Dear friends and readers,

What a summer it's been! Every Alaska summer goes way too fast, and this one was no exception. The weather could have been better, yes, but--no complaints. We had a great writers conference here (in Homer) in June, a fun-filled residency at the UAA low-rez MFA program in July, and then I was a keynoter at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference at the end of July and just got back from a writer-in-the-park residency at Denali Park where I got to hike among wolves and bears, pick tons of blueberries, and discover (with a paleontologist) dinosaur footprints in rock. Who has time to write?

See the links to left (Word and PDF versions of "Why I Write)," the keynote I gave at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference and which numerous people asked me to post.

This week I should be receiving the proofs of my forthcoming book Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North. See my books page for more information about it. The publisher is Counterpoint Press, and the publication date is January 2011. If you're a potential reviewer or blogger or can otherwise help with publicity, please ask Counterpoint for a review copy or let me know.

See my books page, for more information about all my books, including links for ordering. For The Compass Inside Ourselves and Survival, both out-of-print, you can contact me directly at the e-mail address at the top of this page.

My two-year term as Alaska Writer Laureate is, alas, coming to an end. See the Alaska State Council on the Arts site for information on the position and the nominating form.

SCHEDULE

September 12-19. I'll be on the research vessel Tiglax in the Gulf of Alaska as "media" with mostly UAF scientists and grad students studying ocean chemistry and zooplankton, for a new writing project related to ocean acidification.

October 3. Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage. Grant Hall, time TBA. Speaker in an Alaskan Writers series.

October 18 -- Alaska Book Festival/University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Alaska Day Speaker, on Alaska writing.

October 21 -- Governor's Arts Awards, Fairbanks. I'll be passing the baton to the next Alaska Writer Laureate, who will be selected by the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

November 4-6 -- Nonfiction Now, conference in Iowa City, Iowa. I'll be appearing on a panel of Alaska writers reading from our "far north" creative nonfiction.

November 9 - December 7 -- Writing Residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts.

January 2011 -- publication of Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North. Watch here for book launch and publicity plans.

February 2-5 -- AWP Conference in Washington, D.C. I'll be on two panels: "Where Science and Justice Meet: The Necessity of Environmental Writing" and "Imagining Ourselves: The Narrative Stance in Memoir."

Look for my guest blog posts at 49 Writers, which is a terrific blog by Alaskan writers about Alaskan writing and much more. To see my contributions, simply click on my photo on the righthand side of that page. I'll shortly be posting something about my time in the Artist in Residency Program in Denali Park. Did you know that 40 of our national parts have AIR programs?

Beluga news: On June 4 the State of Alaska filed suit against the federal government for its Endangered Species listing of the Cook Inlet beluga. (This parallels the state's earlier polar bear suit. Our politicians don't want any pesky animals getting in the way of oil and gas drilling and other forms of economic development.) Meanwhile, I'm representing Cook Inletkeeper on the shareholder panel of the beluga recovery team. See more about the recovery plan including notes of our first meeting here. Our next meeting is in Anchorage on September 30.

For now, with blue(berry)-stained teeth,

Nancy