Fall/Winter 2011 'Alaska Quarterly Review' released Oct. 6

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 27, 2011

WHAT:
Release of Fall/Winter 2011 Alaska Quarterly Review and First Friday Reading
Celebrating emerging and accomplished authors, the Alaska Quarterly Review (AQR) will release its Fall/Winter 2011 issue on Oct. 6, 2011. A mainstay of the Alaska literary scene, and certainly an important player on the national and international scene, this issue of AQR offers an impressive collection of top-tier new fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
 
In AQR's 29th year of publication through the University of Alaska Anchorage, this "literary magazine of consequence" will be, for the first time, available in e-book format from Amazon.com.
 
WHEN and WHERE:
The Fall/Winter 2011 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review will be released on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. The latest issue of AQR can be found at Barnes & Noble and other bookstores, and -- for the first time -- as an e-book on Amazon.com. Subscriptions can also be purchased online at www.uaa.alaska.edu/aqr.
 
A First Friday reading and release party will take place at Jitters Coffeehouse in Eagle River (11401 Old Glenn Highway) on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. This event will feature the debut of Alaska Nativewriter David Singyke and music by the UAA Jazz Quartet. The November First Friday reading on Nov. 4 will welcome musical guest Melanie Trost and writer Mary Beth Holleman, who will read her personal essay from AQR, "350 Pounds," about waiting for take-off in a commercial jet while the pilot runs the engines to burn off fuel to off-set the over-weight limit of passengers and their luggage.
 
ABOUT THIS ISSUE:
In addition to familiar, perhaps household names in this issue -- literary icons David Wagoner and Sherman Alexie -- there is a host of rising stars including Alaska locals, Mary Beth Holleman and David Singyke, as well as Alaska's acclaimed State Writer, Peggy Shumaker, among others. John Gamel, a retired doctor and new writer, is back in AQR with "Dangerous Doctors." His prior essay in AQR, "The Elegant Eyeball," was reprinted in the 2010 The Best American Essays. AQR has a reputation for introducing promising new writers to the national literary audience, an important part of the journal's mission, which was emphasized by AQR editor, Ronald Spatz, in a recent art talk on Art Works -- the official blog of the National Endowment for the Arts (July 20, 2011).
 
For Singyke, an Alaska Native writer, the publication in AQR is his first in a national literary magazine. In "Mother's Hands," Singyke has written a tribute to his late mother. In this lyric essay he speaks for the capacious role of a mother's hands -- as girl, woman, mother, sister, wife.
 
"These I know for sure: Wrote Christmas cards. Left me and my brother funny notes. Clapped at performances. Held a man after my father was gone that wasn't me or my brother. Waved so long to my brother that last night he backed out of the driveway. Opened the door for the state trooper that same night. Smoothed my hair. Wrote recipes so my brother and I could fix dinner while she was at work at the crazy place. Wiped tears of laughter from her eyes while reading Peter DeVries novels." - Excerpted from "Mother's Hands"
 
MORE INFORMATION:
Laurie Evans-Dinneen, 317-2334 / jldinneen@gmail.com
Ronald Spatz, ayaqr@uaa.alaska.edu