Local poet publishes book with University of Alaska Press

Longtime valley resident Julie LeMay’s poetry collection, The Echo of Ice Letting Go, will be published by the University of Alaska Press in February. This is LeMay’s first full-length book. In 2011 LeMay retired after 30 years at Matanuska Electric Association and went on to complete her MFA in Creative Writing, focusing on poetry. LeMay currently resides in Palmer and is the mother of the well-known Alaskan novelist and Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Eowyn Ivey.

The collection is a narrative of interconnected poems about LeMay and her life in Alaska. Field Poetry Prize winner Carol Potter wrote that this is “a poet who knows how to praise the world in all its raggedness, beauty, and grief … a transformative, magical collection of poems, something readers will come back to over and over.” Jim Daniels, winner of the inaugural Brittingham Prize in Poetry, calls the book “a powerful collection” of “tight yet rich and layered poems.”

Fireside Books in Palmer will be hosting a book signing on Friday February 3 at 4pm followed by a 6pm dinner at Turkey Red. At the dinner, LeMay and Ivey will discuss the poems and LeMay’s path to publication. Tickets for the dinner are available online or at Fireside books. LeMay and Ivey will also be doing other joint events throughout the state during the next several months. More information on the book and events, as well as links to some of LeMay’s poems can be found at julielemay.com