(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - The Poems in Place project is currently accepting poetry submissions for two state parks, the Totem Bight State Historical Park in Ketchikan and the Chena River State Recreation Area north of Fairbanks.

Alaska State Parks, the Alaska Center for the Book, and a steering committee of Alaskan writers and poets are collaborating on the Poems in Place statewide project to celebrate the natural beauty of Alaska’s state parks with poetry.

“Poetry that celebrates Alaska’s natural environment – whether it’s an alpine valley or a tidal cove – can have a positive, powerful impact on visitors and Alaska residents, as we’ve seen following the poetry installation at Beluga Point,” said Claire LeClair, deputy director of Alaska State Parks.

The goal of the Poems in Place Project is to install poems on permanent signs in state parks throughout Alaska in the coming years. The first in this series – the poem “What Whales and Infants Know,” by Kim Cornwall – was installed in 2011 at Beluga Point in Chugach State Park, with support from Homer writer Wendy Erd, Alaska State Parks, and the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

Alaskans are invited to submit up to three poems each. These poems can be written in response to the solicitation. The public may also nominate poems previously written by an Alaskan poet, living or deceased.

The Poems in Place project is supported by Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Humanities Forum, the Usibelli Foundation, the Alaska Poetry League, Alaska Center for the Book, and numerous generous individuals.

On the Web:

Submission rules
http://www.alaskacenterforthebook.org/id112.html

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News: 

Alaska Department of Natural Resources
dnr.alaska.gov

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