Other conference presenters include Sherwin Bitsui, Jerah Chadwick, Rich Chiappone, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Marjorie Kowalski Cole, Gary Ferguson, Jill Fredston, John Haines, Kim Heacox, Judith Kitchen, Nancy Lord, Jo-An Mapson, Dawn Morao, Andromeda Romano-Lax, Ben Mikaelsen, Stan Sanvel Rubin, Rebeca Saletan, Katharine Sands, Eva Saulitis, Mimi Schwartz, Sherry Simpson and Aoise Stratford.

This week, Homer News spotlights Alaska author Marjorie Kowalski Cole.

Marjorie Kowalski Cole

Ester, Alaska

She began writing in the mid-1990s, with short stories and poetry in literary journals that include Alaska Quarterly Review, Kalliope, Chattahoochee Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Grain, Room of One’s Own and Cream City Review. Her essays have appeared in Poets and Writers Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, National Catholic Reporter, American Poetry Review and Alaska newspapers.

Her first novel is “Correcting the Landscape,” published by HarperCollins.

At the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference Kowalski Cole will serve as a panelist, American Writers From Tradition Through Transformation; presenter, Letting Big Things Into Your Fiction; presenter, When Character Takes Over; moderator, Nature Writing in a Time of Change.

HN: What inspires and influences you as a writer?

Kowalski Cole: Books, songs and artwork, and life itself inspire me. Northrup Frye said that “poems come from other poems,” and my experience has not contradicted that. Books do come from other books, and at the same time from personal experience and encounters with the surprise of life.

HN: What tips do you have for wannabe writers?

Kowalski Cole: Be available. Swing your feet to the floor each morning knowing that today you might meet God. How-ever you define God, he or she is present to us in daily relationships, between people and also between people and nature. Also, and just as important, is to keep reading! I once heard that Hemingway read three hours a day. Our true soul-community is out there, in the words of those who came before us.

HN: How do you schedule your writing time?

Kowalski Cole: I don’t and I’m not proud of this. No sooner do I set a schedule than I weasel out of it. But with no day job to distract me these days I mainly write, and everything else is a sideline. A newly accomplished page of writing works like positive conditioning: it feels so good I’m more likely to return to the task the next day.

HN: How do you market your writing?

Kowalski Cole: I send it to magazines, contests, journals, newspapers, small presses. Hundreds of rejections and hundreds of dollars in postage are a necessary part of the life, at least for me. If you think that what you’ve written would work in a given space in a given magazine, you might be right.

HN: Where do you go for writing advice?

Kowalski Cole: There are many helpful books on writing, like Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life,” Stephen King’s “On Writing,” Molly Peacock’s  “How to Read a Poem” and the essays of Henry James. I’ve been involved with a writers’ group for 15 years. Feedback from trusted, knowledgeable people is precious. If you know them well enough, you can even sort out their genuine, fresh responses from their personal peeves. In turn, you do your part by reading their work carefully and giving your honest response.

Registration for the conference is $250 per person prior to May 10; $125 each for University of Alaska admitted degree-seeking students prior to May 10. Beginning May 11, registration fee is $300. Onsite registration, if space allows, is $395.