State poet laureate to be in Palmer

PALMER — Palmer Arts Council will sponsor a visit from Alaska Poet Laureate Nora Marks Dauenhauer. Two public appearances are scheduled during her time in the Valley.

First, she will be at the Palmer Library at 3 p.m., April 21 as a special guest of Friends of the Library. A reception in her honor will follow. Second, she will be at Vagabond Blues at 7 p.m., April 22. Her husband and poets from the local area also will join her at both events. There will be opportunities for questions and answers and dialog with Dauenhauer.

While she is in the Valley, she also will spend time with students at the Alaska Job Corps Center, Palmer High School and Burchell High School.

Dauenhauer was born in Juneau and grew up in Juneau and Hoona. Her father was a fisherman and carver. Her mother was a beader. The family lived at times on a fishing boat and in seasonal fish camps. As a member of the Tlingit Tribe, Nora’s first language was Tlingit. She did not learn English until she was 8. Dauenhauer received her degree in anthropology from Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage.

Her Native roots and her education in anthropology contributed to her becoming a major figure in the preservation and expression of Alaska native life and of the Tlingit Tribe in particular. Her poems and short stories reach deep into her Tlinkit heritage. Her work deals with Raven mythology and the dynamics of coastal fishing folklore.

Nora has worked as a Tlingit language researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and as a primary researcher in language and cultural studies at the Sealaska Heritage Foundation in Juneau. She has won numerous awards and recognitions for her poetry and short stories and for her scholarly contributions.

Jeffery Lisa Charvet, president of the Palmer Arts Council, called Dauenhauer “a truly unique Alaskan.” Charvet says that Nora’s presence in Palmer is a rare privilege for people interested in the Alaska Native heritage of the Southeast.

Nora’s husband is Richard Dauenhauer, a noted writer and scholar in his own right. He earned his doctorate degree from the University of Wisconsin and is a former Poet/Writer Laureate of Alaska. He will be accompanying his wife on her visit to Palmer.

Dauenhauer’s visit to Palmer is partially underwritten by the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The balance of the cost is being underwritten by members of the Palmer Arts Council.