Alaska Book Week
Alaska Book Week is a statewide celebration, coordinated by the Alaska Center for the Book, that annually celebrates the multi-faceted ways that we appreciate books, from readings to panels, lectures, discussions, and youth activities. Alaska Book Week takes place around the first week in October. Literary events occurring before and after this time may also be included.
Welcome to Alaska Book Week. Alaska Book Week takes place at the beginning of October each year. However, we archive each year’s events on this website. Please support these Alaska authors. Also enjoy the videos and podcasts that are linked in event descriptions.
Archived videos and podcasts from previous years are also available in the Archives tab in the menu at the top of the page.
For more information contact the Book Week Coordinator at akbookweek@gmail.com
- 26 Sep 2025
- 9:00 AM
- 27 Sep 2025
- 5:00 PM
- University of Alaska-Anchorage |
- Click here for more info
Calling all writers and illustrators! Welcome to the official registration for the 2025 Alaska Conference for Writers + Illustrators, which brings together agents, editors, publishers, authors, and artistic talent from around the nation and across the state.
Join us on Saturday, September 27 at University of Alaska Anchorage’s Rasmuson Hall for an all-day event of keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions on topics ranging from writing craft, author marketing, traditional publishing, self publishing, romance, memoir, nonfiction, and children’s literature, or sign up for optional intensives and first page reviews on Friday, September 26.
A limited number of one-on-one manuscript reviews with an agent or author are also available.
Check out the conference website to learn more about this year’s faculty, conference schedule, workshops, and manuscript critiques.
Pre-recorded event.
Every Glacier is Different
Event description: The author of the newly released The Alaska Glacier Dictionary, and Homer local, Naomi Klouda, shares a slideshow presentation called “Every Glacier is Different.” The presentation includes discussion about the importance of Alaska’s glacier details, both in history and in future ramifications. The Alaska Glacier Dictionary contains about 700 named glaciers, a collection of glacier essays and a section of answers for frequently asked questions. Klouda gives specific mention of the glaciers of Kachemak Bay. Special guests, Jim Lavrakas (photographer) and Brian Smith (film maker and book designer), who both played roles in shaping Klouda’s book, share their insights and contributions to Klouda’s book.
Click here for Every Glacier is Different Biographies.
Interview with Erica Watson by Dawnell Smith
Pre-recorded event.
Erica Watson is an essayist, writing instructor, knitter, and occasional community organizer living on the boundary of Denali National Park, Alaska. Her experiences in conservation advocacy, tourism, and environmental education inform her writing, which has appeared in Terrain.org and About Place Journal, among others. She is a graduate of the University of Alaska Anchorage MFA program, and a recipient of an Alaska Literary Award. Off the page, she can be found at ericarobinwatson.com, or hiking and skiing with her partner and dog. Her debut essay collection, Ghosts of Distant Trees, is centered around her work in Denali National Park.
Dawnell Smith lives with a crew of human and more-than-human beings in Anchorage, Alaska, where they school her on the ways of love, patience, and commotion. She makes a living doing communications work for an Alaska nonprofit and has previously worked in journalism, brewery production, and arts administration. Her columns, reporting, and arts critiques have appeared in publications like the Anchorage Daily News and F Magazine, and her creative work has appeared in journals and books such as Forum magazine, Cirque, and an anthology called Building Fires in the Snow. She received a master’s in creative writing and literary arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and co-founded the Writer’s Block Bookstore and Cafe, where she joined partners in navigating money woes and the pandemic while promoting books, events, and Alaska thinkers, artists and writers. She finds a sense of belonging in feral and wild places.
Interview with Eowyn Ivey
Pre-recorded video interview.
Nancy Lord interviews Alaska author Eowyn Ivey.
Nancy Lord, a former Alaska State Writer Laureate who lives in Homer, writes both fiction and literary nonfiction. Her nonfiction books include Fish Camp: Life on an Alaskan Shore, Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale’s Truths, and Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-changed North. Her climate-related novel is pH. She also edited the anthologies Made of Salmon and the forth-coming Alaska Literary Field Guide. She taught creative writing in the University of Alaska system for many years and currently teaches science writing in the Johns Hopkins University graduate science writing program. Her website is www.writernancylord.com
Eowyn Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live here with her family. Her books are international bestsellers, translated into more than 25 languages. Her most recent novel Black Woods, Blue Sky was published by Random House in 2025 and became a national bestseller. She is also the author of To the Bright Edge of the World and The Snow Child, which has sold more than a million copies worldwide and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a UK National Book Award winner. Eowyn’s work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, Observer Magazine, and other publications and anthologies. You can find her on Instagram, Facebook and at www.eowynivey.com.
Researching Yup’ik Traditions
Pre-recorded video event.
Access the YouTube video here.
Marie Meade, Alice Rearden, and Anne Fienup-Riordan talk with Trish Jenkins, Alaska Book Week coordinator, about their research for their books about Yup’ik history, culture, and oral traditions.
They also talk about their newly released book, Angalkut/Shamans in Yup’ik Oral Tradition. This book collects over thirty years’ worth of shaman stories, told as part of gatherings organized by the Calista Elders Council to document Yup’ik traditional knowledge. These conversations highlight the critical role angalkut played in Yup’ik life—healing the sick, interpreting dreams and unusual experiences, requesting future abundance through masked dances and other ceremonies, protecting the lives of young children, and dealing with the dead.
These three women, whose names have become synonymous with Yup’ik cultural preservation, received a CLIA award in 2024–Contributions to Literacy in Alaska for their work. Collectively, they have authored and translated dozens of books documenting traditional knowledge in Western Alaska
For more information about their books, visit the Calista Education and Culture website:
Writers with New Books
Pre-recorded video.
David Stevenson interviews Alaska writers Sara Birdsall, Rich Chiappone, Marybeth Holleman about their recently published or about-to-be published books.
An Interview with Alaska poet Annie Wenstrup
Pre-recorded video event.
Annie Wenstrup is a Dena’ina poet and the author of The Museum of Unnatural Histories. She is the recipient of a 2025 Whiting Award in Poetry. Her poems have been published in Alaska Quarterly Review, New England Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. In 2023, she received The Alaska Literary Award and support from The Rasmuson Foundation. She was a Smithsonian Arctic Studies Fellow, and an Indigenous Nations Poets Fellow in 2022 and 2023.
Nicole Stellon O’Donnell is the author of three books of poetry, most recently, Everything Never Comes Your Way. She has received fellowships from the Rasmuson Foundation, the Alaska Arts & Culture Foundation, and a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching. Her first book, Steam Laundry was the Alaska Reads selection for 2018.
Click book covers for more information.
A Conversation with Betsy Longenbaugh
Pre-recorded video event.
True crime author Betsy Logenbaugh talks with her husband, Ed Schoenfeld, about bringing to life stories of murder that occurred in Alaska.
Before retiring, Betsy Longenbaugh was a newspaper reporter, non-profit administrator and social worker. Her first reporting job was in Sitka, her hometown, and her last job before retirement was as a social worker for the U.S. Coast Guard. She has always been fond of putting together a good story and in the human condition. Writing about historic murders allows her to do both, exploring the reasons behind a killing and its aftermath.
Betsy is ably assisted by her husband, Ed Schoenfeld, a retired reporter and editor. Although not interested in telling the story, he is an expert at uncovering the pieces that place the story in its setting. Betsy is a graduate in journalism from the University of Oregon and has her master’s in social work from UAA. She and Ed have two daughters, a lovely son-in-law and two grandsons.
Premieres Oct. 3
Click this YouTube link to view when available.
Elizabeth Bradfield reads from SOFAR, her newly released poetry collection published by Persea Books
Friday, October 3, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
UAA Consortium Library, Room 307
Interview with Michael Engelhard
David James, who writes book reviews for the Anchorage Daily News and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, interviews Michael Engelhard, whose latest book is No Place Like Nome: The Bering Strait Seen Through Its Most Storied City.
Trained as an anthropologist with a degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Michael Engelhard worked for twenty-five years as a wilderness guide and as an outdoor instructor in youth programs. He has won three Alaska Press Club Awards, a Rasmuson Individual Artist Award, and a National Outdoor Book Award. Articles by him have appeared in publications from Outside to Sierra to National Parks, with 150 in Alaska magazine alone. His books include the memoir Arctic Traverse, the cultural history Ice Bear, and the essay collection No Place Like Nome.
Historians Share Secrets of Historical Research
This is a pre-recorded event. Click here to access the YouTube video.
Event description: Four Alaska historians and authors of historical nonfiction books will discuss the challenges of historical research and marketing of historical nonfiction books. All members of the Alaska Historical Society, the authors will offer tips on issues such as using archival materials, non-English language materials and how to organize historical research.
The Anatomy of a Murder —
From an Author’s Perspective
True Crime author Betsy Logenbaugh provides the anatomy of a murder story, which includes how she became interested in writing about true crime, and how she and her husband conducted research for one of her books.
Alaska Writers Discuss Works in Progress
Pre-recorded video discussion.
Pam Cravez, Jamey Bradbury, Sharon Emmerichs, and Alys Culhane discuss their latest writing projects.
Click here for Biographies of the Participants
Tea With Author Lily Tuzroyluke
Tuesday, October 7, 5:30 – 7:00
Wasilla Public Library
(500 N Crusey St., Wasilla AK)
Please join us for an author reading and Q&A at the Wasilla Public Library, with tea and treats. Lily Tuzroyluke, the author of Sivulliq: Ancestor, will perform a reading, share the inspiration behind her debut novel, and provide her favorite writing tips.
This event is made possible through the following partners: Alaska Center for the Book, Friends of the Wasilla Public Library, 49 Writers, Mat-Su Health Foundation, Fireside Books, and the Wasilla Public Library.
Lily Tuzroyluke is an Indigenous writer from Alaska and Canada. She uses her creative writing skills to tell the stories of indigenous people. Her first novel, Sivulliq: Ancestor, was published in 2023. It chronicles a mother’s profound and relentless strength to reunite with her child, the beauty of untouched arctic lands, and indigenous connection to the earth. Her next book is based in a 1950 Indigenous Residential School.
Storybook Alaska: Pushing Alaska Fiction Beyond the Tired Old Tropes
Tuesday, October 7, 2025. Doors open at 5:30 pm, event begins at 6:00 pm
Solstice Books, 721 Second Ave., Fairbanks, AK
Novels and short fiction set in Alaska (written by Alaskan authors) have historically played second fiddle to homegrown nonfiction narratives. Yet fiction allows both writer and reader a look into the past, present, and future that isn’t possible with other types of writing. It offers a view of our world, warts and all, that is often sorely lacking in Alaska’s wider culture. With everything happening in Alaska and the world beyond in recent times, there’s never been a better moment to move beyond the old tropes of stalwart pioneers forging a new life on the Last Frontier and show a truer vision of the Far North. Join authors Paul Greci, Jaclyn Wilmoth, Rosemary McGuire, and Kris Farmen for a lively panel discussion on the subject of moving Alaska fiction forward into a new century of artistic endeavor.
Writing the Wild: A Conversation with Marybeth Holleman and Martha Amore
Wednesday, October 8, 6:30 p.m.
Writer’s Block Bookstore and Cafe
Come share an evening with Alaska authors Marybeth Holleman and Martha Amore as they talk about the craft of writing, wilderness, feminism, and the ups and downs of the writer’s life. The conversation will also explore the ways Northern landscapes, communities, and histories enter into their work. There will be time for audience questions and conversation, offering a chance to reflect together on what it means to write from and about the North.
Martha Amore teaches writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where she achieved her Master of Fine Arts in Fiction. She also holds an Interdisciplinary Studies Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her books include In the Quiet Season & Other Stories and Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry, which was a finalist for a LAMBDA Literary Award. Beyond the world of writing, her main joys in life are spending time with her family and friends, plus exploring Alaska with her two amazing sled dogs. Check in with her at marthaamore.com.
Marybeth Holleman’s newest book is the novel Bloom Again. She’s also author of tender gravity: poems and The Heart of the Sound, co-author of Among Wolves, and co-editor of Crosscurrents North, as well as co-editor of the forthcoming Alaska Literary Field Guide. Raised by North Carolina’s Smokies, she now lives in the embrace of Alaska’s Chugach Mountains
The Making of an Alaskan Mushroom Book
with Kate Mohatt
Wednesday, October 8
Doors open at 5:30 p.m., the annual Friends of Library meeting begins at 6:15 p.m., and Kate will speak at 7 p.m.
Ann Stevens Room of Loussac Public Library.
Refreshments will be offered.
This event is hosted by Friends of the Library.
Kate Mohatt will speak on “The Making of an Alaskan Mushroom Book” at the Friends of the Library annual meeting. Alaska is home to thousands of mushroom species, and foragers rely on handbooks for safety in harvesting and eating. But what goes into creating a field guide that’s accurate and appealing? Join us for a look behind the pretty pictures with a focus on the research, science, and creativity of documenting Alaska’s mushrooms.
Kate Mohatt has been studying and collecting mushrooms in Alaska for over 20 years. Prior to that, she received a master’s degree in plant science from Montana State University, studying fungi associated with white bark pine near Yellowstone. She’s the founder and president of the Turnagain Arm Mycological Society, and founder of the Girdwood Fungus Fair. She is a co-author of Mushrooms of Alaska and Mushrooms of the National Forests in Alaska.
Interview with poet Shannon Gramse
UAA Professor and Reference Librarian Deborah Mole interviews Shannon Gramse about writing poetry, with a focus on his new book, Lost Last Poems.
Professor Shannon Gramse has taught writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage since the late 20th century. He is the author of Lost Last Poems, which won the Andy Hope Literary Award, and he co-founded and co-edited Ice-Floe: International Poetry of the Far North, the celebrated circumpolar journal and book series.
KRUA interview to be broadcast on Thursday, October 9, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The recorded interview will be accessible here when it becomes available.
Both Sides Now
Leland Hale and Stan Jones will team up to discuss the differences between writing crime fiction and crime nonfiction in their approaches to writing about murder and mayhem.
Leland E. Hale was born in Seattle, Washington, and now resides in rural Kitsap Peninsula, across the Puget Sound from Seattle. A serious writer since his teens, his first major work was “Butcher, Baker,” the true-crime story of Alaska serial murderer Robert Hansen. That book inspired the 2013 movie “Frozen Ground,” starring Nicolas Cage and John Cusack. Which, in turn, led him to appear in a number of true-crime documentaries and, more recently, their podcast equivalents. He is not, however, famous: no one even notices him at the grocery store.
Educated at Seattle University (B.A.) and the University of Washington (M.S.), Mr. Hale has enjoyed several careers, having worked in politics, as well as the energy, aerospace and software industries. In short, his writerly skills have taken him many places. He has even testified before the U.S. Congress on Pacific Northwest energy policies. He promises not to do that again.
Stan Jones is the author of the Alaska–based Nathan Active series and the Palm Springs-based Dana Forsythe series. In addi
tion is the co-author, with Sharon Bushell of the oral history “The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster.” He was born in Anchorage and has lived in Kotzebue and Fairbanks. He was an award-winning journalist at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and the Anchorage Daily News and worked in public radio as well. He also worked for the Prince William Sound Advisory Council, set up to advocate for oil transportation safety in hope of preventing future accidents like the Exxon Valdez spill He lives in Anchorage with his wife, Susan.
Click image for list of participating authors.
Gabrielle Calvocoressi POETRY READING from her new collection THE NEW ECONOMY
Premieres October 12.
Click here to view the You Tube video when available.
Click here for more information about Gabrielle Calvocoressi and her writing.
