Upcoming events
AWP 2026
Panel: Writing Impermanence, with Monica Macansantos, Bathsheba Demuth, Anna Cabe, and Sean Enfield
Friday, March 6, 2026
3:20 p.m. – 4:35 p.m. ET
Scheduled room: Room 325, Baltimore Convention Center, Level 300
Stay tuned for additional AWP events!
Reading and Conversation at Tri-Valley Community Library
Join local author Erica Watson for a reading and conversation on her debut essay collection, Ghosts of Distant Trees. Erica will share how a lifetime of reading shaped her own book, and how a few favorite books found their way into her writing about Denali.
Books will be available for purchase (or check out the library's copy!)
McKinley Holiday Bazaar
Denali bazaar featuring local artists and makers.
Ghosts of Distant Trees will be available for sale, or bring your preordered copy to be signed! I’ll also have knitwear, crafts from the archives, and flour tortillas.
GHOSTS Launch, Fairbanks
You’re invited to the official Ghosts of Distant Trees book launch, the debut memoir-in-essays by Denali-based author Erica Watson and the latest from award-winning Porphyry Press. A brief reading and author conversation between Erica and Fairbanks-based guest author Julianne Warren will be preceded by a short publisher’s intro to McCarthy’s off-grid indie press—the most remote book publisher in North America. Beer, wine, NA options, and cocktails will be for sale along with books, which of course Erica would be happy to sign or inscribe.
Ghosts of Distant Trees traces the layered ecologies of Denali National Park, Alaska—its vast and shifting landscape, seasonal labor rhythms, and subtle politics. Haunted by fire and thaw, these essays resist elegy, offering instead a complex meditation on belonging, vulnerability, and the fragile intimacies that persist in a warming world.
Only a Visitor: Tourism and Home from Svalbard & Denali
Erica Watson will share writing and reflections on tourism, sustainability, and belonging, drawing from 20 years living at Denali National Park and an artist residency sailing in the High Arctic in fall 2024.
Reading & Conversation with Annie Wenstrup & Michelle Latvala
Stories of place, the body, and lineage
Virtual Nonfiction Workshop Series
The purpose of this workshop series is to allow participants the opportunity to give and receive feedback on their work in a facilitated space. The series will consist of three separate 90-minute workshop sessions. Participants may register for a single session or for the entire series. This particular workshop series will be limited to nonfiction (eg, nonfiction essays, memoir excerpts, etc.).
See complete description and registration information here: https://49writers.org/event/nonfiction-workshop-series/
Arctic Circle Residency
I’m excited to share that I’ve been invited to join a two week expedition alongside other writers and artists, scientists, and educators with The Arctic Circle in October 2024.
Learn more about The Arctic Circle organization here.
My goals are to use this time to broaden my understanding of histories of extraction, conservation, and tourism in the global North, and to continue to explore themes of mobility and climate. I’m hoping to emerge with new work and new connections, and to bring back what I learn to Alaska.
The Northern Alaska Environmental Center and Denali Education Center have offered generous support, and that partnership will allow me to share some of what comes of this trip through their event programming in 2025.
In addition, I’m seeking individual donations from my community to cover costs. Any amount helps, and your support for my writing is such a treasured gift. Add your support as an individual donor here.
Any additional funds raised will be used to cover airfare costs and incidentals; I will update this page when the initial goal is met.
Flash Writing Workshops
I’m excited to share that I’ve been invited to join a two week expedition alongside other writers and artists, scientists, and educators with The Arctic Circle in October 2024.
Learn more about The Arctic Circle organization here.
My goals are to use this time to broaden my understanding of histories of extraction, conservation, and tourism in the global North, and to continue to explore themes of mobility and climate. I’m hoping to emerge with new work and new connections, and to bring back what I learn to Alaska.
The Northern Alaska Environmental Center and Denali Education Center have offered generous support, and that partnership will allow me to share some of what comes of this trip through their event programming in 2025.
In addition, I’m seeking individual donations from my community to cover costs. Any amount helps, and your support for my writing is such a treasured gift. Add your support as an individual donor here.
Any additional funds raised will be used to cover airfare costs and incidentals; I will update this page when the initial goal is met.