Homer Alaska - Arts

In January, the Alaska Center for the Book awarded one of four 2009 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska awards to Swartz for her efforts in establishing the conference. It's an honor Swartz said should go not just to her, but to the Anchorage and Homer writers who help her organize the event and to the conference itself.

"It's quite the honor for the conference to get this kind of recognition," Swartz said. "I take it as more representative of the conference and all the work — the writers."

Swartz and a core group of Alaska writers put together the conference annually. She credits the help of University of Alaska Anchorage creative writing professors Sherry Simpson and Peggy Shumaker and Kachemak Bay Campus writing instructors Rich Chiappone, Nancy Lord and Eva Saulitis.

"It's not my impressive work. It's a collective impressive work," Swartz said.

The Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference organizers from the start crafted a successful formula. Bring together Alaska writers and poets with nationally recognized literary artists, give them a week-long chance to learn from each other and put them in the beautiful setting of Homer.

"It's the synergy of everybody getting together. It's the discourse, the exchange of ideas," Swartz said. "I think it's the place."

"They flip out when they come here," Chiappone said of visiting writers. "The place is very seductive."

The conference started with the Kachemak Bay Campus visiting writers series. In collaboration with UAA and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, KBC brought writers from the Lower 48 up for short residencies. Writers or poets would visit all three campuses on short tours of the state. There had been conferences like the Midnight Sun Writers Conference held in Fairbanks, but after that program ended there hadn't been similar gatherings. With core financial support from the Caroline Coons Writers' Endowment and other benefactors, KBC decided to fill the void.

"We thought we'd try it," Swartz said. "We did it again, and now it's our ninth year."

Key to the conference's success is its small scale, Swartz said. Capped at 150 attendees and with faculty of from 15 to 20 poets, writers, editors and agents, the ratio of 10 students or less to one teacher leads to small workshops and numerous opportunities for informal conversations.

"That's part of the experience," she said. "You create this connection."

Except for readings, the conference takes place at Land's End at the end of the Homer Spit. It's not uncommon for discussions to continue in the restaurant, on the deck and on the beach after formal events end.

About half the students have been to the conference before. Most are Alaskans, but many come from Outside. In early years the conference drew predominantly women participants, but the percentage of men coming has now grown to about a third.

Part of the conference's mission is to expose Alaska writers to the Lower 48 and honor the Alaska literary community, especially new writers, Swartz said.

"It was for people to meet emerging writers," she said. "It was for Alaskans to learn about people they may never have known about."

"It humanizes writers," Chiappone said. "It puts a face on the name."

Writers are some of the most solitary of artists, he noted. With communication like the Web and e-mail, writers don't even have to leave their offices.

"It's easier for a writer to stay more isolated than ever," Chiappone said.

The conference also pulls writers out of that isolation, he said.

"It's a gathering of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences all sharing the same thing," Swartz said. "They come together in one place."

Chiappone said Swartz has a key role: organizing.

"You're asking five artists to organize something," he said. "We're not organizers. We're artists."

"That's my role," Swartz said. "We complement the strengths we bring to it."

Although the organizers are reluctant to tinker with the success of the conference formula, over the years there have been some changes. In the past few years the conference has added a Youth Writing Workshop before the conference and a post-conference retreat with the keynote speaker. An opportunity to have manuscripts reviewed by visiting faculty has grown, too, from only a handful of participants to now about 30.

A public component of the conference has been the author readings. Cunningham will do a public reading the Saturday of the conference. Instead of reading at three sites as in past years, this year visiting writers will read at Alice's Champagne Palace. Open mic readings for participants move from Monday nights to during the conference programming around lunch from Saturday to Monday.

Connecting writers to readers, and celebrating the literary arts, is one of the reasons Swartz said she thinks the Alaska Center for the Book honored her and the conference.

"Hopefully, we're promoting the literary arts. Anything that can be done to keep the literary arts — all arts — going is food for the soul," she said. "I get jazzed by people creating something, and I created this."

Early registration is going on, with an advance rate of $325 until April 30. The conference almost always sells out, so early registration is encouraged.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael. armstrong@homernews.com.