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Interview
Newsletter led to book ideas, says self-publisher Hayes
Wasilla author and self-learning advocate Charles Hayes talks about how he turned his personal passion for “self-education” into an enterprise that includes a 1,000-plus-subscriber newsletter and a self-publishing company. >>Story

Author seeks Alaska women to share northern tales
Her self-publishing is about passion, not making money, says Canadian self-publisher Toni Graeme. >>Story

Invitations
• The Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College/UAA will present the state-wide Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference in Homer June 18-22, 2004. It will feature award-winning author Maxine Hong Kingston as the keynote presenter as well as 20 other faculty including noted authors, editors and publishers from throughout the United States. For specific program and registration information: http://chinook.kpc.alaska.edu/~conference/

• Anchorage writer Melissa (Mel) Green announces the “restart” of the Poietes Poetry Workshop, a free community workshop for poets of any experience level. For more information, see http://www.henkimaa.nu/poietes.

• Did you give a talk at the Rendezvous or Press Club gatherings? You may already have written a tips item! Share your wisdom. Submit a brief item (250-450 words) for the AlaskaWriters tips page, and get a link to your Web site, photo and bio listing: editor@alaskawriters.com.

Scribes Say
• In the March 28, 2004 ADN, Alaska state writer Anne Hanley introduces the powerful poetry of UAA student Avenue Maria Campala, winner of the Civil Rights, Social and Economic Justice writing contest. Campala’s poem explores the murder of Della Brown.

• Alaska Press Club winners have been posted at the Alaska Press Club site.

• AlaskaWriters.com creator Sonya Senkowsky presented a Web/freelance workshop at Writing Rendezvous 2004. See special note for participants here.

• Seen on p. 113 of the May 2004 issue of The Atlantic: University of Alaska Fairbanks student Rosemary McGuire received Honorable Mention in The Atlantic’s national student writing contest.

• When the Society of Professional Journalists announced its 2003 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for Excellence in Journalism, there was one Alaska name on the list: recently named Anchorage Press editor Tony Hopfinger.
>>Story

• AlaskaWriters member Marybeth Holleman has been a bit of everywhere recently, with a recent book release that coincided with the 15th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Among her latest press is this March 25 posting on tidepool.org. (We assume “White Island” for “Knight Island” is another of those slips that occur when editors don’t use atlases.)

• In advance of the visit of Wyoming writer Gretel Ehrlich, ADN reporter George Bryson wrote this feature story March 5, 2004.

• Velma Wallis, author of the international bestseller Two Old Women, has received an American Book Award for her memoir, Raising Ourselves, according to Epicenter Press’ Alaska Book Adventures newsletter. Wallis was one of 13 authors honored by the Before Columbus Foundation for 2003. Other recipients included Daniel Ellsburg for A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and Leadership, a book coauthored by Rudy Giuliani.

• Shana Loshbaugh reviews two Iditarod-inspired books, including Dogs of the Iditarod, by Jeff Schultz (Sasquatch Books) in the March 4 Kenai Peninsula Online.

• In the March 3 ADN, S. Jane Szabo tells about the not at all mellow soul behind the Fur Rondy melodramas, Sue Hahn — who punctuates her plays with puns, pranks and popcorn.

• Formerly a teen “Perfect World” writer with ADN known for pushing the boundaries, Marty Beckerman is still pushing. A March 2 Salon story calls him “chief whistle-blower” on Generation Y, or as Beckerman’s latest book terms it, Generation S.L.U.T. (sexually liberated urban teens).

Outsider Watch
• Jennifer Niven, who has recently released her second book on Arctic explorers unlike herself, admits to a warm life in the sunny South in a Jan. 19 interview with the online literary journal Identity Theory. Niven writes about her most recent release, Ada Blackjack for the Jan. 15 edition of National Geographic News.
>>UPDATE: Shana Loshbaugh favorably reviews Ada Blackjack in a story posted March 25 on the Kenai Peninsula Online. Author Jennifer Niven became intrigued by the tale of the shy, young Inuit woman, sole survivor of a treacherous expedition north of Siberia.

• DC-based writer Liam Callanan has written a well-received first novel, The Cloud Atlas, set against the backdrop of Alaska during World War II — and a bizarre Japanese balloon-bomb attack. For the Detroit Free Press review, see this February 8 story.

—Compiled by Sonya Senkowsky

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Dear AlaskaWriter,
Welcome to the AlaskaWriters Homestead, a home on the Web for writers from Alaska, and others who share Alaska’s pioneering spirit.

The site is in a constant process of revision — some of which you can see, but all of which keeps the site moving and growing. In fact, as of March 25, 2008, we have moved to new server space.

If you want to be informed about upcoming features or updates to the site, sign up above for the AlaskaWriters mailing list and you may actually see an e-mail from me once in a while. I don’t share or sell my e-mail list, and I only write with occasional updates.

Enjoy, tell your friends — and keep in touch!

AlaskaWriter member sites:
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>> Bill Sherwonit
>> Sandi Sumner
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