Tele Aadsen

writer - fisherman - listener

The Liebster Meets Alaska Book Week

by | Oct 12, 2011 | Alaska, Culture, Reading & Writing, Women in Fishing | 17 comments

Ear­ly Sep­tem­ber, I hit land and jumped online. Wad­ed through weeks of spam, mass mail­ings, and imper­son­al updates. Just when I felt like I might as well have stayed at sea, a mes­sage from Annie Bore­son leapt out:

I just want­ed to tell you that I love your writ­ing. You live a fas­ci­nat­ing life and you write beau­ti­ful­ly about it. I just gave you the Lieb­ster Blog Award. Hope that is okay!

Okay? An award for Hooked? Reel­ing from delight rather than land­sick­ness, I was a gid­dy, blush­ing mess of awe and wonder.

Writ­ing is such an iso­lat­ed activ­i­ty, it’s easy to feel alone with your words. I spent years sti­fling the urge to write and dis­parag­ing the pieces that forced their way to paper, cer­tain that any com­pli­men­ta­ry respons­es were mere­ly friends being kind. Peo­ple who “had” to like my work. Sure­ly no one else would care about my bleed­ing heart reflections.

But the Lieb­ster sug­gest­ed otherwise!

From the Ger­man verb lieber — to love – the Lieb­ster Blog Award rec­og­nizes wor­thy blogs with less than 200 fol­low­ers, there­by rais­ing their vis­i­bil­i­ty. The “rules” are sim­ple: thank your awarder and link back to them, select 5 blogs as your own nom­i­nees, and let them know by leav­ing a com­ment on their site.

My grat­i­tude to Annie Bore­son, author of Atoll Annie & the Non-Spe­cif­ic Rim, for award­ing Hooked the Lieb­ster. From the com­ic per­ils of giv­ing birth in Nor­way in July, to a heart-wrench­ing tale of an abu­sive grandmother’s secret love, Annie is a superb sto­ry­teller. Intro­spec­tive and auda­cious, reflec­tive and fun­ny, she got my laugh­ter and sub­scrip­tion with her goal, “To go viral before  the Mayan Cal­en­dar stops me.”

Every adult grown of an out­cast kid car­ries the sear­ing rec­ol­lec­tion that select­ing some means exclud­ing oth­ers. I ago­nized over the nom­i­na­tions. Beyond inher­ent reluc­tance to name “favorites,” how would I choose? Hooked’s read­er­ship rep­re­sents my ide­al neigh­bor­hood: delight­ful­ly diverse, our res­i­dents range from con­ser­v­a­tive Alaskan fish­er­men, lep­rechaun-green envi­ron­men­tal­ists, con­tem­pla­tive mem­oirists, even a self-described “ex-par­ty girl turned Mid­west­ern wifey-poo.” With such dif­fer­ing life lan­guages amongst you all, what 5 blogs could speak to everyone?

To the res­cue: Alas­ka Book Week! Coin­cid­ing per­fect­ly with this post, my Lieb­ster picks are ded­i­cat­ed to some of my favorite Alaskan blogs. If you don’t have time for a new book this week, please take a moment to vis­it one of these Alaskan writ­ers online.

Nagoon­ber­ry reminds me to stop and breathe. My first vis­it was to this post about my favorite flower, and I’ve been a sub­scriber ever since. This is a blog of jour­neys. Humans learn­ing to live togeth­er in com­mu­ni­ty. Per­son­al and com­mu­nal intro­spec­tion. Thoughts on spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. I sus­pect those of you drawn to Hooked’s more reflec­tive moments will con­nect with Nagoon­ber­ry, too.

A Fair­banks Eng­lish teacher, Paul Gre­ci describes North­writer as “a blog about writ­ing, run­ning, kayak­ing, and life in Alas­ka.” His posts include love­ly pho­tos and reflec­tions on his envi­ron­ment. Ever imag­ined a lynx strolling across your porch? He’s got a great sto­ry about that very expe­ri­ence here. And don’t miss the pho­to of his tread­mill lap­top – talk about productivity!

If you’re look­ing for pure, unadul­ter­at­ed fish talk, Pick­Fish Tales is for you. Read­ing this blog is like being in a BS cir­cle on the dock, with one star sto­ry­teller, Jen Pick­ett. Jen’s been fish­ing for 20 years, is a fel­low con­trib­u­tor to Alas­ka Way­points, and has an awe­some abil­i­ty to hon­or dead­lines in the midst of the sea­son. And she’s fun­ny! In addi­tion to fol­low­ing her blog, you can often find her per­form­ing with the Fish­er Poets (where her work was recent­ly includ­ed on the gor­geous site In The Tote — con­grat­u­la­tions, Jen!)

Whether writ­ing verse or prose, Alaskan writer Vivian Faith Prescott is a true poet. You’ll find breath-stop­ping, heart-singing imagery and Tlin­git hon­orifics on Plan­et Alas­ka, in stun­ning pieces like “The Lan­guage of the Land­scape.” Dur­ing these off-sea­son months, when I’m strug­gling with the miles sep­a­rat­ing me from South­east Alas­ka, I read Vivian’s work and she car­ries me home.

49Writers is such a fab­u­lous resource that I have to close with some love for them. A non-prof­it sup­port­ing Alas­ka writ­ers and their work, they host an impres­sive cal­iber of events. (More than once, I’ve wished I was in Anchor­age to attend.) Lit­er­ary folks — whether in Alas­ka or Alaba­ma, an active writer or an avid read­er – should con­sid­er sub­scrib­ing. Here’s a post for writ­ers who dream of craft­ing their work dur­ing a sum­mer in Denali.

A note to these gift­ed awardees: I gen­er­al­ly shy away from “Pass It Along” vir­tu­al move­ments. But it is love­ly to learn that your voice touched some­one, and I do rec­om­mend favorite books to friends… Is this real­ly so dif­fer­ent? If par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Lieb­ster isn’t your kind of par­ty, no wor­ries. Please enjoy the pub­lic recog­ni­tion of your work, know­ing that your words have mat­tered to me, and spread a bit of liebe in your own pri­vate way.

(This is a par­tic­u­lar­ly good time for Hooked to share the love, hav­ing received anoth­er bit of sweet­ness this week. Thank you, Cami Ost­man, of Sev­en Marathons on Sev­en Con­ti­nents, for nam­ing Hooked one of your favorite blogs! Feel­ing hon­ored, indeed.)

Got a favorite Alaskan blog of your own, sweet read­er? Please share! 

17 Comments

  1. Cami Ostman
    Cami Ostman on October 12, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    Yay for hooked!! We’re all hooked, Tele. I’m so excit­ed that oth­ers will be vis­it­ing your blog and find­ing your fab­u­lous writ­ing. What will you write about while you’re on land? I can’t wait to find out.

    • Tele
      Tele on October 12, 2011 at 5:36 pm

      Ha! There’s the rub, Cami — I SHOULDN’T be writ­ing much of any­thing on land except that pro­pos­al, the home­work for Lau­ra’s class, and, oh, all of the con­tent to fol­low the pro­pos­al. No big things! But what a deli­cious dis­trac­tion, the lure of imme­di­ate feed­back and con­nec­tion, and there were some past-due posts I’d want­ed to get out — this one, the one for my Dad. I’m get­ting close to step­ping back for a bit… Seri­ous­ly, I can stop… 😉

  2. Annie
    Annie on October 12, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    Tele, I’m so glad you liked the award and passed it for­ward to some writ­ers that you wish to share with. I am look­ing for­ward to read­ing your recip­i­ents as I’ve nev­er stum­bled across them. Real­ly fun for me! Enjoy! You are so deserv­ing of praise!

    • Tele
      Tele on October 12, 2011 at 5:50 pm

      Thanks, Annie — let me know if you meet any new favorites!

  3. Karolee Joel
    Karolee Joel on October 12, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    you are not a “have to like” blog­ger Tele! 

    So I read this post and poured myself a cup of wine to sip and com­pose with… only to find that the last half of a cup of cof­fee was still in the cup (still using cof­fee mugs for every­thing, just like on the boat) So from the per­spec­tive of a yin yang cock­tail, Yaay for Hooked!

    a quick cat note: I plant­ed a cat nip for the old grey cat (for­mer deck­cat She­likof) and the house sit­ters man­aged to keep it alive. To my delight, She­li strolls out of the back door and nib­bles at her plant and looks infi­nite­ly pleased with life, even at 16 years age. She still loves salmon hearts and still chews on you when you rub her belly.

  4. Tele
    Tele on October 12, 2011 at 5:54 pm

    You crack me up, Joel — I adore our com­ment conversations!

    Give She­li a bel­ly rub for me; glad to hear that she’s going for Yack­y’s longevi­ty title. (He made it to 18 before going FAS.) I have to admit that Bear seems pret­ty hap­py to be on land, too — she’s a tol­er­ant boat cat, but is real­ly enjoy­ing her reunion with the squir­rels (from her side of the win­dow.) You’ll have to come up this way to see her as her more pleas­ant self!

  5. Paul Greci
    Paul Greci on October 13, 2011 at 7:19 am

    Thanks for the award and for intro­duc­ing me to some more Alaskan Blogs.

    • Tele
      Tele on October 13, 2011 at 6:12 pm

      You’re most wel­come, Paul!

  6. Sean Rodda
    Sean Rodda on October 13, 2011 at 10:55 am

    Con­grats Tele! I tell every­one about your blog and enjoy every one of the updates. Keep it up lady!!

    • Tele
      Tele on October 13, 2011 at 6:12 pm

      Thanks, dude! I’m not ignor­ing you — tru­ly not, although the end result of not get­ting back to you is the same. 🙁 Send­ing hugs and good thoughts to you both.

  7. Paige
    Paige on October 13, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    Thank you for this post. I love read­ing your blog and it’s a treat to see a new entry in my email box. I save it for when I can sit down with a cup of tea. I lived in Alas­ka for 13 years and now live in St. Louis. I flew to Juneau this sum­mer, met my best friend who flew in from Anchor­age, and we took the fer­ry to Sit­ka. I near­ly cried when we touched down in Juneau and I saw the moun­tains. There is some­thing about the Alas­ka land­scape that I can’t extract from my being (and am grate­ful for it). Your blog is a lit­tle piece of my Alas­ka that I miss so much. I don’t remem­ber how I found you, but I am so pleased I did. I look for­ward to check­ing out the oth­er blogs you enjoy. Paige

    • Tele
      Tele on October 13, 2011 at 6:11 pm

      Oh, Paige! What a won­der­ful com­ment to leave; I can’t tell you how glad I am that Hooked is bring­ing that lit­tle bit of Alas­ka to your St. Louis life. I know exact­ly what you mean about that moment of touch­ing down after time away. I haven’t fig­ured out quite how this feel­ing to artic­u­late to folks who haven’t expe­ri­enced it, but you named it per­fect­ly: reunit­ing with that bit of Alas­ka that we car­ry in our very being. What amaz­ing pow­er that land­scape has over so many of us.

      When I’m hav­ing a hard time sit­ting down and writ­ing — eas­i­ly dis­tract­ed, can’t find the right words, frus­trat­ed — I imag­ine just a few peo­ple I’m writ­ing for, read­ers who might be pos­i­tive­ly affect­ed by this par­tic­u­lar piece. Being account­able to some­one spe­cif­ic, even only in my imag­i­na­tion, helps me find focus. It’s love­ly to add you to that team — a new friend in St. Louis, tea steam­ing beside her. Thank you for that! I hope that you find sim­i­lar con­nec­tions with some of the oth­er blogs here.

      Be well, Paige — so glad to meet you.

  8. nagoonberry
    nagoonberry on October 14, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    Thank you so much, Tele! My first award! I’ll pass it along lat­er today.

    • Tele
      Tele on October 15, 2011 at 9:49 pm

      You’re so wel­come, Heather! I’m sure it won’t be your last award, and will look for­ward to meet­ing your nominees.

  9. (FL) Girl with a New Life
    (FL) Girl with a New Life on October 17, 2011 at 11:26 am

    The ex-par­ty girl turned wifey poo chim­ing in here. (You have to admit, it has a cer­tain ring to it.)

    I do love your words and will be sure to vis­it some of your men­tions here. 

    And a quote that made me think of you…

    “I must go to the sea again, to the lone­ly sea and the sky.
    And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”

    –John Mase­field

    • Tele
      Tele on October 17, 2011 at 8:04 pm

      A fab­u­lous ring to it, indeed — makes me smile every time, Tina. Thanks for stop­ping by, and con­grats on that lat­est award of your own! Well done, friend!

  10. Annette Gendler
    Annette Gendler on October 17, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    Con­grats on the Lieb­ster! I got one a while back and found the most fun part was fol­low­ing all the threads it opened up, which is exact­ly the point!

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