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.

ALASKAN AUTHORS REDIRECT

You'll now find me blogging at 49 Writers, where Andromeda Romano-Lax and I are building an online community of Alaskan authors and their readers. Come visit, leave a comment, become a follower, make us your home page, offer to be a monthly Featured Author, contact us about an occasional guest post - whatever your level of involvement, we're happy to have you on board.

I'll no longer be posting at Alaskan Authors, but we'll hang onto this domain name while we think about how we can best use it to promote the Alaskan authors and their work. Maybe a collective website where each author has a page with links to their books? Hosting online critique groups or books clubs? Posting snippets of works in progress by both published and hoping to be published authors? Send us your ideas about making good use of the www.AlaskanAuthors.com domain name.