96 liked the wild either. MK: I suppose back then even Seattle was wild as maybe North Bend is now? DW: You could drive for an hour in any direction except under water and be where there was no trace of man. MK: Do you think – this is just one of my curiosities – the Northwest artist and perhaps Roethke also-do you think the weather, the rain, the tall trees influence…? DW: Oh sure. He was a good friend of Morris Graves and lived in his house for a couple of years when Morris was abroad and he knew Mark Tobey and— if you
CIRQUE are speaking of Northwest graphic artists. He had little sensitivity to the art world, I think. He knew he didn’t know much about painting, so he took other people’s word for it. Yes, the climate. God knows. Yes. He enjoyed rain. But he did not care for serious contemporary music or classical music. He liked jazz and old pop but that was about the end of it. He had a collection of records and would play them very loudly, sometimes when he was trying to write. It was one of his kinds of silence. Shut out the world. I can remember going to see him one evening at his house. Beatrice came to the door and said, “No, he’s working.” I could hear the jazz blaring upstairs in his writing room.
CONTRIBUTORS Skylaar Amann is a poet and artist living in Portland, Oregon. She has selfpublished several hand-bound hardback and chapbook editions and writes regularly on the subjects of the sea, love, and chronic pain. Alexandra Ellen Appel lives and works in Anchorage. A chapbook of her work is scheduled for production with Meridian Press, San Francisco, in late fall 2011. Selections from the Anchorage City Poems, “Roadside Markers” and “Burials” will be included in the collection. Alexandra is a laid back poet, rarely submitting and constantly reading and working on her craft. Among Alexandra’s favorite poets are Theodore Roethke, Lucille Clifton, and W.S. Merwin. Trevor Barnes is the associate director for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. He is currently working on an MFA in poetry from Seattle Pacific University. Gabrielle Barnett lived in Girdwood, Alaska for most of the past 20 years but recently moved to Anchorage. Sabbaticals in Vancouver, BC and Santa Cruz, CA strongly influenced her writing and experience of the Pacific Rim environment. She teaches as contingent faculty at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, in the Liberal Studies and Dance programs. Edith Barrowclough is a photographer who lives in Anchorage, AK. She is a co-owner of a local business, and she enjoys taking pictures on her travels around Alaska and the world. Her photos have previously been published in scientific journals and F Magazine. Clifton Bates works with UAF out of his home in Chugiak, Alaska where he writes and lives with his Belgian Shepherd, Quinn. Michael Berton has had poems published in Fireweed, Sin Fronteras Journal, Megalopsychia, Liebamour, Perceptions, and Snow Monkey among other journals and reviews. He lives in Portland, OR. Douglass Bourne’s screenplay, The Old Way, was awarded a Sir Edmund Hillary Award at the 2011 Mountain Film Festival. He has essays and poetry forthcoming or appearing in Quay: A Journal of the Arts, Cold Flashes: Alaska Literary Snapshots, The LBJ: Avian Life, Literary Arts, Tusculum Review, and Pank. Twenty-three year-old Vincent Brady never asked much out of life. He hoped to attend art school, wanted to marry his girlfriend, and he dreamed of having his poetry published. In March of 2010, while suffering from an aggressive childhood cancer, Vince e-mailed his girlfriend’s mother, excited that his writing might be considered for publication. “…I’ve got a friend in Montreal who is convinced that I might be able to publish some of my words in literary vehicles--so I got all excited and picked up a fat Manila envelope from the UPS store, that I can load…with the stuff…and send it to him. Wouldn’t that be swell if any of it did? Caught the roving mechanical eyes
of a magazine editor? Yes! My fingers are latticed with all hope, to be sure.” Vincent Brady died on May 15, 2010 without any of his dreams realized. This poem to his girlfriend is his first published poem and was written shortly before his death. BreAnn Brandlen is in the process of completing her MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska Anchorage when she is not being a new business owner of an antique store in her hometown. A notable gig was once opening for Nuyorican Slam Poet Edwin Torres at Anchorage’s Out North Theatre. More recently, her poem Untitled was displayed in the MTS Gallery’s “Words & Pictures” art show. Rebecca Brothers is an English major at Walla Walla University. In keeping with the tradition of English majors, she’s not sure what she’ll do after graduation, but a master’s degree in library science is at the top of the list of possibilities. Her work has appeared in Walla Walla University’s annual arts and literature publication, The Gadfly. Geoff Burns: After a lifetime of working throughout the West, on ranches and construction sites, I have recently begun writing. This is the second story I have had accepted for publication, and will be the first to appear in print. I am currently living in Idaho where I spend time in the mountains and wet a line whenever I can. Fern G. Z. Carr, lawyer, teacher and League of Canadian Poets member, has been published extensively from Finland to New Zealand. The Parliamentary Poet Laureate recently selected her poem, “I Am”, as Poem of the Month for Canada. www.ferngzcarr.com. Originally from Maine, Bill Carty lives in Seattle and teaches writing at Edmonds Community College, 826 Seattle, and the Richard Hugo House. He attended the MFA program at UNC-Wilmington. A retired science teacher, Gail Coray now divides her time between life on the road in a small RV and a small cabin on the north shore of Lake Clark, along with her husband. She’s a life-long Alaskan, which has nurtured her naturalist inclinations. Debbie Cutler is managing editor of Alaska Business Monthly, where she has worked for 13 years. She has been published in many magazines, including Cirque, We Alaskans, Editor and Publisher and Independent Living, and has won numerous awards for her writing. When not traveling, or dreaming of traveling to some far off place, Gretchen Diemer is writing poems on her cluttered kitchen table. At other times, she teaches at Pioneer Peak Elementary School in Palmer, Alaska. Katie Eberhart’s poems have received recognition by the Palmer Arts Council and the Fairbanks Arts Association, and her essay “Cabin Fever”