Anthology of rural Alaska stories wins awards

September 28, 2011

Marmian Grimes

An anthology of stories by writers from rural Alaska recently won three national book awards while its co-editors were honored for their long-running cultural journalism project that has published the work of hundreds of University of Alaska students in newspapers and on websites over the past quarter-century.

The book, Purely Alaska: Authentic Voices from the Far North, with 32 stories from 23 rural Alaska writers, won a bronze medal in the 2011 Book of the Year competition sponsored by Foreword magazine.

Purely Alaska, published by Epicenter Press, also captured a second-place award in the nonfiction anthology category of the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

In addition, Purely Alaska received an honorable mention in the culture category of the annual Eric Hoffer Awards for Short Prose and Independent Books.

Purely Alaska’s contributors include the book’s co-creators, Susan B. Andrews and John Creed, humanities/journalism professors at Kotzebue-based Chukchi Campus, along with 21 of their distance-education students. In 1988 Andrews and Creed founded the Chukchi News and Information Service, a cultural journalism project for publishing student writing in newspapers and magazines throughout Alaska. Today CNIS publications appear in both traditional and Internet media.

Journalism Adviser Recognition

Professors Andrews and Creed, former journalists, earlier this year were honored by the Alaska Professional Communicators, a statewide organization promoting excellence in journalism, communications and education, for their work as faculty advisors to CNIS.