA this morning!

Chiappone: Kachemak Bay News Flash

We don't allow shouting caps, exclamation marks, and sales pitches from just anyone, but 49w regular Rich Chiappone of Anchor Point is an exception. Thanks to Rich for this only slightly tongue-in-cheek writing conference announcement. We accept no responsibility for the Angelina Jolie date offer.

NEWS FLASH: To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, the Early Bird reduced registration fee offer has been extended through the month of May. It’s a bargain for a couple more weeks.

What’s in a writing conference for me, you ask?

A Guide to the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference for Self-Promoting, Ambitious, Soon-To-Be-Published Types

Having read Eva Saulitis’ lovely evocation of the spirit and energy enjoyed at the annual Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, I can sleep soundly, knowing someone has so beautifully described those hard to relate feelings. That means I can be the cold-blooded creep who’s here to explain what’s in it for you –I mean, on top of the fine spiritual experience, of course.

Plain and simple? Opportunity. And lots of it.

Working on the guest faculty list this winter, I started to realize this year’s tenth anniversary conference features an abundance of presenters with credentials from the publishing industry. If you’re thinking of talking to an agent or editors about your work, check these people out. (Click on the Faculty link on the Kachemak Bay Writers’ website for complete bios.)

The conference always has a featured agent who reads manuscripts and gives advice on getting published. This year it is Chris Calhoun, whose client list includes the winners of Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, and other national honors. Billy Collins, one of the most effusively thrilled-with-Alaska guests anyone has ever seen in our state, insisted that Chris had to come and see our state for himself.

But along with Chris, an amazing number of this year’s writer/presenters have extensive experience with and connections to the business end of the of writing business.

Alphabetically:

Nickole Brown, aside from being an award-winning poet, spent a decade working at Sarabande Books, and now is as Editor at White Pine Press, and works as a consultant for Arktoi Books.

Almost painfully friendly, Mike Burwell, another poet and teacher, is also the editor of the literary journal Cirque, publishing writing from the Pacific Northwest. Er….that would include Alaska. Hint, hint: You need to talk to this guy.

Poet Ann Coray, too modest to mention this in her bio on the website, is also the publisher at Northshore Press which published, among others, the nationally acclaimed The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife, by Alaskan Joan Kane. Hmm, another one interested in Alaskan writers.

Rigoberto Gonzalez is a contributing editor at Poets and Writers, not to mention on the Board of Directors at the National Book Critics Circle. Think he might be able to give you advice on getting published?

It just goes on:

Alaska’s own spectacularly popular Heather Lende now writes a regular column for Woman’s Day magazine for its several gazillion subscribers. Want to find out how to publish in big fat national magazines? Heather is your gal.

Elizabeth Lyon is, simply put, an expert on getting published. She quite literally wrote the book. Make that plural, books. Proposals Anybody Can Write, The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit, A Writer’s Guide to Nonfiction, A Writer’s Guide to Fiction, National Directory of Editors & Writers, and Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore.

How about Brenda Miller, who just happens to be editor and chief at the Bellingham Review? That means she gets the final word on what they publish.

Then there’s Peggy Shumaker, our current Alaska Writer Laureate, who is also the publisher at Boreal Press (specializing in works from Alaskans) and knows as much about independent publishing as anybody you’ll ever sit with at Lands End and share a glass of wine. Ok, you can have your own glass.

Only at the end of list by the rules of the alphabet, is award winning writer and editor, Hannanh Tinti, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the inventive One Story magazine.

That makes ten out of eighteen presenters on this year’s faculty with hands-on experience in the publishing industry.

You hear that knock-knock-knocking sound? That’s opportunity, folks. If you have ever entertained the idea of sitting down with an editor or agent to talk about your own writing career, this would be the year to visit Homer in June.

So come on down, feel the fabulous vibe, and then sign up for a consultation with somebody who can help you get what you really want. FAME! RICHES! A DATE WITH JOHNNY DEPP OR ANGELINA JOLIE (SPECIFY ONE ONLY)!

Well, we’re not making any guarantees ---except for the joyous feelings.

But seriously, if you don’t promote your work, who will?

49 Writers Volunteer Interview: Morgan Grey

Where would we be without our fabulous 49 Writers volunteers? They're the real face of 49 Writers, and we like to introduce them to you occasionally through our 49 Writers Volunteer Interviews.  This week, meet Morgan Grey (and Mickey, her literary cat).  Morgan has helped us with fundraising, planning, and all-around moral support.

If you’re not yet involved, or if you’re volunteering but would like to do something different (or more!), or if you’d just like to come visit with us, tonight's the night.  Stop by our Volunteer Meet, Greet, Decide gathering Tuesday, May 10, at 7 p.m. at the 49 Alaska Writing Center, 645 W. 3rd Ave. in Anchorage. Come just for fun, come to meet and greet fellow writers, or come with the idea of deciding on what new ways you can help. We'll have free copies of the current issue of the Writer's Chronicles and of course, we'll have snacks!

Tell us a little about yourself, including your day job and what you do as a volunteer for 49 Writers.

I moved to Alaska from Vermont in 1994 with my partner, who was a homesick Alaskan. I had wanted to visit Alaska ever since my stepfather was stationed at Ft. Richardson, but I never expected to live here. My partner passed away three years ago and I am still here. For my day job, I am an academic advisor at UAA in several technology programs. I really enjoy the challenge of helping people find classes that will help them move forward in their lives.

As a member of the fundraising committee for 49 Writers, I researched online pledge software options for the Raven Write-a-thon. I have also researched foundations and grant opportunities, and am interested in researching software systems for distance delivery of programs.

Why did you decide to volunteer at the 49 Alaska Writing Center?

A little over a year ago, I decided that I wanted to get an MFA in creative writing and work in a community-based writing program. Less than two weeks later, Deb and Andromeda announced the creation of 49 Writers. I volunteered immediately. When the Universe responds with such a clear opportunity, I figure I’m on the right path and need to pay attention.

What’s a highlight of your involvement so far?

I enjoy doing research (did I mention that I’ve done research?) for software and ways to enhance our services. Last year’s Tutka Bay retreat with David Vann was a spectacular experience – the setting, the workshops, the food, all of it was fantastic.

Tell us something about your literary interests or activities.

I’m interested in stories (both literary and fantasy) about magic in the world. I’m working on a novel about a community of selkies (seal people) in Prince William Sound during the oil spill, as well as some essays and short stories inspired by a recent trip to Scotland. I am very excited to have just been accepted into the MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) at UAA, so both of the decisions I made last year are coming to fruition.

What’s the last great book you read?

I loved Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kanter. Some of his sentences so were breathtakingly beautiful, I had to read them out loud to anyone who was around, even if it was just my cat., Mickey (pictured above). Mickey’s literary tastes are quite refined. 

When you picture our writing center ten years from now, what do you imagine?

I see the 49 Writers Center with its own building and adequate classrooms, running a full schedule of workshops, programs, and events for writers of all ages, genres, and geographic locations. The Center will foster connections among writers across the state, rural and urban, multi-generational and multi-cultural, using face-to-face and distance delivered formats. As the Center’s growth in this first year has shown, there’s a lot of interest and need. It’s a very exciting future.