poet Tom Sexton offers a brief history of Alaska poetry until 1966, focusing on poery in verse. Tom Sexton first came to Alaska in 1959 and has lived in Anchorage with his wife Sharyn since 1970. He is Professor Emeritus of English at UAA and served as Alaska’s Poet Laureate from 1994-2000. He is author of several collections of poetry including A Ladder of Cranes, For the Sake of the Light, I Think Again of Those Chinese Poets, Autumn in the Alaska Range, A Clock With No Hands, and Bridge...

Cats and Dogs: Author Joseph Robertia (2:00) discusses his book Life with Forty Dogs and author Cynthia Baldwin (54:33) presents Sarah’s Days: Being a Cat, An Alaskan Childhood Story. Cynthia Baldwin has published three children’s books including Sarah’s Days: Being a Cat, An Alaskan Childhood Story. The series called “Sarah’s Days,” are about a young girl based in Alaska who, in each book, has an adventure and at the end of the day goes home to tell her father about it. The daughter...

This presentation for the event with guest speakers Nancy Lord and Darcy Dugan focuses on ocean acidification. (The audio podcast of the event is posted in iTunes, too.) Nancy Lord’s new book is pH: A Novel. It investigates what happens when toxic academic forces collide with scientific inquiry and performance art. Nancy Lord was Alaska writer Laureate from 2008-2010. She is a faculty member of the Low-Residency M.F.A Program in Creative Writing at UAA and teaches at the UAA Kachemak Bay...

Nancy Lord’s new book, pH: A Novel investigates what happens when toxic academic forces collide with scientific inquiry and performance art. Nancy Lord was Alaska writer Laureate from 2008-2010. She is a faculty member of the Low-Residency M.F.A Program in Creative Writing at UAA and teaches at the UAA Kachemak Bay Campus. She is also the author of numerous books including Beluga Days, Fishcamp, and Early Warming. Joining her is Darcy Dugan, Director of Alaska Ocean Acidification...

Fantasy Authors M. Cote Warner author of The Stratus Estate and L.S. Goulet author of Sword of Dragonblood read and discuss their books. (Please turn the volume up to hear their conversation.) M. Cote Warner’s The Stratus Estate follows Phillip Stratus who lives in the very distant, utopian future with his large, quirky, adoptive family, all of whom are powerhouse players in the City of Tarkenwore. His friend is Vive Tarkenwore, the conceptual child of Queen Nacthelian and King...

Based on Douglas Vandegraft’s 14 years of research, A Guide to the Notorious Bars of Alaska details the rich history and atmosphere of noteworthy Alaskan bars. Several of the bars featured have been around since the end of Prohibition in 1933, and have gained legendary repute in their communities and beyond At this event, Doug will give a presentation about the latest edition of the Guidebook. Included will be a summary of the notorious bars that have closed since the first edition, and...

Author Heather Lende is a dedicated member of the Haines community and serves on the Haines Borough Assembly. Since 1996, she regularly posts obituaries and a social column for the Chilkat Valley News. Her nationally acclaimed books: If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name (2006), Take Good Care of the Garden and Dogs (2011), and Find The Good Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-town Obituary Writer (2015) mirror her outlook on life.She is a graduate from Middlebury College and she earned a...

Sandy Kleven is an extraordinary woman whose open and honest nature has enhanced the life of Alaskans everywhere. Editor of Cirque, a Literary Journal, she is also author of the short film "To the Moon," an homage to poet Theodore Roethke and poetry collections Defiance Street and Holy Land. Her writings have been published in Alaska Quarterly Review, Oklahoma Review, F Magazine, Stoneboat and in the anthology, Cold Flashes (U of AK Press) Raised in Seattle, Washington, Sandy Kleven spent...

Author David Ramseur presents Melting the ice Curtain: The Extraordinary Story of citizen Diplomacy on the Russia-Alaska Frontier.In 1988, David Ramseur helped organize the Alaska Airlines “Friendship Flight” between Nome, Alaska and Provideniya, Russia, which reunited indigenous peoples of common languages and cultures (Siberian Yupik and others) for the first time in four decades. In Melting the Ice Curtain, how inspiration, courage, and persistence by citizen-diplomats bridged a widening...

The book, How to Sell to Libraries and Readers in the Digital Age, shows how to set up email systems for libraries from an online source and another for readers from emails gathered at book signing events. The number of libraries is a large one. It is a wonderful place to market books, but for the author new to this attempt, it can be daunting. Bonnye Matthews found a way to reach librarians who would forward her email to their acquisitions people. This book cannot guarantee a library will...

Rock, Piles Along the Eddy, is the second poetry collection by Inupiaq and Tlingit poet, storyteller and playwright Ishmael Hope. Through his poetry, Ishmael Hope “elevates Indigenous thought and lifeways, intermingling the landscapes of personal experience, cultural knowledge, stories, and familial connections and the spirit and character of land and sea." (Ishmael Reed Publishing Company Press). Ishmael Hope served as a lead writer for the award winning video game Never Alone and he is...

Putting Mom back in Mother’s Day: A Mother’s Day Author Event with Lael Morgan, Lizzie Newell , LaVon Bridges and Alice Wright. Topics include “Cookbooks Versus Those in Plain Brown Paper Wrappers for Mom” and “Matriarchy: Putting Mothers First” Guest authors are the incredible Lael Morgan, co-founder of Epicenter Press, and author of Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush whose new book is Kitchen Stories Cookbook: Comfort Cookin' Made Fascinating and Easy (coauthored with Linda...

Erin McKittrick and Hig McKittrick present Mudflats and Fish Camps: 800 Miles around Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Seldovia-based outdoor adventure author Erin McKittrick discusses her new book. is Mudflats and Fish Camps: 800 Miles around Alaska’s Cook Inlet. It is published by Mountaineers Books. Erin McKittrick is the acclaimed author of A Long Trek Home. With her husband Hig, a geologist, and their two young children, she paddled and hiked the 800 miles around the Cook Inlet in a 3.5-month...

Kate Troll is an activist on the front line of climate change. With twenty-two years of experience in fish politics, coastal management and energy policy, as well as being an elected official, her insights, advice, and guidance—including “hope spots”-- on how to proceed is in our changing times will be shared. Her extensive experience and expertise in Alaska environmental poltics include acting as Executive Director of the Alaska Conservation Voters, Executive Director for United...

The Biggest Damned Hat presents a fascinating collection of stories ranging from the gold rush to the 1950s. Based upon legal research, oral histories, and interviews of more than 50 lawyers who came to Alaska prior to 1959, it provides new stories and perspectives on Alaska history from gold rush times to statehood. University of Alaska Press recently published it Pamela Cravez is editor of the Alaska Justice Forum and research associate at the UAA Justice Center. She holds a J.D. from...

Author Bryan Allen Fierro discusses his short story collection book Dodger Blue Will Fill Your Soul and the people and experiences that have influenced his writing. An acclaimed writer, Bryan Allen Fierro brings to life stories that encompass Latino cultural expectations, saints, and Dodger baseball. The enchanting language and skillful writing recreate the sounds of people of East L.A. who become familiar as family. Bryan Allen Fierro is recipient of the 2013 Maureen Egen Writer’s...

Sterling Emmal is author of the sci-fi fantasy, The Executioner of Rawule and L. S. Goulet is author of the fantasy book Sword of Dragonblood. Tundra Kill Is Stan Jones' latest Nathan Active mystery. His other books include White Sky, Black Ice; Shaman Pass; Frozen Sun; Village of the Ghost Bears and the nonfiction classic, The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster, coauthored with Sharon Bushell. Three Alaskan authors discuss their books in different genres: Young adult...

Finance journalist Donna Freedman’s talk helps super-financially-stressed people (including students) get control of their cash and credit-card debt. Many people feel they can't save because they're barely making ends meet as it is. However, according to Donna Freedman, at least one of her 35 "stealth savings" tactics can work for just about everybody. Donna Freedman is author of Playbook for Tough Times: Living Large On Small Change, For The Short Term or The Long Haul.

This event welcomes memoir authors are Eva Baker (Martha and Eva) and Maggie Holeman (Women in the Locker Room) and children authors and illustrators La Von Bridges (Alaska Animals, We Love You) and Betty Hedstrand and Chris Floyd (Clever Little Bird). Martha and Eva is the story of a mother and daughter’s journey as German Refugees during WWII. It describes the life they had in Schlesien and the fear and deprivation that they experienced when they became German refugees--where more than...

Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry is a path breaking book featuring work from some of Alaska’s finest writers. Joining editors Martha Amore and Lucian Childs, are anthology contributors Mei Mei Evans (Oil and Water) and poets Susanna Mishler (Termination Dust), Shelby Mahogany Wilson (Black Feather Poets). After readings selection from the anthology,each explore the label LGBTQ and its meaning within the literary establishment.

Eowyn Ivey’s new book To the Bright Edge of the World and Kris Farmen’s new book Blue Ticket will be the topics for this literary gathering. Kris Farmen is an Alaskan novelist, historian, and freelance journalist. His first novel, The Devil's Share, drew high critical praise. His writing has also appeared in Alaska magazine, The Anchorage Press, The Surfer's Path, and Mushing magazine, among others. He lives on the lower Kenai Peninsula. Eowyn Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to...

Richard Chiappone’s memoir, Liar’s Code, Growing Up Fishing is full of warm, funny, and memorable musings on a life spent fishing. Concerning Liar's Code, author E. Donnall Thomas Jr. (Redfish, Bluefish, Ladyfish, Snook) states, "Rich Chiappone has accomplished a goal even more challenging than landing a permit on a fly: the creation of a classic.” An accomplished writer, Richard Chiappone is a two-time recipient of the Robert Traver Award and author of Opening Days, a collection of...

Dan O’Neill has become a living legend in Alaska. He is the author of The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement; A Land Gone Lonesome: An Inland Voyage along the Yukon River; The Last Giant of Beringia: The Mystery of the Bering Land Bridge; and recently Stubborn Gal: The True Story of an Undefeated Sled Dog Racer, a children’s book published by The University of Alaska Press. Dan came to Alaska in 1975 and has done a variety of thing...

Alaskan writer, artist and journalist Mary Lochner introduces her living novel, "Stories From the Book of Life: A place-based storytelling artwork about America's Subarctic City." What is it that connects people living in place and time is addressed. Joing Mary Lochner is Stephen D, Bolen, a gifted Inupiaq poet from Kotzebue, Alaska He discusses his relationship with poetry and reads from his forthcoming collection of poems. (46:28-1:17:13). This event is an example of creativity in...

Too Close to Home? Living with 'drill, baby' on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula includes accounts from both Alaska residents who have sold, leased or rented their property to oil industry companies and from businesses that are dependent on a fossil fuel economy. Author McKibben Jackinsky is a life-long Alaskan and award-winning journalist who has worked in and written about Alaska’s oil and gas industry from numerous perspectives. Everyone is encourage tolearn about critical developments...