Andromeda: A link to Kathy Tarr's essay about Richard Rodriguez, in Cirque

Today's post is just a link, but a good one. Cirque's beautiful-as-always new issue is online, with many Alaska names that will be familiar to you all, as well as new names and lots to explore across the genres. In time for the North Renaissance Arts and Science Reading Series (presented by UAA's Creative Writing and Literary Arts MFA program and open to the public), Cirque includes an essay by Kathy Tarr on her experience, when she was a graduate student in Pittsburgh, in 2003, meeting noted author Richard Rodriguez, who will be speaking in Alaska for the first time on July 10.

Read the essay on page 73, mark your calendar, and note that the NRA&S Reading Series has great readers and speakers for over a week, beginning with the Rodriguez talk on Sunday, July 10 at 8 pm (ARTS 150). And congrats again to Mike Burwell for another great issue of Cirque.

Andromeda: What They Were Reading -- The Books on John Updike's Desk, 2009

I love reading lists, and the ones I'm tracking down lately are the reading lists of writers at key moments in their lives. A while back, I listed the books George Orwell was reading in 1949, the last full year of his life. This week, I stumbled upon a blogpost mention about books left on John Updike's writing desk at the time of his death in 2009, when he concluded his amazingly prolific writing career -- one in which he produced nearly a book a year. A kind curator at Harvard University's Houghton Library answered my followup query and provided the list of the books collected from Updike's desk on Feb. 20, 2009. Evidently, these were books he was reading and consulting in relation to the final unfinished book he was writing.

As an apprentice writer, I am always interested to know how our most productive and disciplined writers live and write, how they revise or respond to editorial advice and criticism, what they read, how they continue to feed their minds. I am nearly always humbled by what I discover: working drafts of our best-known writers (often preserved in libraries -- will we have these same records for future authors?) reveal the labor required to shape an evolving style, the last-minute changes that contributed to the perfection of paragraphs now so famous we might falsely imagine they sprang from their authors' heads already perfect and unchangeable. Drafts show us the truth: that every work is a work-in-progress, as is every author. The reading lists of elder writers reveal minds challenging themselves decade after decade.

What strikes me about the Updike list: the preponderance of nonfiction and the dedication to research of all kinds. (For his first Rabbit books, Updike consulted car salesmanship manuals, kept lists of basketball moves, and studied a Planter Peanuts Bar wrapper, "lovingly pressed as an autumn leaf" according to a 2010 New York Times article, in order to describe those details and ephemera of his protagonist's life.)

For the book he was still writing at the age of 76, when he died of lung cancer, Updike was studying the lives and ideas of ancient Romans, the history of warfare, and religious ideas. He was possibly trying to teach himself Greek, or at least looking up some words -- a possibility made more poignant by the NYT mention that at Harvard, where the ambitious farmboy often fretted about losing his scholarship, Updike was found to have a limited aptitude for languages (he finally dropped French) and his final examiners noted his "weak grasp of classical literature."

Even Updike (who published not only novels but essays and poetry, including a final poignant collection in 2009 that addresses themes of aging and illness) had some weak spots in his education --weaknesses he either surmounted or perhaps felt he was laboring to surmount. All this is conjecture, of course. Updike had a clear vision of who he was and what he hoped to do at a very young age and he worked at that goal to the very end.

More information on the Updike archive at Houghton Library, which provided this list, here and here. The processing of the Updike collection, with integration of new materials following the author's death, is expecting to be finished in 2012.

From left to right, on the desk:

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam, 1953.

Roget’s Thesaurus. London: Penguin, 1954.

F. Kinchin Smith and T.W. Melluish, Teach Yourself Greek. London: English Universities Press, 1954. New York train receipt between pages 72 and 73. Shakespeare course description between pages 314 and 315.

King James Bible. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. On back free endpaper, in pencil: “For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever. – Deut. 33:40”

The New Testament. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. New York: North Point Press, 1996.
Annotations in pencil on back free endpaper and pastedown, annotations throughout, several page markers.

Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. Translated by Robert Graves. Baltimore: Penguin, 1957. Penciled annotations throughout. Signed drawing marking pages 144-145.

Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome. Translated by Michael Grant. Penguin, 1956. Penciled annotations throughout.

Amanda Claridge. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Paper markers set at page 168 and 174.

Robin Lane Fox. Pagans and Christians. New York: Knopf, 1986. Uncorrected proof copy. Markers at pages 30 and 280.

Henry Chadwick. The Early Church. Penguin, 1984. Ink and pencil annotations throughout. Markers at pages 24 and 54.

Edith Hamilton. The Roman Way to Western Civilization. New York: Mentor Books, 1963. Page 47 is dog-eared.

A Lexicon, abridged from Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958. Marker at page 578.

Colm Luibheid, ed. The Essential Eusebius. New York: Mentor Books, 1966. Penciled annotations on reverse of back cover.

George F.X. Griffith. The Last Years of Saint Paul. Facsimile of 1906 Longmans edition. Penciled annotations throughout.

A.N. Wilson. Paul: The Mind of the Apostle. New York: Norton, 1997. Annotations throughout; markers at pages 50, 76 (photocopy of information on Paul), 112 (newspaper clipping, “Laborers’ burial site excavated near Rome”), 178, 248.

Garry Wills. What Paul Meant. Penguin, 2007. Penciled annotations throughout.

John Keegan. A History of Warfare. Dust jacket marking page 12. New York: Knopf, 1993. Penciled annotations throughout. Paper marker at page 262.

Graham Webster. The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries A.D. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. 4 pages of notes on yellow legal paper marking page 90.

Karl Barth. The Epistle to the Romans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968. Annotations throughout. Markers on pages 110, 164, 180, 218.

The New Complete Works of Josephus. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999. Markers on page 40 and 650. Annotation throughout.

Henryk Sienkiewicz. Quo Vadis. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1993. Markers on pages 66, 338, 468.

Mircea Eliade. A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1978. Annotations throughout.

Webster’s New Pocket Dictionary. Cleveland: Wiley, 2000.

Stephanie Jaeger interviews Kris Farmen: The Devil's Share

Can we ever own the land--or does the land instead possess us? That’s the question posed in the jacket copy of Kris Farmen’s novel The Devils’ Share, published by McRoy Blackburn of Fairbanks.   Set in the Wrangell-St. Elias wilderness, it’s the story of a young man named Jack who “faces the dangers hidden behind both the smiles of humans and the beauties of the vast country where Canada and Alaska meet."

Without giving away too much of the story, it does include violent acts committed by a young person. What sort of reader reaction do you get to this potentially sensitive issue?

After The Devil’s Share came out, I dropped by a friend’s house in Homer and he stopped me at the door saying he had read my book and wasn’t sure if he wanted to let me in his house.  He was joking and we had a good laugh about it over coffee, but I confess that it has made me wonder if people I know and have read my book now look a bit askance at me.  I suspect writers tend to worry too much about this sort of thing.  Another reader who felt moved to contact me said the violence was brutal but even so she couldn’t put the book down.  Violence is ugly, contrary to how it is portrayed in the movies and on television, and if I’m writing a violent scene then I’m going to show it for what it is.

How did you decide to use recurrent dreams or hallucinations as a plot device in the novel?

It wasn’t much of a conscious decision, it just grew out of the flow of the story.  I’ve always been fascinated by the belief held by many Native American people (including the Athabascan Indians of Alaska and Canada) that the souls of the dead inhabit the same world as we the living, and that’s where many of those scenes, both in town and in the woods, came from.  I would like to point out though that while Jack is a pothead, he’s not doing acid or PCP anything, so these aren’t “hallucinations” in the banal say-no-to-drugs meaning of the word.  Jack is a wild animal, in very literal terms, and as such he’s much more in tune with this spiritual plane of existence than the rest of us.  In other scenes I used dreams as a very straightforward way of flashing back to scenes in Jack’s past that shed some light on who he is and why he thinks what he does about life and wilderness.

What audience were you aiming for when you wrote this book?

Ultimately I wrote it for anybody who likes to read a good story, but I think I was speaking very specifically to a certain population of young men—say in the 15 to 22 age bracket—who dress in black Carhartts, carry around big knives and think they’re badasses because they grew up in Alaska.  Anybody who’s spent any time in rural Alaska will know the guys I’m talking about.  You can find them from Chitina to Nome to Cantwell to Anchor Point.  I used to be one of those guys, and I suppose The Devil’s Share is sort of like the older, slightly more mature me saying to them (and to my former self), So you think you’re a real tough hombre, do you?  Well let me tell you a story…

Tell us about the book's journey toward publication. How long did you spend writing the book from your first ideas to the final draft? What kinds of revisions did you make in the drafts you wrote? How tough was it to find an agent or publisher?

It took me nearly five years to get The Devil’s Share before the reading public, from the first session at the keyboard to that magical day when I got to hold my first book in my hand.  I was actually living in Australia when I started the first draft; I’d been away from Alaska for more than two years and I was homesick as hell, so it was cathartic for me to sit down and visit Alaska in my imagination.  That first draft took about five months; I lost track of how many subsequent drafts I wrote, though I’d guess the total number is somewhere around twenty.  The first few drafts were much longer, closer to 120,000 words, with the present ending being the midpoint of the story.  There is Hemingway’s line that it’s essential to know where your story ends, but Carla Helfferich at McRoy and Blackburn gets the credit for making me see what had to go and what had to stay.  I sent the manuscript to her back in 2007, and she said she would like to publish it but that I should make an effort to land a big-time publisher and/or agent.  Long story short, that didn’t happen, so I sent her a revised draft the following year and she jumped on it.

How much of your novel was based on your own personal experience? What inspired the story? What's your process in writing fiction?

I think Wallace Stegner once said that it doesn’t matter if your novel is autobiography, it only matters if it’s art.  I’ve lived in the Wrangell Mountains, and they’re tied with Cook Inlet for being my very favorite part of Alaska.  Bud’s lodge on Boulder Lake is very much the world I grew up in.  My dad was a hunting guide for almost fifty years (he’s been retired for quite a while now), and much of my childhood was spent in remote bush camps and lodges.  Of course, when I was a teenager I didn’t appreciate what an amazing way to grow up this was.  I can recall sitting in the woods (hiding from my chores) more than once wishing something interesting, dangerous and cool would happen instead of just me having to flesh bear hides, haul water, wash dishes and watch the old men play cribbage.  I think that could ultimately be considered the inspiration for The Devil’s Share. 

I don’t really have a process for writing fiction beyond parking my butt in a chair and banging away at the keyboard.  When a story comes to me it comes quickly, accompanied by a splitting headache.  That’s when I know I’ve got a good one.  The Devil’s Share came to me in a single flash where I saw every scene in the book happening all at once.  With the new novel that I’ve just finished, set on the Kenai Peninsula in the 1880s, it was the main character’s voice that I heard.  He told me about growing up as a Russian-speaker in an Alaska that was gradually becoming American, and about his ability to change himself into a bear.  All I could do for nearly twenty minutes was stare at the floor and listen.  I’m always up for listening to the voices in my head.

Kris Farmen will be signing copies of The Devil’s Share at the historic Hope Library from 11-4 pm on July 2 as part of their First Saturdays event.  He’s also signing on July 9 at Fireside Books from 1-3 pm.

CONFESSIONS OF AN ALASKAN SCREENWRITER, the Finale: A Guest Post by James McLain

Before I go further in my cautionary tale, I need to harken back to one further lesson I learned from the vampire script I discussed in my last blog. There is a rule of thumb that each page of a script equates to about one minute of film time. Thus, when I wrote my script, I saw nothing wrong with writing a significant number of scenes outdoors in Alaska in the winter. I mean if they were only two or three pages long how hard could it be? The answer is very hard and very ugly. A two or three page scene can sometimes take two or three days to film; two or three very cold, hard, twelve hour days with a wonderful cast and crew trying valiantly to not have non-replaceable parts freeze off. I love actors and I think the crew people I have worked with are the best. Even though they proved to be willing to spend many long hours outdoors in Alaska in the winter trying to put my words on film, I learned not to abuse them like that if there was any way to write around it. As Elvis so famously sang, “Don’t be cruel.”

Back to my story:        

Next, I wanted to write something a bit more epic. I decided to write an action-adventure tale. Nonetheless, not wanting to repeat my earlier mistake of writing an expensive period piece, I set it in modern Alaska. Being a very quick writer, about six weeks after I started, I presented my shiny new script to another director friend of mine. He read it and loved it. Again, who knew? He immediately optioned it (for basically nothing.) I thought, “Great, now I can have an action film made.” It was at this moment that my friend said, “Now, we just need to raise 35 or 40 million dollars to make the film.” I wondered out loud how that was possible. I mean, it wasn’t a period piece. He patiently explained that my script was basically a sort of travelogue of Alaska. It had boats and planes and trains and car chases and explosions and all the standard props of a shoot-‘em-up film. It was set everywhere from Kodiak Island to the Yukon River and points in between.  Apparently, all that stuff is expensive; this was getting redundant.

I was also pretty much out of useful ideas. By that I mean I had plenty of ideas for scripts but all films would have cost a bazillion dollars to make. If I hadn’t been such a writing junky, I would have called it a day. Just to keep my hand in, I wrote a couple of more short films and posted them in the internet. Nothing happened and I was frankly almost convinced that nothing ever would. I had been writing for two and a half years, had two short films made, had optioned two of the five feature scripts I had written at that point, and had a film based on a third script about half done. Unfortunately, I had also made a total of eighteen dollars from my writing during the same period. On one hand, I was a rousing success. Apparently, a lot of people liked my writing. On the other hand, after more than two years work, I had not made enough to even take my wife out for a good dinner. Then one day I got an email from a guy in Virginia who wanted to buy one of my shorts; he wanted to know how much. I told him one hundred dollars. I mean it only took me about three hours to write. He sent me a check. It wasn’t much, but somehow it gave me the encouragement to go on.

I looked around for another idea for a script. I looked in books, magazines, on the internet, everywhere . . . for the idea for a new script that would meet all the criteria I had established for making a sellable script. It needed to be set in modern times, not have too many characters, have no car chases or other expensive add-ons, be located more or less in one area, and it needed to be in a genre I had not yet used. I didn’t want to get stuck writing just one type of movie; doing that limits your market.            

Then one day I found an article on the net that gave me an idea for a courtroom drama/thriller. Since I had been an attorney in my past life, I knew a lot about Alaska criminal law. I wrote another feature script. One of my director friends read it, optioned it for basically no money, and told me that it could be made for around a million dollars. That amount, he said, was doable. It sat around for most of a year while my friend and I tried everything to get interest in the film. Then, one day, I got a call from Ed Asner. It seemed that a mutual acquaintance had gotten him the script, he had read it, he loved it, and he wanted to play the lead in my movie. Now, more than a year later, we have apparently raised the money for the movie. (I’ll be a real believer when I get a check). We are scheduled to start filming on October third. A film I wrote is going to star an actor who has won seven Emmy awards. Very cool! It seems I am an overnight success . . . And it only took four years of hard work, anguish, and worry.

I’m still writing. The last lesson learned: Don’t give up.

Aspiring screenwriters are invited to attend the 49 Writers Screenwriting Roundtable with visiting screenwriter Dave Hunsaker on July 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Out North Contemporary Art House, 3800 DeBarr Rd. in Anchorage. Registration is required.

  

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

It’s official!  Our totally cool and totally free “Your Alaska Online Travel ‘Zine” workshop for writers ages 12-15 will be held at the equally cool Teen Underground center at the Anchorage Loussac Library.  Our thanks to the Loussac Youth Services library staff and to East Coast travel writer Jenna Schnuer for this great opportunity, as well as to our Raven Words Summer partners at the Alaska State Writing Consortium and the wonderful people at Anchorage Rotary who made Teen Underground a reality.

We’ll take the first ten writers ages 12-15 who complete our application for this exciting workshop July 18-22.  The application deadline is July 6. And don’t forget the other great Raven Words Summer Youth Writing Workshops: Comic Adventures; Jumpstart Your Write Brain; and Raven and Tigers and Bears.

Our Memoir Weekend with Kim Rich, begins tonight, June 24, at 6:30 p.m.  Last-minute registrants are fine.  And screenwriters, be sure to register for Screenwriters Roundtable with Dave Hunsaker on July 11 at 6:30 p.m.  Dave’s a busy guy, but he has offered to take time while he's in Anchorage to share insights from his extensive screenwriting experience, including work with directors Robert Redford and Mel Gibson.  Bring a treatment or a beat sheet or a story idea you’d like to adapt for film.  With the group, Dave plans to discuss ideas, identify problems, and spitball solutions.  He's planned a format that's unstructured enough to meet the needs of the individuals as the class considers the craft of screenwriting as well as the business. Some familiarity with screenwriting is assumed.

We’re enjoying some great new volunteers and looking forward to getting to know our summer intern, Kayla Beth Moore, who arrives next month.  If you’re looking for ways you can help, here are few to keep in mind:
Got a new high tech digital camera and you’ve mothballed the old one?  As long as it’s in working condition, our Raven Words Youth Program could put that old digital camera to good use. We’ll even give you a receipt for your taxes.  Email 49writers@gmail.com to arrange for a pick-up.

We’ve set up two designated funds to which you can donate.  One is the John Haines Memorial Poetry Fund, set up in memory of Alaska’s venerable writer to support instruction, events, and scholarships for Alaska’s poets.  The other is the Raven Words Youth Program Fund, to support our expanding youth outreach efforts.
And speaking of expanding programs, we can always use good volunteers.  Our volunteer form is the best way to connect with us about opportunities.
Amid this whirlwind of activity, we’ve also got writing and publishing news.  Deb Vanasse’s latest book Lucy’s Dance (Lugiim Yuraa in the Yup’ik edition) has launched with the University of Alaska Press.  It’s distributed by the University of Chicago Press and is available in fine bookstores throughout Alaska as well as online.

Also, Bill Streever has a great piece in this week’s Wall Street Journal about a moulin descent at Matanuska Glacier.

Issue Number Four (Vol. 2 Issue 2) of Cirque is now online. It is on sale at  http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/206965
The deadline for submissions for Issue Number Five is September 21.

On Tuesday June 28, 7-8pm, Anchor Park Reading Group will be meeting at Barnes and Noble, 200 E. Northern Lights, Anchorage.

Kris Farmen will be signing copies of his new book, The Devil's Share, at the historic Hope Library on Saturday July 2, 11-4, as part of their First Saturdays series, and then again at Fireside Books in Palmer on Saturday July 9, 1-2pm, as part of their local author event.

The fourth annual Summer 2011 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Reading Series, held in conjunction with UAA’s Department of Creative Writing & Literary Arts, MFA Program in Creative Writing, begins Sunday July 10, and continues through Tuesday July 19----a total of NINE (9) literary evenings for you to choose from!
The series opens with visiting writer Richard Rodriguez, (contributing editor, Harper’s Magazine; author of Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez; Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father; and Brown: The Last Discovery of America). For nearly 20 years, Rodriguez was a television essayist on the PBS “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”   At present, he is writing a book (for Viking) on the “Ecology of Monotheism,” about the impact of the desert on the experience of God for the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

All programs are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.  Location:  UAA Fine Arts, 150, except where noted.  Doors open at 7:30 p.m.  UAA’s Campus Bookstore will be on-hand selling books from visiting writers, guest speakers, and MFA faculty authors.  The readings begin at 8pm and conclude by 9pm.
On Monday, July 18, visiting writer and culture critic, Curtis White, will present.  Over a 30-year career, White has published 11 books and over 100 stories, essays, and reviews.  Notable among his works of cultural criticism are The Middle Mind (Harper-Collins), The Spirit of Disobedience, and The Barbaric Heart.  He has published frequently in Harper’s Magazine, Orion, The Village Voice, and Playboy.

Please continue to check CWLA’s website for the latest information.

Your Turn: Marketing Tips

Dani Haviland writes with this tip, a good opener to invite all blog regulars to submit any of their own latest marketing tips.

Dani says:
Everyone looks forward to having his or her book autographed by the author. But with the cost of self-publishing and reluctance of agents to sign on and promote new writers, I went ahead and started green: my first novel was published as an ebook. No trees were maimed or killed in the production of Dances Naked.

But now the question is, how do I promote myself? I don’t have a hard copy of the book to hawk or show off. But I found a way out of the ecologically responsible dilemma: use ‘jest a little bit’ of cellulose. I ordered and designed business cards through VistaPrint. The QR code (free: just google ‘QR code generator’) is a short cut for the smart phones and other optical devices to get to a web page. I copied the code as a .jpg file and inserted it as a picture on the back of the card. My code leads right to the description page for Dances Naked, my featured book on Amazon. I can hand out the cards at events and offer to inscribe the card. The person can buy a copy for himself or ‘send’ a copy to a friend. If the interested person doesn’t have a scanner, no worries: the web address is written out just underneath it.

Any other tips out there, including ones that take advantage of new technology or social media?

Ken Waldman: Lighthouse Lit Fest Report

REPORT FROM THE SIXTH ANNUAL LIGHTHOUSE LIT FEST, JUNE 3-JUNE 18, 2011, DENVER

In the late 1990s, as I expanded my touring, and started traveling further east from my Anchorage base, I twice attended the Colorado Book Festival in Denver. There I met a couple, Mike Henry, a poet, and his wife, Andrea Dupree, a fiction writer. They'd recently started an organization, Lighthouse Writers, which offered classes for aspiring writers. Though we haven't crossed paths in years, we've stayed in touch. I let them know about my books, CDs, and touring. They kept me on their mailing list. They've outgrown one building, and are about to outgrow another. Six years ago they started a literary festival to supplement their other programming. The concept proved successful, and this year's Lighthouse Lit Fest ran from June 3 to June 18.

Touring in Colorado this spring, I was fortunate to take part, and led a craft seminar on Monday, June 13, titled Five Poetry Prompts. Later in theweek, I attended a salon titled What's Fiction For, and was guest musician for the Friday, June 17, final party/literary agent reception. While the conference is wholly urban--there's a mix of weekend intensives, craft seminars, evening salons, evening readings, a kickoff party, a final party/reception, and a weekend devoted to the business of writing--the two weeks of events make it possible for Denver residents to pick-and-choose in the midst of daily routine or else more fully immerse in scheduled activities.

Out-of-towners can participate for a few days, or longer, while enjoying a major city. This year's faculty included regular Lighthouse instructors, who all have MFAs and/or have published acclaimed work, as well as writers/professors at nearby campuses, including Jake Adam York, who directs the Creative Writing program at University of Colorado at Denver and Nic Brown, who teaches at University ofNorthern Colorado. Visiting writers included David Wroblewski, who wrote the best-selling Story of Edgar Sawtelle. The five literary agents in attendance were all well-known and well-respected; four flew in from New York City.

At the final party, I met a geologist, Rob Wesson, who's working on a book, and who has a home in McCarthy. That was my only Alaska connection at the festival. Otherwise, I enjoyed attending the salon, which featured a provocative discussion about the meaning of fiction for both writers and readers. (Consensus was that despite the ways of the world, the need for--and interest in--fictional worlds was not going to disappear in our lifetimes.) My seminar on poetry prompts drew an eclectic group, including published poets, high school Creative Writing teachers, and a novelist whose recent book was a finalist for the upcoming Colorado Book Award in fiction.

After all these years, I was heartened to see firsthand how Lighthouse Writers has evolved, and was pleased to participate in this year's Lighthouse LitFest. For more information about the organization, www.lighthousewriters.org.

49 Writers Interview: Jenna Schnuer

East Coast travel writer Jenna Schnuer came to us with an offer we couldn't refuse:  she wanted to give back to Alaskans by volunteering with our Raven Words Summer Youth Writing Workshops.  Thanks to her generosity, we're able to offer "Your Alaska Online Travel 'Zine" free of charge to young writers ages 12-15.  Applications are due July 6 and class size is limited, so forward this blog post to your favorite young writers, and direct the to our 49 Writers website for link to our easy online application.

What drew you to travel writing – and to Alaska?

Very late one night in early 2004, I was writing on deadline when I received an airline email urging me to use my frequent flier miles or they might disappear forever. I’d always wanted to visit Alaska–the idea of it had always appealed to me–so I booked a 10-day trip.

 I knew I would love the landscape and the animals and all the things first timers expect to fall for in Alaska but I made so many friends on that first trip and tried so many things that were new to my life—including catching a 21-inch rainbow trout—that I fell for it a million times harder than I’d expected. I remember feeling so very sad when it was time to go home. I’d never felt that way after visiting any other place.

Before the trip, people kept telling me oh, Alaska will change you. I grew up in the NYC area and lived in the city for a very long time. I do have a bit, ok, a lot of cynical east coaster about me and I brushed off the comments. But Alaska did change me. It also kicked off the travel writing part of my professional life. I’d made my living as a writer since 1992 and as a freelance writer since 1999 but, as of that trip, travel was part of my writing mix.

What inspired you to donate a week from your busy schedule to help Alaska’s kids develop their own online travel magazine?

I used to volunteer teach a weekly art class for kids in NYC. I loved seeing the kids find their voices through creativity. Because of my random travel schedule, I can’t commit to a weekly anything anymore--but I really missed working with kids. I thought of this idea a while back and, once I decided to spend the summer in Alaska, figured it was the perfect chance to give it a go.

What sort of fun and learning will be part of the workshop?

I think a lot of it will depend on the kids who sign up and what they’re interested in. I’m planning to make the program flexible enough that we can really tailor the topics we cover to the things the kids care about the most. No matter the topics—from food to sports to hiking to wildlife—we’ll cover the basics of reporting and writing news articles, taking photographs, maybe even shoot some videos, and, definitely, the how-tos of building an online magazine using one of the free online blog programs. I’m going to try and run it like it’s a real newsroom so we’ll have a morning staff meeting and then get to the getting to. If the kids want to continue on after the class is over (or launch other creative projects of their own), they’ll have the skills to do it.

One of the things that I’m looking forward to the most is giving kids a chance to take a new look at the place they live. All of the places they walk by each and every day? They’ll see them with fresh eyes. Their favorite places to skateboard or bike? Now they’re article ideas. Favorite hot-dog stand? Now it’s the subject of a food review. 

Your donated time allows 49 Writers to offer this workshop without charge to youth ages 12-15 who complete the workshop application.  Why is this important?

I don’t want money to hold any kids back from getting the chance to learn new skills, have some fun, exercise their creative chops, and, perhaps, explore a possible future career. The program will be at its best if all the seats are filled by kids who really want to be there.

What do you hope will be the outcome of the travel ‘zine project?

That the kids will find a way to express themselves, that it’ll kick off (or enhance) a love of writing and photography, that it’ll give them a chance to look at Anchorage and Alaska in a new way, and, hopefully, that the program will just be a whole lot of fun and make for a far more memorable summer than the kids expected to have when school let out.

The Raven Words Youth Writing Program is expanding with the goal of offering fun, exciting literary programs to Alaska's youth, and donations are always welcome.  We appreciate your support!

Confessions of an Alaskan Screenwriter, Act 3: A Guest Post by James McLain

When last we were speaking, I had learned that you need to not only write really good stories, but that period pieces are not likely to be made because they are very expensive. Both are good lessons, and ones I planned on taking to heart. Remembering the primary axiom of my chosen profession, “Writers write,” I was looking around for my next project. Then, more of less out of the clear blue, I was asked to try writing a short film by a couple of film makers. It seemed that they wanted something to present at the Anchorage International Film Festival and they had read my first two scripts. One of them had the idea for a story but wanted someone to turn it into a script.

For those who don’t know, a “short” script is anything less than about eighty pages long. I think mine was about seven or eight pages. I had never written a short script but I decided to give it a shot. I mean, what was the worst that could happen? If they liked it, I would get film credit. If they didn’t, I’d learn a bit more about writing scripts.
 

I sat down and lo and behold, four hours later, I had finished my first short. With much trepidation, I shipped it off via email to my film friends . . . They liked it . . . Who knew?

 

I like to misdirect my audience into believing the story is heading in one direction and then take a left turn surprising them at the end. Short scripts are great for this. You set them up and then knock them over. The story line I was given fit perfectly for this, so it was easy. They made the film and submitted to the film festival. We won a small prize and I was ecstatic. Then I was asked to write another short film for the same festival. I did it, again in about four hours, and it won a different small prize. I was on a roll. I had two short films made and both of them were pretty well received. I thought it was time to write another feature.

 

At the awards ceremony for my shorts, I ran into the director. I told him I had an idea for my next feature. I can’t go into what it was, because I signed a nondisclosure agreement. I can say that he didn’t want me to write my story because he had the same idea. Somehow, and I don’t really remember the exact order of things, I ended up agreeing to write the script for him. He liked it and optioned it for next to nothing. He also had me sign the nondisclosure agreement. I really don’t regret signing the option. As a new screenwriter, there is nothing wrong with hitching your wagon to an up and coming director. I even think the film may be made in the not so distant future.

 

I do, however, regret signing the nondisclosure agreement. All a beginning screenwriter has to sell is his/her ability to write. If I couldn’t show my work to anyone, how was I going to prove to people that I had the ability to write? I won’t tell you what to do, but I have never signed another nondisclosure agreement for one of my scripts. I doubt I ever will. Another lesson learned.

 

So there I was; three features under my belt and no new script to write. What to do? Then one day not so long after that, I saw on facebook that my director friend wanted to know if anyone had a vampire screenplay available. I was a little hurt. I had written two shorts for him and a feature and he hadn’t called me to ask to see if I could write his vampire epic. I called him up on the phone. I told him I thought I could do it. It was somewhere around April, so he asked me if I could have a script done by August. I allowed that I thought I could get one done by then.

 

I saw this as a challenge. He hadn’t called me! Having been a legal writer for many years, I was used to writing under strict deadlines and intense pressure. I sat down and began to write. Eight days later, I presented him with a shiny new vampire feature. (I tried for seven days but even I needed to sleep sometimes.) I wanted people to call me when they wanted a script, and I wanted to prove I could produce one on short notice. I didn’t let the quality of the story slip. I do admit that as the long hours ran on my spelling became even more creative than usual. Ah well, spelling is for machines. 

 

The director loved it even though it didn’t fit exactly into his original idea. It was a vampire film and it is enough different from others that I can hold my head up when it finally gets finished. It has been about 75% done for about the last year. Not enough money to finish it. Another lesson learned: Sometimes writers have to help raise money to get their films done. .

More next week . . .         

Aspiring screenwriters are invited to attend the 49 Writers Screenwriting Roundtable with visiting screenwriter Dave Hunsaker on July 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Out North Contemporary Art House, 3800 DeBarr Rd. in Anchorage.  Registration is required.

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

Visiting author Bruce Hale instructs a full class of local writers on the fine points of being funny.

For starters, we want to thank the Loussac Library’s Youth Services department for bringing children’s author Bruce Hale to Anchorage, where he delighted local writers last night with his course “Funny Business: Seven Secrets to Writing Humor.”

Our Tutka Bay Writers Retreat with Dani Shapiro is now full, but there’s still room in our Memoir Weekend with Kim Rich, which begins next Friday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m. And we've opened registration for a Screenwriting Roundtable with Dave Hunsaker, one of the most productive screenwriters in the state, on July 11 at 6:30 p.m.

We’re still working out the final details, but it’s looking now like all ten seats in “Your Alaska Online Travel ‘Zine” with East Coast travel writer Jenna Schnuer will be FREE of charge. Send young writers ages 10 and up to our scholarship application to reserve a spot. The application deadline is June 26, and the workshop begins July 18. And don’t forget the other great Raven Words Summer Youth Writing Workshops: Comic Adventures; Jumpstart Your Write Brain; and Raven and Tigers and Bears.

If you’re interested in helping with short and long-range planning for our youth writing programs, join us June 22 at 7 p.m. at 645 W. 3^rd Ave. We welcome your energy and ideas.

On Saturday June 18 at 1pm, local author Steven Levi will present and sign copies of his new book, The Clara Nevada: Gold, Green, Murder and Alaska's Inside Passage at Barnes and Noble, 200 E. Northern Lights, Anchorage.

On Monday June 20 at 1pm, the UAA Campus Bookstore is holding a Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference post-conference get-together. Come celebrate the 10th anniversary of the conference and hear what made this year's gathering special. All attendees invited. For more information, contact Rachel Epstein 907 786 4782.

Fireside Books in Palmer is looking for 15 local authors to feature at their Local Author Fair on July 9th--the same day as the Midsummer's Garden and Art Fair in downtown Palmer, and foot traffic is expected to be great. Applications accepted through Monday June 20. Contact Christopher at Fireside Books, by email or call 907 745 2665.

The Alaska Writers Guild's monthly meeting will take place on Tuesday June 21st at 7pm, Loussac Library, Anchorage, and will feature Annual Fishing Jamboree with Chris Batan.

First Alaskans editor and 49 Writers member Steve Quinn reports that Shehla Anjum had a wonderful engaging cover story in the First Alaskans magazine for the April/May issue. Look for more fun stories from Shehla in upcoming issues, starting with the August issue. Leslie Oh, 49 Writers interview coordinator, also joins First Alaskans as a regular contributor, starting with the August issue. She'll be assigned a cover story for next year as well.

Steve Quinn received the award for best magazine feature writing from the Alaska Press Club during its annual convention in the spring.

Ela: Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference Recap

Back in April, Eva Saulitis wrote about the seed the keynote address sows at the beginning of the Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference, that then finds rich soil and fertilizer in all interactions and events, both scheduled in the conference program and informal. She also evoked the agony of having to choose between concurrent sessions. I'm sure that many can relate to feeling that of four concurrent sessions, "there are always at least two workshops I can't live without." My first, crude characterization of being at the conference is that it's like being a kid in a candy store. But that's not it: it's not the steep, ersatz buzz of undiluted sugar, the sensory overwhelm of artificial, caricatured flavorings, followed by crash, emptiness and craving. The stimulation is so grounded; the nourishment is true and lasting, and earned. It's more like being in an orchard at harvest-time with a team of glad harvesters, with all the paraphernalia of preservation: dryers, canners, cider presses. We harvest, we feast, we process the surplus for later use. And we leave satiated, buoyed by the taste of laughter, the savor of insight and reflection gleaned from working side by side, with baskets of goodness for the months ahead.

Conference director Carol Swartz 

This was the Conference's tenth year. Attendees arrived from all over Alaska, from all over the lower 48, from England. One of the presenters, LeAnne Howe, flew in from Amman, Jordan. First-timers were caught by the breathtaking scenery and held by collective enthusiasm, the sense of being in the midst of something special. Speaker after speaker tried to convey adequate praise for Carol Swartz for her stalwart dedication, vision, dynamism and sheer determination to make this happen.

Since last year's conference, some have had books published or accepted for publication. Some have been accepted to MFA programs. Some have found a home for their writing with newspaper or magazine columns. Some have entered the world of presses and publishing. Some have joined writers' groups, or found more regular rhythm in their writing practice. We return, eager to share, to reconnect, to be inspired. First-time attendees are quickly swept into the "buzz" of the occasion: I never sense any cliquiness here.

In the keynote address, Rita Dove spoke of the child's unreflective awareness of the interconnectedness of everything, which we are always attempting to return to as writers, striving to frame the ineffable. She highlighted the importance of silence, of space around the words, of acknowledging, with Rodin, that the work is already present to be liberated from the stone. This reverence, this sense of being in service to the work recurred throughout the conference. The faculty readings in the evenings often resonated with it, and on the final morning, Brenda Miller offered a session devoted to spiritual writing that acknowledged all writing as somehow spiritual.

Rita Dove and her husband Fred Viebahn were full participants in the conference and were so generous with their presence, warm and approachable. All the faculty were engaged, friendly and palpably interested in the individual writers peopling the conference. The feeling that we all learn from each other is one of my favorite things about this gathering. Thanks to Fred Viebahn, there are youtube videos of the Sunday morning boat cruise and of the Monday night bonfire, recording the fun and companionship in informal settings.

Last year, then-State Writer Laureate Nancy Lord closed the Conference with eleven pieces of advice for writers, which she then graciously shared on this blog (I still have them on my wall). This year, Rita Dove concluded her craft talk on Monday with seven more suggestions. Some of these were process-oriented: she recommended notebooks over journals. A place for setting down the raw substance of the material is essential, while instant editorializing and 'explaining it to yourself' cuts out an important step. Others were principles to inform our whole approach and orientation to our work. "No Excuses" will stay with me, as will the reminder that every roadblock is an opportunity to explore the neighborhood. And of course, she concluded with silence and its crucial role as the ground for each word.

Peggy Shumaker, crowned

In this year's closing address, current State Writer Laureate Peggy Shumaker, with her characteristic generosity, focused attention on other writers and on ways of staying connected. She shared several projects that she has underway that are aimed at getting Alaska's writers published, together with a listing of books by Alaskans published in 2010-11 and forthcoming in the next two years, and of resources for Alaskan writers. All the authors published by her press Boreal Books were present and she invited each of them to read, and so we also heard from Eva Saulitis, Frank Soos, Anne Coray, Nicole Stellon O'Donnell and Erin Coughlin Hollowell. She also encouraged everyone to get listed in the Alaskan Writers Directory, a tool she has devised to facilitate connection and contact.

Today, my pile of work hasn't gone away and the weeds have continued to grow, but I have pages of ideas requiring time and space to liberate them from their 'stone,' several new books and more titles to order, a page of email addresses and phone numbers together with plans to meet up and read/write together, and some new approaches to my work as a writer, both practical and philosophical. I also have a brimming sense of gratitude for everyone who was a part of what just took place. 

49 Writers Volunteer Interview: Leslie Hsu Oh

Continuing our series of interviews with the great volunteers on whom we depend, meet our Interview Coordinator, Leslie Hsu Oh.  Of course we can always use more help, including writers for the interview team and volunteers to help with our Alaska Book Week Oct. 15-22.  If you'd like to be part of the 49 Writers energy, fill our volunteer form.

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

When I was twenty, my eighteen-year-old brother died of liver cancer.  A week later, my mother was diagnosed with the same disease.  She died a year after that.  Their deaths drive the choices I make in my life, where I feel I must make a difference in other people’s lives.  Currently, I contribute to the award-winning Love+eMotion weekly blog on Kids These Days! (first place in AK Professional Communicators’ "Best Talk Radio Show" and "Best Website” award and Alaska Press Club’s “Best Ongoing Public Affairs Radio Program”), teach creative writing and business communications at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and freelance.

My short stories and essays have appeared in Cirque, Rosebud Magazine and Under the Sun.  "Between the Lines" was listed as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays of 2010.  I am also co-author of The Strategic Application of Information Technology in Health Care Organizations (McGraw-Hill 1999).

I am honored to serve as 49 Writers’ Interview Coordinator.  Stephanie Jaeger, Andromeda Romano-Lax, Lizbeth Meredith, Mariah Oxford, Kathleen Tarr, Deb Vanasse, Rose Winters, and I interview authors who write about Alaska and Alaskan-based organizations.

Our blog receives over 10,000 hits per month, offering both interviewer and interviewee publicity.  So if interviewing authors sounds interesting to you, contact me at lhsu@post.harvard.edu.

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

I am passionate about building a writing community and fostering mentorships in a career that can be isolating and self-centered.  My friend, Mary Sears, a traditional healer from Point Hope, explained it best.  When you give freely, it always comes back.  Maybe not in the ways that you expect, but it always comes back.

What’s a highlight of your involvement so far?

As the Interview Blog Coordinator, I enjoy seeing both author and interviewer grow from their collaboration.  My hope is that mentorships can germinate from these connections.

Tell us something about your literary interests or activities.

I come from a long line of artists.  My grandmother was a famous oil painter and portrait artist in China. While seven siblings dabbled in the arts, my mother was the only one to make art a profession, receiving a master’s in journalism with a minor in advertising.  Beneath my mother’s metal art table, I was exposed to art at an early age, experimenting with colored pencils, cameras, paints, charcoal, and oils.

Every Saturday morning, my brother and I groaned through Chinese classes until it was time for the elective period where my mother taught art.  Our sketches morphed from two dimensions to three.  Pencils worked their magic on the page, transforming fruits into a state of permanence, forever ripe and ready to burst.  Our mother patiently showed us the power of art, how it could safeguard, sustain, and mean something different to each beholder.  I try to always keep that in mind when I’m writing.

In the summers, my family took two-week road trips through national parks, where my mother would take us horseback riding, white water rafting, or cave spelunking.  Together, we explored all the national parks in the United States and Canada except the ones in Alaska.

My mother’s photographs captured the girl I always hope to be: toes naked against the wind, eyes closed, lips pursed ready to blow apart a dandelion clock.

What’s the last great book you read?

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.  I've recently learned that I'm a Yatesian (apparently a “cultural-literary handshake” fraternity including Nick Hornby, Kate Atkinson, David Hare, Raymond Carver, Kurt Vonnegut, Joan Didion and Richard Ford).  If I ever have writer’s block or am depressed from a rejection, I flip to any page of this book and read one of the passages I highlighted and remember why I write.  “Anxious, round-eyed, two by two, they looked and moved as if a calm and orderly escape from this place had become the one great necessity of their lives; as if, in fact, they wouldn’t be able to begin to live at all until they were out beyond the rumbling pink billows of exhaust and the crunching gravel of this parking lot, out where the black sky went up and up forever and there were hundreds of stars.”

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

The thrill of watering an idea and seeing it bear fruit and then multiple throughout the country is an addictive ride. 

I’ve raced down that road with The Hepatitis B Initiative, a nonprofit I founded in 1997.  The most profound lesson I learned from that ride was when to eject from the driver seat. It was the hardest thing I had to do, probably akin to watching my kids grow up and eventually leave my home.

So in ten years, my hope for this writing center is that it achieves flight across the nation, out of the hands of those who created it.

For more information about Leslie Hsu Oh, visit www.lesliehsuoh.com.

Confessions of an Alaskan Screenwriter, Act 2: A Guest Post by James McLain

I once asked a director friend of mine, “What can I write?” I was concerned with what was possible to put on the screen. He gave me a sort of puzzled look and then said, “What do you want to write? Anything you want is possible.” What he was telling me was that the technology of film has progressed so far these days that if I could envision something, it is possible to put it on the screen. It was a heady feeling. I was overjoyed. I realized at that moment that I was a god. Not “God” with a capital “G” but rather the master of any universe I chose to create.

Of course, I had never read any screenplays and was therefore woefully ignorant of what I was getting myself into. But also I knew I was a very quick study. I mean, how hard could it be? I first started writing when I was about seven years old. I had been writing professionally (albeit legal writing) for many of the intervening years. I had also been writing fiction on and off for many of those years; and some said the legal writing was fiction in and of itself.

So I read a few scripts to get a “feel” for the format and sat down and wrote an average romantic comedy script. Besides my penchant for creative spelling and the fact I tried to write it in a “Word” format eschewing the formal “Hollywood” format, there were two major problems with it. First, I had studied “director’s scripts” rather than “reader’s scripts.” “Director’s scripts” include things like shot angles (something of which I still know very little), and music choice for background use. “Reader’s scripts” on the other hand include just the minimum needed to describe the particular scene and the dialog. I had inadvertently strayed deeply into enemy territory in a conflict between writers and directors as implacable as a World War One battlefield. Apparently directors get a little more than cranky with writers who want to direct “their” films. Who knew?

The other major problem with my first script (and there were many other minor problems too numerous to go into here) was that it was, in fact, “average.” There are a huge number of scripts being written every year. Many, if not most, are pretty bad; the ones in the middle are just average. A few are really good. This doesn’t mean that bad scripts are not filmed. Nor does it mean that all really good scripts are filmed. Indeed, it doesn’t even mean that good scripts are not sometimes destroyed by ham-handed directing or bad acting. But what it does mean is that it usually takes a very good script to get noticed amongst all the dross. Once I bit the bullet, bought a good screenwriting program and formatted it properly, fixed my spelling errors and corrected my grammar where needed, my script wasn’t horrible. By the same token, it wasn’t wonderful. It was time to try again.

I had been kicking around an idea for a stage play for about 30 years about a man on the eve of his execution in early Tudor England. The problem was that I couldn’t figure out how to put it on a stage; the scope of the story was just too big for such a small space. When I discovered screenwriting I thought I had finally found a perfect home for my story. I wrote what I, and a considerable number of other people in the know, apparently believe is a very compelling story. There are swordfights, and intrigue, and arc for the characters. I carefully researched the language to make sure it was historically correct. I checked on all the minutia of the period to make sure that it was “real” as I could make it. It was not based any real historical incident, but it clearly could have happened in the right circumstances. People loved it; I had gone from average to wonderful. Then reality came crashing down.

I showed it to a producer friend of mine and he said, “This is a wonderful script. How are you ever going to get it made?” I replied, “Well, my director friend said I could write anything I wanted and it could be filmed. What’s the problem?” Apparently the problem was that it was a “period piece.” If it had been a novel, it wouldn’t have been any more money to print whether it was set in my living room or in late 15th, early 16th century London. Unfortunately, film is different. Costumes cost money. Tudor mansions cost money. Horses cost money, as do swords, armor, castles, etc. etc. etc. To film my “wonderful” script would cost somewhere between $25 million and a $100 million dollars to put in the theatres; maybe more. Since I had about $62 in my checking account, the chances of an unknown writer from Anchorage, Alaska getting this film made anytime soon was about as likely as the government balancing the budget before noon today. I sighed, sat down at my computer, and wrote another script.

More next week...

Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up

June is a great month for Alaska’s writers. The North Words Writers Symposium wrapped up in grand style, with talk of it doing a stint at Denali next year, and the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference is about to get underway. In Anchorage, we’re looking forward to meeting nationally-acclaimed author Bruce Hale, who’s teaching “Funny Business: Seven Secrets to Writing Humor” on June 16. If you’d like to join us for an informal potluck with Hale prior to the class, email 49writers@gmail.com – there’s limited seating.

Giveaway!!! To the next person who registers for Memoir Weekend with Kim Rich: Alaska Then and Now: Anchorage, Fairbanks & Juneau, courtesy of Thunder Bay Press. It’s likely you’ll hear Alaska author Kim Rich (coming to us via her new home in Texas) on KSKA’s Radio Rambler June 27, the day she wraps up her Memoir Weekend in Anchorage.

And one more June date to remember: young writers ages 10-14 who’d like full or partial funding to attend East Coast travel writer Jenna Schnuer’s workshop Your Alaska Online Travel ‘Zine need to get their scholarship applications in by June 26. Help us spread the word on this great opportunity for literary kids!

The Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference, featuring keynote speaker Rita Dove, starts today Friday June 10 (registration begins at 3pm). The Festival of Readings associated with the Conference is free and open to the public, as follows: On Saturday, June 11 at 8pm, Rita Dove will present at the High School, Mariner Theater, Homer.

The Festival of Readings continues on Sunday 12th, 8pm at Alice's Champagne Palace, Homer, featuring Nickole Brown, LeAnne Howe, Heather Lende, Peggy Shumaker, Frank Soos and Sherry Simpson, and on Monday 13th, at 5.15pm at Land's End Resort, Homer, featuring Mike Burwell, Rich Chiappone, Ann Coray and Nancy Lord, and at 8pm featuring Brenda Miller, Hannah Tinti, Eva Saulitis, Donna Jo Napoli, Rigoberto Gonzalez and Matt Roesch.

Also associated with the Conference is Ann Coray's Youth Writing Workshop on Friday June 10 at 9am, at the Kachemak Bay Campus, Homer, aimed at students entering 10th, 11th or 12th grade.

On Saturday June 11 at 1pm, the Pulpwood Queens share another storytime at Barnes and Noble, 200 E. Northern Lights, Anchorage.

On Monday June 13 at 1pm, Marianne Schlegelmilch will be talking about her newest book, Two Tickets and a Feather , at Fireside Books in Palmer.

Wednesday June 15 at 7pm is Poetry Parley: the featured poet of the month is Rumi. Contact Jonathan Minton for more information.

The 2011 Fairbanks Film Festival is seeking submissions for entries. Deadline: midnight July 15. The showing and award ceremony will take place October 15, 7pm in the Theater at the Pioneer Park Centennial Center for the Arts. Click here for the prospectus and entry guidelines.

The Northern Review is sending out a call for papers on Tourism and Travel in the Circumpolar North. Essays attempting to put in perspective the positive aspects of the influx of tourism to this region over the past two decades, together with the potential downsides, has been underway for at least two decades. (See their website for some bibliography.)

Issues of interest include, but are not limited to: Economic, regional, community and sustainable development; place-based and other planning approaches; Identity; Climate Change; Northern and Indigenous Cultures and Communities; The Social Economy and Creative Economies; Gender.

Recent back issues of the journal are available online at http://journals.sfu.ca/nr Manuscripts received before midnight August 15, 2011 will be considered for publication in Number 36 (Spring 2012). Send submissions or queries to Guest Editor Suzanne de la Barre, PhD care of managing editor, Deanna McLeod. Please visit the website for submission guidelines.

Congratulations to Lucian Childs, whose short story "Hit Me Back" has been published in the Compass Rose Journal.