Event Title: Get Lit! With Author Kris Farmen
Date/Time: Thu, Dec 6th 6:00pm - 7:45pm
Location: Homer Public Library Fireplace Lounge
Thursday, Dec 6, 6:00pm
Join us for a reading and craft talk exploring Old Cook Inlet
Imagine Southcentral Alaska lit by firelight and the amber glow of oil lamps. A place without concrete cities, Xtratufs and duct tape, where Russian is still the common language and the handful of resident Americans are, for all intents and purposes, foreigners in a strange land. This world once existed, but has been virtually forgotten amid seven decades of Cold War propaganda and modern-day Alaskans’ obsession with the gold rush and statehood.
Kris Farmen’s new novel Turn Again brings this world back to life through the words of Aleksandr Campbell, a man of mixed Russian, Dena’ina Athabascan, and American heritage. His story, told to anthropologist Rebecca Ashford from his prison cell as he awaits his execution for a double homicide, paints a 19th century world that is both instantly recognizable and starkly alien.
Farmen, who holds degrees in anthropology and archeology, will discuss the process of crafting Turn Again from personal inspiration and historical research, and how he used both to breathe color into a world of sepia-tone photographs and create a novel of Cook Inlet in the 1880s.