Faculty
Skagway Awaits
Winter in Skagway
We're taking this opportunity while the streets are quiet and we're warm in doors to develop this thing.
March 1, 2012: Oscar-nominated screenwriter Scott Silver to keynote North Words Writers Symposium
Registration now available for third annual writers conference in Skagway on May 30-June 2, 2012
Scott Silver co-wrote "The Fighter". The script was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA, WGA, and Critic's Choice Award. He also wrote "8 Mile" and is currently working on an adaption of "The Imperfectionists" by Tom Rachman for Plan B, and "Floor of Heaven" by Howard Blum for Fox 2000 and Chernin Entertainment. Silver is married, raising two children, living in New York City.
He will be joined by several Alaska writers on the faculty including Lynn Schooler, Deb Vanasse, John Straley, Heather Lende, Seth Kantner, Kim Heacox, Nick Jans and Dave Hunsaker. In addition to engaging in panel discussions about writing and publishing, registered symposium participants will get to participate in several activities in and around historic Skagway and nearby Dyea.
Registration is now open. A maximum of 50 participants will be accepted for this year’s symposium.
The event is sponsored by the Skagway CVB with generous support from Alaska Magazine, The Skagway News Co., and Sgt. Preston’s Lodge.
About Skagway:
Skagway is a study in contrast and survival. Our roots date back to when the coastal Tlingit Indians of Southeast Alaska first used the area 10,000 years ago as a trading route to the Yukon interior. They called it “place of the bunched up water (from the wind).” A few white settlers followed in the 1800s, but there were few visitors here until the Klondike Gold Rush hit in 1897-98. Skagway was the focus of the world as the primary jumping off point for nearly 100,000 stampeders bent on reaching the gold fields in the Yukon. This rollicking event shaped the future of the north as we know it today.
Skagway is not just about its storied past. It’s a small community at heart that survived with the changing winds – and it does blow here often. The White Pass & Yukon Route railroad outlasted the gold rush and other booms and bust of the past century. Now instead of hauling freight and supplies to the Yukon, it hauls more than 300,000 visitors a year. The town is also the headquarters for Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Established in 1976, the park has preserved many of the town’s gold rush buildings, maintains the historic Chilkoot Trail, and is a vast cultural resource. The town also has several museums and authentic historical attractions, as well as many wilderness adventure tours that take you out of town and into the mountains at our doorstep.
Over the past 35 years, Skagway’s tourism has grown, and with it the number of artists and writers in the community. The first NWWS symposium in 2010 was a great success, and the community is ready to host it again.
For more information on registration, panel topics, schedule, and planned activities:
www.nwwriterss.com
Conference contact:
Buckwheat Donahue
Phone:
907-983-2854
or email carlin_donahue@hotmail.com
Greetings from Skagway, Alaska!
We invite you to converge this summer with a community of writers in search of inspiration and refreshment under the Midnight Sun.
North Words Symposium offers a unique opportunity for writers to nurture interrelationships with other writers and thinkers in a spectacular place. We aspire to build upon a tradition of literature that reflects language and life on the frontier.
Our excitement grows as the schedule unfolds.
Special symposium events include a ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad to a rainforest trail and campfire reading, a taco feed and brothel tour at the historic Red Onion Saloon, a keynote dinner at Poppies overlooking beautiful Jewell Gardens, and a barbecue with music on the porch at a Dyea homestead where cabins are being restored for a future writers/artists retreat.
The sizzle of North Words Symposium derives from electricity generated by people like you. A dozen published writers from the North contribute to panel discussions relating to genre, process, and business of writing. Gather in renovated 110-year-old Goldrush buildings to take part in memorable talks with fascinating people.
As a collaborative effort of Skagway Borough, U.S. National Parks, and Alaska Magazine, the Symposium offers nothing less than solid craftwork, thoughtful discussion, and experiences that will last a lifetime.
Please join us!