August 12-18, 2011
poet Elizabeth Bradfield
with Jeremy Pataky
Splendor & Slag:
Toward an Honest Conversation with Place
What happens if we permit ire, struggle, and fact to meet veneration and awe in our writings about place? Place, after all, is neither singular nor tidy. It’s the locus of many communities and conversations. Nature writing is richest when it includes elements that might not, initially, seem to “belong.”
Consider this: The red buildings of Kennecott National Historic Landmark set against a splay of rock and ice strike all kinds of travelers with their visual and historic drama. But as otherworldly as it may seem, historic McCarthy was connected to the world “outside.” Kennecott ore was shipped to Tacoma, Washington for smelting. Growing up in Tacoma, poet Liz Bradfield stared at that smelter every day. Later, when the smelter closed, the implosion of its stack became an event—boats crowded to see it fall. The Kennecott mines are now a destination; Tacoma’s bay is a Superfund site.
Forrest Gander defines eco-poetry as work that “investigates—both thematically and formally—the relationship between nature and culture, language and perception.” Inner experience is modified and modulated by the larger world beyond. We all can find odd, unique bridges between our own lives and the places we come to. Cultivating and harnessing the jumble of tones and narratives that result from a deep investigation of place into poetry is a fantastic challenge.
During the course of this Wrangell Mountains Poetry Workshop, we will use McCarthy and the Wrangell-St. Elias as our crucible. We’ll live for a time in McCarthy, trying to see place, including this particular place, in a different light. We will explore the many histories here and our reactions to them. Geology, culture, and our own inner lives will all be given privilege. We will listen deeply, and we will play with various forms, styles, and approaches that highlight different aspects of place and the sometimes-contradictory responses they demand.
Public art project commemorating
McCarthy and the workshop
Bradfield writes: "By their very nature, conversations are not one-sided. When we leave McCarthy at the end of this week, the place will go on speaking and the people who live here will continue their daily dialogues. From our homes, we will listen to our experiences and retell them, and those retellings will be influenced by weather and events and memory’s warp.
This year, McCarthy’s 100th anniversary, we’d like to commemorate the voices that comprise the Wrangell Mountains Poetry Workshop. Together, we will create a piece of public art to be displayed in town. It will reflect the place before we came and our own time here. At the end of the week, we’ll hunker down with paint and a plan. Don’t worry. No skills other than a desire to write are necessary.
I don’t want to reveal all the details here—we’ll outline them when you arrive—but I’ll leave you with these thoughts: Explorers in the Arctic used to leave cairns on their journeys, a bit of flag, food, and a short letter tucked into the rock pile for travelers to come. Tlingit traders carved clan-signs along their routes. Kids leave messages in bedroom closets or hollow trees addressed to the finder. These notes to the future are also records of the past. As weather and time act on them, they themselves become part of the narrative. Most importantly, they document a trust that places will endure beyond us and that our own time in them, no matter how short, is part of an ongoing story."
About the Workshop Staff
Elizabeth Bradfi
eld is the author of Interpretive Work (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2008), which won the Audre Lorde Award and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and Approaching Ice (Persea Books, 2010), a book of poems about Arctic and Antarctic exploration that was a finalist for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets.
Bradfield's poetry has been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Field, The Believer, Orion, and numerous other journals and anthologies. She has been awarded fellowships and scholarships from Stanford University's Wallace Stegner program, the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, and elsewhere.
In 2005, Bradfield founded Broadsided (broadsidedpress.org), which she still runs. A grassroots, virtual, collaborative press, Broadsided attempts to pull literary work out of journals and put it on the streets. It brings words together with the energy of original visual art, publishing monthly collaborations on the website as pdfs that are then downloaded, printed, and posted around the world by "Vectors."
Elizabeth grew up in Tacoma, Washington. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Washington and received an MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where she lived for five years. She lives now on Cape Cod and works as a web designer and naturalist.
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Jeremy Pataky 
is the author of Fata Morgana (Blue Hour Press, 2010). He earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Montana and his work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Southeast Review, Cirque, Crab Creek Review, The Northern Review, Left-Facing Bird, Square Lake, Anchorage Press, Alaska Public Radio, and many others. His essay "The Wild Dead" is forthcoming in an anthology from Bonafide Books. Jeremy is Vice President and a founding board member of the 49 Alaska Writing Center, a literary nonprofit that supports creative writers from throughout Alaska at all stages of their development through programming and outreach while building an audience for Alaska literature. He is the Executive Director of the Wrangell Mountains Center and he directs the Wrangell Mountains Poetry Workshop.
In addition to explorations on the page, workshop participants will investigate the Kennecott National Historic Landmark and the dramatic Kennecott Valley during their week in the Wrangells.
About the Workshop
Location and Venue
The Wrangell Mountains Poetry Workshop is a Wrangell Mountains Center (WMC) program. The WMC is a private nonprofit institute which fosters understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of wildlands and mountain culture in Alaska through scientific and artistic inquiry in the Wrangell Mountains. The workshop is based at the WMC's headquarters in the Old Hardware Store in McCarthy, Alaska. The town of McCarthy is set in the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the largest national park in the U.S. Over 23% larger than Switzerland, Wrangell-St. Elias is world renowned for its wild landscapes, high peaks, massive glaciers and rivers, healthy ecosystems, and dramatic scenery as well as its unique cultural history.
McCarthy is approximately a seven hour drive from either Anchorage or Fairbanks (plus time for sightseeing, et cetera). Out-of-state participants normally fly into Anchorage; we make no promises, but do our best (usually with great success) to connect participants into carpools. It's also possible to fly or arrange shuttles from Anchorage to McCarthy.
McCarthy and neighboring Kennecott, a national historic landmark, are situated within the Kennicott Valley (note the different spellings between the natural features and historical features.) McCarthy and Kennecott serve locals and travelers alike as a gateway to world-class backcountry opportunities and amazing front country hikes and walks (including access to the Root Glacier); the Kennicott Valley also provides a window into some of the most unique chapters in Alaska's history and an authentic, lively contemporary community. 
The workshop will take poets into the field and provide some time for independent exploration and writing, and is based in the WMC's headquarters, the Old Hardware Store. Built in 1911 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Hardware Store serves as a cozy, atmospheric place to write and share, and is located just a half mile from the toe of the Kennicott Glacier.
Schedule
Participants should plan to arrive in McCarthy in time to get settled in (at the lodge, at the campground, etc) in time for a 6:00 pm kickoff dinner on August 12th in the Old Hardware Store. The
workshop ends with breakfast on August 18th. Optional morning writing circles will be offered daily before breakfast and all meals will be taken together. The week's activities will include writing circles and craft talks, workshops and public readings, optional field forays to the glacier toe and out onto the Root Glacier (physical fitness, but no experience, required for the glacier hike), the opportunity to tour the iconic Mill Building in Kennecott and to visit the McCarthy-Kennicott Historical Museum, discussion of assigned readings, an open-to-the-public literary open mic Community Word Jam, and a closing gala and participant reading on our last night.
Tasty homemade meals (mostly vegetarian) are included in the price of the workshop. In keeping with the WMC's commitment to cooperative living and sustainable systems, writers are invited to contribute to daily chores connected with our organic garden and clean-up of meals. Every effort will be made to accommodate dietary restrictions with advance notice.
Primitive camping is available for free to participants at a private (and beautiful) site just a short walk from the WMC. Those who opt for camping are welcome to store gear at the WMC and use our rustic shower and facilities there. If you choose to camp, WMC staff will direct you to the campsite and orient you there upon your arrival.
Alternatively, participants may choose to rent a bed at the historic Commissioner's Cabin in downtown McCarthy just one block away from the Hardware Store for an additional $15 per night. Please contact us early to ensure availability. Other lodging options within McCarthy include the full service McCarthy Lodge and Lancaster's Backpacker Hotel, located just down the street. The Kennicott River Lodge and Hostel is another great option outside of town; it's a short bicycle ride or twenty minute walk each way. If you bring a vehicle with you, Currant Ridge Cabins is located on the McCarthy Road about three miles from the road's end; it's about a half mile walk between the parking area there and the Old Hardware Store. Free shuttles run between the river and McCarthy on a rotation with limited hours. If you bring a camper in or would otherwise like to camp out with your vehicle, there are two commercial campgrounds near the end of the McCarthy Road that will accommodate you without advance reservations.
Register for the Poetry Workshop
To register, please mail in this completed form with your deposit. Instructions are included in the form. If you have questions or would prefer to pay online with a credit card, email jeremy@wrangells.org or call (907) 244-7717.
Register soon! The workshop will be limited to 16 participants and a $30 discount is offered to participants who register before May 1st; WMC members receive a 10% discount.
see the nonfiction workshop page
Several participants in the 2009 Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop and Wrangell Mountains Center staff explore the Root Glacier while other participants explore the nearby Kennecott National Historic Landmark or work on their writing projects.
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photo by Jon Campbell
2009 Visiting Writer Scott Russell Sanders reads a passage from his book A Conservationist Manifesto during the annual Word Jam, an open-to-the-public literary and performance art open mic held in conjunction with the Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop.
