The Writer's Block Books & Events

7pm: Seen Unseen (Diversity in Alaska Literature, A Book Week Event)
2019-10-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Anchorage)
Join us for a discussion of diversity in Alaskan literature with:
Tara Ballard
Tara Ballard has recently returned home to Alaska, where she was born and raised. For the last eight years, she and her husband lived in the Middle East and West Africa, where they taught English in local schools and universities. She is the co-host of the Blue Doors Poetry Retreat in Galaxidi, Greece and an affiliate editor for Alaska Quarterly Review. Winner of the 2016 Many Voices Project competition, her first book, House of the Night Watch (New Rivers Press) was published in 2018. Winner of a 2019 Nazim Hikmet Poetry Prize, Tara holds an MFA from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Her poems have been published by Bellingham Review; North American Review; Poetry Northwest; Salamander; The Southampton Review; War, Literature and the Arts; and other literary magazines.
Chaun Ballard
Chaun Ballard is the co-host of the Blue Doors Poetry Retreat in Galaxidi, Greece, an affiliate editor for Alaska Quarterly Review, a Callaloo fellow, and a graduate of the MFA Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Chaun Ballard’s chapbook, Flight, is the winner of the 2018 Sunken Garden Poetry Prize and is published by Tupelo Press. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Columbia Poetry Review, Frontier Poetry, Lunch Ticket, Narrative Magazine, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Rattle, Spoon River Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Tupelo Quarterly, and other literary magazines. His work has received nominations for both Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize.
Jen Stever
Jen Stever is an Iñupiaq writer, artist, mom, and proud nerd. He is a third year student in the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Creative Writing and Literary Arts MFA She primarily writes young adult fantasy fiction and sometimes explores her identity through poetry.”
Lauren Somers Heyano
Lauren Somers Heyano is a writer, musician, creator, and storyteller. She is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Literary Arts at UAA. Her songs and essays explore love in all its forms.
EJ David
E. J. R. David, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Alaska Anchorage, with his primary duties being with the PhD Program in Clinical-Community Psychology that has a Rural, Cultural, and Indigenous Emphasis. Dr. David has published theoretical and empirical works on Racial or Ethnic Minority Psychology, including four books: Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino -/ American Postcolonial Psychology (2013; Information Age Publishing), Internalized Oppression: The Psychology of Marginalized Groups (2014; Springer Publishing), The Psychology of Oppression (2017; Springer Publishing), and We Have Not Stopped Trembling Yet (2018; SUNY Press). He was the 2007 recipient of the American Psychological Association (APA) Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (Division 45) Distinguished Student Research Award “for his significant contribution in psychological research related to ethnic minority populations”; the 2012 APA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Early Career Award in Research for Distinguished Contributions to the Field of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology for “outstanding scientific contributions and the application of this knowledge toward the improved mental and physical well-being of people of color”; and the 2013 Asian American Psychological Association Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research. In 2014, he was honored by the Alaska Psychological Association with the “Cultural Humanitarian Award for Exemplary Service and Dedication to Diversity, and in 2015 he was inducted as a Fellow by the Asian American Psychological Association for “Unusual and Outstanding Contributions to Asian American Psychology.”
Sya B.
Sya Gipson is a 17 year old student with many diverse interests and talents. Constantly seeking to learn something new, she uses her experiences to spark inspiration. In her pieces, she encourages you to hear more than what she’s saying. Believing that life has an infinite number of meanings, she hopes to reflect that in her work.
