“Exploring the Frontiers of Language”

October 12, 2020 – North Words announces 2021 Keynote Author: Tommy Orange! On Indigenous People’s Day we were pleased to announce on our Facebook and Instagram pages that Tommy Orange, the Oakland, California writer of the best-selling novel There There about the lives of urban Native Americans, will be next year’s keynote author. Tommy is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma. We also will welcome Laureli Ivanoff, an Inupiaq and Yupik writer from Unalakleet, Alaska as a member of our Alaska NW faculty, thanks to a new partnership with the Skagway Traditional Council. More details about our keynote and Alaska-NW faculty coming soon!

August 16, 2020 – North Words founder Buckwheat Donahue (1951-2019) remembered with special Buckwheat Memories Tribute . This photo memory with Buckwheat performing one of his favorite Robert Service poems played at the start of North Words 2020 and was released to public on his birthday. He would have been 69 today.

August 5, 2020 – Virtual North Words 2020 – It’s a Wrap!  Thanks to all 42 of you who registered for our virtual conference Aug 2-4. We had a great time hosting you and engaging with our faculty from locations in Skagway and Dyea. It wasn’t the same as being in person, but the North Words vibe was still present.  Check out the Virtual NWWS 2020 Schedule for what happened and see photos on our Facebook page.  Due to continuing concerns with COVID-19, we were unable to host the regular conference this year – even after initially postponing it to later in the summer.  On June 15, after consulting our 2020 faculty, we were delighted to announce that all were on board with the idea of a virtual conference in early August.  This year’s special theme was “Writing at a time of a threatened natural world,”  featuring our faculty: keynote author, acclaimed nature writer Bill Streever (see below); along with these writers from Alaska and the Northwest: Dr. M Jackson of Eugene, OR, formerly of Skagway and now a noted writer of glacier books; Heather Lende of Haines, AK, best-selling author of non-fiction books about small town life and politics; Nicole Stellon O’Donnell of Fairbanks, AK, highly praised teacher and writer of prose poetry;  Eva Holland of Whitehorse, Yukon, published free-lance magazine writer and author of a new book on overcoming fears; Caroline Van Hemert, of Anchorage and Haines, who’s memoir The Sun is A Compass came out to great reviews last summer; and Anchorage short fiction writer Bryan Fierro. See more in their faculty bios under the 2020 conference tab above.

Presented by the North Words Organizing Faculty under the fiscal sponsor Skagway Development Corporation – Community Development Services, with generous support from the Municipality of Skagway and additional Sponsors. Meet your writing community at the North Words Writers Symposium in Skagway, Alaska.