A SCARY TALE

Twelve-year-old Alice Otten wrote this paragraph after some brainstorming we did in her sixth grade class. When summer comes and she's not writing scary stories, Alice likes to swim and play ball.

One strange woman comes to Stebbins, walking down a dark, dark path. Then one moment, standing still, she hears a howl from the wilderness. Suddenly she is running and panting down the dark, deep path, running on her high heels, then sliding down the ice. Another howl, and then another. She trips on a nasty smelling, creepy crawling, gooey pile of bloodied beetles. She lies on the beetles, crying for help. Then in one sudden move, she dies.

Clear Rivers

Last week the eleventh and twelfth graders in Stebbins (Tapraq) collaborated with me on a poem set in their village. They identified strong showing language from one of my books and used a map to brainstorm ideas from some of the words. Then we put it all together in this poem.

Clear Rivers

Pikmiktalliq
Daylight fades.
The wolf
Howls
Prowls
Woofs.
Her cubs whisper-bark beside clear water.
She thrusts, teeth like metal.
The rifle gleams,
Teeters on a rock,
Clatters to the ground.
The chase –
Ancient as time
Ended.

Stebbins 11th and 12th graders

Tundra Haunting

Last week the ninth and tenth graders in Stebbins (Tapraq) collaborated with me on a poem set in their village. They identified strong showing language from one of my books and used a map to brainstorm ideas from some of the words. Then we put it all together in this poem.

Tundra Haunting

Little people capture
From a big world
Haunted by shadows, eerie and silent.
Thrashing
Dazed victims wrestle
With what they maybe see.
Time slows and stops
Forms change
Now there is wisdom.

Stebbins 9th and 10th grade

Blood Brothers in Stebbins

Last week the seventh and eighth graders in Stebbins (Tapraq) collaborated with me on a poem set in their village. They identified strong showing language from one of my books and used a map to brainstorm ideas from some of the words. Then we put it all together in this poem.

Blood Brothers in Stebbins

Monstrous
Mesmerized
The whale trembles
Smells decay in its watery home.
Huge, the hunter charges, looms
Blood surges,
Red as sun
Setting on the village
Play-dead
Or die

Stebbins 7th and 8th graders

Bound up in Tapraq

Last week the fifth and sixth graders in Stebbins (Tapraq) collaborated with me on a poem set in their village. They identified strong showing language from one of my books and used a map to brainstorm ideas from some of the words. Then we put it all together in this poem.

Bound up in Tapraq

Bounding bundle
Tundra giant on four hooves
The moose
Once angry,
Now silent.
Antlers hang above a window

Play dead, they said
But he attacked
Protecting
What he loved

Stebbins 5th and 6th graders

Spring returns to Stebbins

Last week the third and fourth graders in Stebbins collaborated with me on a poem set in their village. They identified strong showing language from one of my books and used a map to brainstorm ideas from some of the words. Then we put it all together in this poem.

Spring returns to Stebbins

A girl taps
The ice, half-frozen
Beneath, a tom cod
Circles, sprint-swimming.
Sun-soaked
The ice rots
The girl circles, dizzy
Like the salmon, leaping
Slippery
Slapping and shiny
With joy

Stebbins 3rd and 4th graders

Mouse in Stebbins

Last week the second graders in Stebbins collaborated with me on a poem set in their village. They identified strong showing language from one of my books and used a map to brainstorm ideas from some of the words. Then we put it all together in this poem.

Mouse in Stebbins

Furry mouse
Scampers
Scurries
Squeaks
Under the house
Rustles the grass
Scared

Stebbins 2nd graders

COMING SOON: ALASKAN AUTHORS FROM STEBBINS

Following the Iditarod? Look south of the Unalakleet checkpoint and you'll find Stebbins, an Alaskan Native village of approximately 600 people. Ten miles away is St. Michael, where the Russian-American Company built a fort in 1833. The Yup'ik village Tapraq was renamed Stebbins in 1900. Families here depend on hunting for seal, walrus, caribou, and beluga whale, as well as subsistence and commercial salmon fishing. The people of Stebbins have relatives in Hooper Bay, Kotlik, and Chevak.

I'm visiting Stebbins for three days of writing workshops. We're discussing why writing matters, how authors read to write, how authors write to show, and how we make our writing better. Yup'ik is no longer the first language in Stebbins. Few Yup'ik-speaking elders are left. With the older students, we're discussing a quote from Sarah James: "We are the ones who have everything to lose." We're also studying writing from Velma Wallis, Willie Hensley, George Guthridge, Seth Kantner, and Joan Kane along with exerpts from my own books.

Already I've encountered an enthusiastic and accomplished writer, Donna Erickson, who studied with Velma Wallis and Sherry Simpson at workshops in Unalakleet. She has given me permission to post her narrative "Keep your Stitches Tight." Watch for it here or at 49 Writers. I'll also be posting the best work from Stebbins students right here.