kellen kjera / NL At the Campus Bookstore Oct. 9, UAA faculty author Jackie Pflaum, of the nursing department used a Power Point presentation to show photos of nurses who worked in pre-statehood Alaska.

Bookstore event celebrates UAA’s faculty authors

By Jessica Ramsey Golden
Northern Light

The University of Alaska Anchorage Campus Bookstore hosted their fourth annual weeklong Faculty Author’s Celebration last week.

“What I’ve hoped to have is an informal environment where people can just talk,” said Rachel Epstein, bookstore special events coordinator. “It’s a good opportunity to see another side of faculty.”

A display featuring publications from the bookstore’s faculty authors section went up Monday, Oct. 6 in anticipation of the week’s events. The publications include fiction, creative nonfiction, essay collections, poetry, music and academically geared textbooks.

“Right now we’re looking at expanding the section,” Epstein said. “We are including more faculty who are affiliated with (University of Alaska) Fairbanks.”

This year, eight UAA faculty authors participated in three evenings of presentation. The format was a slight departure from that of previous years, which often included entire evenings dedicated to a single speaker.

Tuesday’s event opened with Dan Henry, assistant professor in the communication department, who read one of his creative nonfiction essays. Professor emeritus Tom Sexton gave readings of his poetry as did adjunct faculty poets Arlita Jones and Rich Chiaponne of the creative writing department, both of whom studied under Sexton.

“It’s a great honor to have a teacher like Tom Sexton, who inspired them (Jones and Chiappone) to continue with their own work in creative writing and also to teach,” Epstein said. “It sort of comes full circle here. Tuesday night was a rare evening. You could just feel the affection between colleagues.”

Shawn Lyon of the music department was also scheduled to speak at Tuesday’s event but had to cancel.

Thursday evening, Jackie Pflaum, associate professor of nursing, discussed a book she co-edited about nurses in Alaska in the early twentieth century. Owen Mason, professor of anthropology, shared information from his work on problems with coastal erosion in Alaska. Assistant professor of Japanese, Hiroko Harada introduced her book about the themes of guilt and shame in the dramas of the Japanese and German cultures of post-World War II.

The authors remained after the event to sign copies of their works.

The Faculty Authors Celebration ended Friday, Oct. 10 with a lecture and reading by Dan Kline, associate professor of English, who discussed children’s literature in the Middle Ages and a performance by the musical ensemble Flat Baroque.

Flat Baroque, consisting of Kathi Baldwin, assistant professor and instructional design specialist in Academic Technology Services, Linda Olson, Wendy Taylor, Wendy Anderson, Cari Sayre, Rose Hendrickson and Amber Baldwin, performed musical selections from the European Renaissance on authentic woodwind and percussion instruments.

“The bookstore has done a wonderful job,” Kathi Baldwin said after the performance. “It was a very nice gathering.”

There are more than 50 faculty authors listed on the bookstore’s Web site, which, Epstein said, is currently incomplete.

“I really enjoyed it,” said Ellen Davis, a student who attended Friday’s event. “It was nice to have the combination of the music and (lecture).”

More information on Campus Bookstore events can be found at their Web site www.uaa.alaska.edu/bookstore.