Fireside Books hosts prominent poets in their return to Alaska

PALMER — Sunday afternoon, a small group of poetry enthusiasts gathered to listen to a reading set up in Fireside Books in Palmer.

Kate Partridge and Alyse Knorr are touring the state to promote their two separate works of poetry. Neither are living in Alaska now, but a year ago they were both teaching at UAA. Since then, they have moved on, but Alaska seems to keep calling them back.

Partridge began writing her book “Ends of the Earth” four years ago when she moved from Washington D.C. to Anchorage. Many of the poems reference aspects from the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient poem she was using while teaching. She was struck by the parallels between herself and the main character, who travels into the underworld to find the secret of eternal life.

“I was thinking ‘This guy also is in a place that is very strange and isolated to him,’” she said, connecting the tale to her experiences in Alaska.

Partridge was also fascinated by a generally obscure character from the Epic of Gilgamesh, the female innkeeper Siduri, who lives at the edge of the world and serves travelers her wine.

“I began thinking, “So what if [the underworld] were in Alaska? What would this character be like?’” she said.

Partridge began connecting Alaska and Siduri in her writing, crafting a book that ended up being a mix of the adventures of Epic of Gilgamesh and her own.

“Mega City Redux,” written by Knorr, is a more light-hearted and humorous depiction of a road trip she goes on with her favorite TV characters, Xena Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dana Scully from the X-Files.

Both poets became inspired to pursue this line of writing through teachers they had during their high school and college education, though each is inspired mainly through personal life experiences, they both focus on this form of art through different lenses.

Partridge likes to incorporate a historical context in her work.

“I think that my writing is a way for me to try to inquireinto everything around me, but also for me to think about putting together context across history and across time. A lot of my poems move kind of well with myth and my own experience, and historical research or archives, and that’s been really interesting looking at where there are patterns,” she said.

She is currently working on a project she calls Northern Ledger, in which she writes stories based off of historical photos taken at the building of the Alaska Railroad. This work allows her to come back to Alaska often.

“I think [Alaska] is a place that has changed me a lot, and the way I think about land, and the way I think about the scope of the universe, and so I’m still writing about Alaska,” she said.

Knorr is more inspired by love.

“That’s my core, no matter what I try to write about, whether it’s the fear of flying or travel, it always boils down to a love poem,” she said. “I’m really thinking a lot about ethics, and how you express anything sincerely using language.”

Knorr has taken on the writing of an opera libretto about the French writer Christine de Pizan, who lived in the 1400s.

“It only uses as it’s text, her original words, so it’s in medieval French, so I’m trying to go back over my French from high school and college…it’s been a lot of fun and really challenging and exciting,” she said.