Indigenous authors featured at 5th annual Alaska Native Book Fair
Celebrating and encouraging reading, writing, and creativity
Anchorage, AK (Updated April 11, 2025) – More than a dozen Indigenous authors will be featured at the Annual Alaska Native Book Fair on April 18, a social and literary event that brings together published authors, aspiring writers, and Alaskans of all ages to celebrate Indigenous storytelling and learn about publishing.
What: Alaska Native Book Fair
Date: April 18, 2025
Time: 12 – 4 p.m. — Free Admission
Where: Cook Inlet Tribal Council, 3600 San Jeronimo Dr., Anchorage, AK
At this year’s book fair, people can meet and talk with Iñupiaq James Dommek, Jr., author and narrator of the hair-raising survival audiobook Midnight Son; Indigenous author Lily Tuzroyluke, who wrote the gripping Iñupiaq historical novel Sivulluq: Ancestor; and Dena’ina Athabascan Annie Wenstrup, author of The Museum of Unnatural Histories, and the 2025 winner of the Whiting Foundation poetry prize for exceptional new writers.
Feel free to chat with other participating authors: Beverly Sims (Our Fur-fathers of Southwest Alaska: Kalmakoff, Kameroff, Kamkoff), Aurora Hardy (Windswept: Chitina, Alaska Childhood), the Atwaters (How Raven Got His Crooked Nose), Katherine Gottlieb (His Hand Upon Me), Miranda Miller (Muddy Paws + Messy Trucks), Maria Williams (The Alaska Native Reader), Joni Spiess (Mittens and Mukluks! Winter in Alaska), Sharon Kay (Learn to Weave an Attu Basket), Holly Miowak Guise (Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from WWII); and Caitlyn Elias (The Other Side of the River: An Alaska Native Story by Elias Kelly). Books by the featured authors and other Indigenous writers will be for sale at the event. Guests are welcome to bring their own books for autographs.
PBS’ Molly of Denali will be there from noon-2 p.m.
The event will also host a panel of three Alaska Native writers discussing their memoirs as works in progress. The writer’s panel will be from 2-3 p.m., and will be live streamed over Facebook at www.facebook.com/events/808704001306061/.
In telling their personal stories, these authors hope to inspire others to write the story of their own lives. Panel moderators will be Rhonda McBride of KNBA, and Joaqlin Estus, a retired journalist. Panelists are:
- Emil Notti, Alaska Federation of Natives president in the years leading up to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)
- Sam Kito, Jr., a Japanese-Tlingit elder and lobbyist who was interned in a concentration camp during World War II.
- Cynthia Notti, who has a middle grade book on the influenza pandemic in the works and is contributing to her father Emil’s biography.
Update: Watch the panel discussion here: https://vimeo.com/1076816422?share=copy
The free event will also feature door prizes.
“The Alaska Native Book Fair is a great time for people to meet published authors, to learn about developing your own writing skills, to get autographs, and to visit with people who love to read,” said Kristel Komakhuk, Chair of the 2025 Alaska Native Book Fair. “It’s also a reminder of the powerful role of storytelling in keeping our Indigenous traditions and heritage alive.”
Sponsored by: Alaska Native Media Group, Atwood Foundation, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Talking Circle Media, FSBO System, Alaska Center for the Book, University of Alaska, Anchorage School District Indigenous Education, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Calista Education and Culture, Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, Aleut Corporation, Marie Matthews, and others.
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