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EVENTS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
SOUTHCENTRAL
John Luther Adams
ANCHORAGE | The Alaska Humanities Forum will welcome John Luther Adams for a series of events as part of the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative to celebrate excellence in journalism and the arts.
John Luther Adams is a composer and author whose life and work is deeply rooted in the natural world—especially in Alaska, where he lived for forty years before moving to New York City in 2015. Adams was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for music for his symphonic work Become Ocean, and a 2015 Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition.” He has taught widely, including at Harvard University and the Oberlin Conservatory, and served as composer in residence with the Anchorage Symphony, Anchorage Opera, Fairbanks Symphony, Arctic Chamber Orchestra, and APRN.
The public is invited to a series of three free events during John Luther Adams' visit to Anchorage; you can also tune in to 106.1 FM KONR to listen to selected works from september 1-7.
ARTIST'S TALK & RECEPTION | Friday, September 2, Talk: 7 P.M. | Reception 8 P.M. at Anchorage Museum. A growing number of geologists believe we have entered a new period - the Anthropocene - in which the dominant geologic force is humanity itself. What does this mean for a composer, or for any creative artist working in any medium today?
VEILS AND VESPER INSTALLATION | Friday & Saturday, September 2 & 3 | 6 P.M. - midnight. Veils and Vesper is a series of distinct but related electronic pieces written
by Adams in 2005. When the pieces are installed together, listeners are able to create their own ‘mix’ and experience the music by moving through an immersive environment.
ANCHORAGE | Arctic Entries
Tickets for the first Arctic Entries storytelling event of the season go on sale at 2 pm, Tuesday, September 6th. The actual event is the following week, Tuesday September 13th, at 7:30 pm. Details.
ANCHORAGE | UAA Professor Emerita Phyllis Fast
Tuesday, September 6 from 5-7 pm
UAA Professor Emerita Phyllis Fast discusses her mystery books, Half-Bead of Fundy and Midnight Trauma.
Professor Emerita Phyllis Fast is an anthropologist, artist and mystery writer. Author of the acclaimed Northern Athabascan Survival Women, Community, and the Future, her current focus is writing Alaska Native mysteries. At this event she discusses Half-Bead of Fundy and Midnight Trauma, which take place in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Phyllis Fast‘s heritage is Koyukon Athabascan and white American. She was born in Anchorage, in 1946 to Elsie and Oscar Fast, graduated from East Anchorage High School. Her academic accomplishments include earning a B.A. in English from the University of Alaska, an interdisciplinary Master of Arts from UAA, and a PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University. After teaching at UAF and UAA, she retired Professor Emerita in 2014. She now lives in Washington.
ANCHORAGE | Historian Erika Monahan
Wednesday, September 7 from 5:00pm-7:00 pm
Historian Erika Monahan discusses her book The Merchants of Siberia: Trade in Early Modern Eurasia, recently nominated for the 2016 Early Slavic Studies Association Book Prize. She'll offer a fresh analysis of Siberian trade and the Russia state during the late sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. According to Donald Ostrowski (Muscovy and the Mongols), "Erika Monahan sets out nothing less than a revision of the way we imagine the Muscovite economy in the early modern era. With a deeply researched examination of trade and commerce across Eurasia, she challenges a number of ingrained assumptions about Russian trade policies as backwards, xenophobic, state-driven, and monopolistic”.
ANCHORAGE | Dr. Liu Zhen presents Political Ideas Conceived in the Zhouyi (The Book of Change)
Friday, September 9 from 12-1:30 pm
Dr. Liu Zhen presents Political Ideas Conceived in the Zhouyi (The Book of Change). Zhen is Associate Professor at China University of Political Science and Law and currently a visiting professor at College of William and Mary Confucius Institute. His talk will focus on the rituals, political advocacy, and virtuous pursuit conceived in the Book of Change (Zhouyi) for government administrators. And it will analyze the value of traditional ideas in the Zhouyi for contemporary social developments. This event is sponsored by the UAA Confucius Institute and the UAA Campus Bookstore.
ANCHORAGE | Author Richard Chiappone
Monday, September 12 from 5:00 pm-7:00 pm
Author Richard Chiappone presents Liar’s Code: Growing Up Fishing (Skyhorse Publishing). It is full of warm, funny, and memorable musings on a life spent fishing. According to E. Donnall Thomas Jr., author of Redfish, Bluefish, Ladyfish, Snook, “Rich Chiappone has accomplished a goal even more challenging than landing a permit on a fly: the creation of a classic.” Richard Chiappone is a two-time recipient of the Robert Traver Award and author of Opening Days, a collection of essays, stories and poems, and the short story collection Water of an Undetermined Depth. His writing has appeared in Alaska Magazine, Playboy, Gray’s Sporting Journal, and The Sun; and in literary journals including Crescent Review, Missouri Review, and ZYZZYVA. He teaches writing in the UAA Master of Fine Arts Program and serves on the faculty of the annual Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference. He lives in Homer with his wife and cats.
Note: There is free parking for UAA Bookstore events in the South Lot, Sports Complex NW Lot, West Campus Central Lot, Sports Campus West Lot.
HOMER | Debra Magpie Earling Reading
Thursday, September 8th, at Kachemak Bay Campus, Kenai Peninsula College UAA. Debra is the author of The Lost Journals of Sacajawea and Perma Red, recipient of the American Book Award and the Western Writers Association Spur Award, and and Gugggenheim Award (2007). She directs the University of Montana's Creative Writing program and is the guest instructor for the 7th annual 49 Writers Tutka Bay Writers Retreat. Free and open to the public.
ANCHORAGE | Anchorage essayist and author Bill Sherwonit will teach a 12-week nature and travel writing class beginning September 21st in the Sierra Club office downtown. Participants in this workshop-style class will explore and refine their own writing styles, with an emphasis on the personal essay form. The class will also read and discuss works by some of America’s finest nature and travel writers. $240. To sign up for this Wednesday night class (7 to 9:30 pm), or for more information, contact Sherwonit at 245-0283 or akgriz@hotmail.com.
PALMER | Kitty Morse, September 24
ANCHORAGE | 49 Writers Salon Meet and Greet | Includes informal panel (20 – 30 minutes). Sunday, September 25, 2015, 5-7pm. This informal meet-and-greet 49 Writers potluck event (BYOB) is open by invitation only to all members of 49 Writers, Alaska SCBWI, and the Alaska Writers Guild. Visiting authors Susan McBeth, Kathi Diamant, Marivi Soliven, Kitty Morse will speak as an informal panel on their success with novel ways of connecting readers with their books. Members are welcome to bring one guest. RSVP by email (info@49Writers.org) to receive the address. Stay tuned for more info.
ANCHORAGE | Publication Consultants, in association with Alaska Book Week, is hosting the Great Alaska Book Fair sponsored in part by The Mall at Sears and Anchorage Public Library. They suggest that anyone interested in participating in The Great Alaska Book Fair respond before all tables are reserved. Concurrent event will include: a Farmer's Market, a Sidewalk Sale and the Better Business Bureau's Shred Day, and a Financial Fitness Fair; it's the same day that The Mall at Sears features an annual sidewalk sale to coincide with the release of Permanent Fund Dividends. If you're interested you can sign up for a table here. Book fair hours are 10 AM to 6 PM on Saturday, October 8, 2016. Tables will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. Authors are responsible for their own sales—and pocket all the money. There will not be a central check out register. There is a charge of $50 per table. Authors may share tables if they'd like.
49 Writers presents Crosscurrents | Tales of the City: Writing from Alaska’s Urban Hubs
ANCHORAGE | October 13, 2016
5-6:45 pm – Building Fires in the Snow celebratory meet-and-greet at MUSE
7-8:30 pm – Crosscurrents event in the Anchorage Museum auditorium
ANCHORAGE | Tickets are selling for the Anchorage Concert Association's David Sedaris appearance on May 13, 2017. David Sedaris is one of America’s preeminent humor
David Sedaris
ANCHORAGE | Tickets are selling for the Anchorage Concert Association's David Sedaris appearance on May 13, 2017. David Sedaris is one of America’s preeminent humor writers. Wielding sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness with great skill. One of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today, Sedaris is returning to Anchorage with all new stories. His original radio pieces can be heard on “This American Life,” and he has seven million books in print, including “Naked,” “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim,” and his most recent, “Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls.” The San Francisco Chronicle says “Sedaris belongs on any list of people writing in English at the moment who are revising our ideas about what’s funny.” Buy tickets here.
INTERIOR
FAIRBANKS | Fairbanks Arts Association hosts the oldest literary reading series in the state. Every month, writers reading their own work publicly at a community meet-up where people can connect with other lovers of literature. Readings are held on the day after First Friday, usually the first Saturday of the month at 7 pm. Most reading are held in the Bear Gallery in Pioneer Park, although occasionally in the summer (June, July, and August) the weather is beautiful reading are held outside to another spot in Pioneer Park. Upcoming:
September: UAF Faculty Reading
October:
Susheila Khera
November: Nicole Stellon O'Donnell
December: Rosemary McGuire
Additional readings and events may be held, but the First Saturday Literary Reading Series is monthly at 7 pm the day after First Friday (except February).
FAIRBANKS | The Folk School offers a semester-long class for high school students who want to become better essay writers. Details and registration here.
SOUTHEAST
JUNEAU | Introducing Juneau’s anonymous poetry publication, MYTH Zine, currently available at The Rookery Café, Kindred Post, Alaska Robotics, The JACC, Rainy Retreat Books, The Goldtown Nickelodeon, and High Tide Tattoo. Send your poetry, prose, philosophical wonderings, or love letters to myythzine@gmail.com.
SOUTHWEST
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ARCTIC
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OUT OF STATE
EAST COAST and UK | After launching her new book, To the Bright Edge of the World in Palmer, Eowyn Ivey headed to the west coast to promote her book. She's made it to the east coast, now, and soon heads to the UK on a whirlwind book tour. Full schedule here.
BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON | A Cirque reading will be held at the Mount Baker Theater, Encore Room, August 28, at 3 pm. more info
CONFERENCES, RETREATS, and RESIDENCIES
2016 Tutka Bay Writers Retreat
September 9-11th, 2016
TUTKA BAY LODGE | This 49 Writers program takes place at the fantastic Tutka Bay Lodge. Faculty instructor award-winning writer Debra Magpie Earling will lead fiction writers in an in-depth writing workshop. Emphasizing in-class writing supportiveness, collegiality, and a constructive atmosphere, the engaged student will emerge with improved techniques for further work. Sold out and waitlisting.
2016 Alaska Writers Guild Annual Conference for Writers & Illustrators
September 24th plus optional intensives and roundtables on Sept. 23rd.
ANCHORAGE | This year's conference is a partnership between Alaska Writers Guild, 49 Writers, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. This all-day event takes place at the BP Energy + Conference Center and includes keynotes and panels, as well as writing craft, marketing, traditional publishing, self publishing, children's literature, illustration tracks. Sign up for optional Intensives or Roundtable Critiques, or take advantage of One-on-One Manuscript Excerpt Reviews. Early bird discount extended until July 31st at only $95 for AWG/49 Writers/SCBWI members or $145 for non-members. More info and registration here.
OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS
The Alaska Literary Awards are open to poets, playwrights, screenwriters, writers of fiction and literary nonfiction, writers of multi-genre, cross-genre, or genre-defying work. Any Alaska writer over 18 who is not a full-time student is eligible to apply. Quality of the work is the primary consideration in determining who receives the awards. $5,000 awards will be given, all from privately donated funds. Apply at www.callforentry.org by Sept. 1, 2016 at 9:59 AKDT.
In early August, the Alaska State Council on the Arts will seek nominations for the 2017 Governor's Awards for the Arts, as well as the next Alaska State Writer Laureate. The deadline for nominations for Governor's Awards for the Arts is September 15, 2016 and nominations for State Writer Laureate will be accepted through October 3, 2016. This year, the categories for the Governor's Awards for the Arts are: Arts Education, Individual Artist, Arts Organization and Alaska Native Arts. The Governor's Awards for the Arts and Humanities ceremony will be held in Juneau on Thursday, January 26, 2017. Visit ASCA's website here for information about last year's Governor's Awardees, and here for the Alaska State Writer Laureate program.
Caitlin Press is currently accepting submissions The Pacific Ocean: Protecting Our Endangered Coast, an anthology of poems that will explore the Pacific Ocean as a wilderness, a haven, and a part of our natural world that needs protecting. Yvonne Blomer, Victoria, B.C.’s poet laureate, will edit the anthology. Blomer has published three collections of poetry, most recently As if a Raven (Palimpsest Press) and co-edited Poems from Planet Earth (Leaf Press). Her first book, a broken mirror, fallen leaf, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Learn more, including how to submit two poems, here. Deadline: September 15, 2016.
Call for Creative Teens | The Anchorage Museum is looking for passionate, innovative high school-aged students to be a part of the Museum Teen Council, a group of young, creative leaders. They need teens who are passionate about something: doodling, blogging, technology, comedy, writing, music, photography, fashion, theater — anything — whose voices, ideas, and creativity can shape how they build community at the Anchorage Museum. Apply by Oct. 1. Details at anchoragemuseum.org.
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