Peggy Shumaker

Peggy Shumaker’s most recent book is Cairn, new and selected poems and prose, published by Red Hen Press.  The Rasmuson Foundation honored her work with its Distinguished Artist Award, and the National Endowment on the Arts with a fellowship in poetry.  She served as Alaska State Writer Laureate.  Shumaker is the author of eight books of poetry.  Her lyrical memoir is Just Breathe Normally.   Shumaker is professor emerita at University of Alaska Fairbanks. She serves on the Advisory Board for Storyknife and on the board of the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation.  Shumaker is editor of the Boreal Books series (an imprint of Red Hen Press), editor of the Alaska Literary Series at University of Alaska Press, and contributing editor for Alaska Quarterly Review.

Mentor.  Workshops and classes in poetry and nonfiction.

Statement:  “I want to read the poems, essays and stories that only you can write.  I want to pay close attention to your words, your images, your lines and sentences so that we can narrow the gap between what you imagine and what’s on the page. Together we’ll come up with reading lists to support and challenge you.  You’re about to devote several years to honing your craft, to reading as a writer, to finding ways to make room for writing in your life.  We’re in this together, as writers and as readers.  Writing well is an act of generosity.  Writing well allows us to add our steps to a dance that began long before we were born and that will continue long after we’re dust.  Across cultures, across centuries, writing lets us in on the inside stories, the stories that make us most human.”