LitSite Featured New Writers

Ac’arralek Lolly Sheppard Carpluk

Lolly Carpuk stands alongside an eight-foot snow berm on a March 2004 visit to Unalakleet.

Ac’arralek Lolly Sheppard Carpluk is a Yup’ik woman, born and raised in Mountain Village, Alaska. Her traditional Yup’ik upbringing and perspective are supported and nurtured by a large extended family continually supporting and nurturing the Yup’ik. Her formal Western education began in an elementary school in Mountain Village. She went on to attend both Mt. Edgecumbe and St. Mary’s Catholic high schools. She received a B.A. in Sociology, elementary and secondary teaching certification, and a Master’s degree in Education, all from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The majority of her work experience has been in education. She also has and continues to serve on a variety of committees, some of which include: Native Educators’ Conference Planning Committee, Native Educators’ Advisory Committee to the Commissioner of Education, Honoring Alaska’s Indigenous Literature committee and the UAF Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Native Education. She currently serves as the Director of Future Teachers of Alaska, University of Alaska Statewide.

She didn’t realize how much time she spent in a classroom until she reflected back on her experiences. She began as an elementary school student, a junior high and high school student, a undergraduate university student, a university teacher preparation student, a classroom teacher, a university professor and as a parent volunteer in her children’s classroom. Through her struggles and triumphs, she continues to gain a better understanding of this thing called “school.” In working with children from all backgrounds, and her own children, she started to “see” school from the kids’ unique perspectives. The resiliency of the children to welcome, work, test and learn with a new teacher resonated with her as she created the following children’s story: "We Love Mrs. Sparky." In part, it reflects some of her own experience as a beginning teacher. It also reflects on her bilingual background, the play on English words and the images that they conjure. The story was originally written for intermediate grades, but she found that the adults liked the story as well.

Read We Love Mrs. Sparky

Lolly Carpluk's daughter, J. Carpluk, also enjoys writing. As an elementary student, J. Carpluk had a huge interest in dogs. One year her class followed and learned about the Yukon Quest, a long distance race between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. She wrote the story, titled, "I’m a Kid and I Won the Yukon Quest!" The story's details and her reflection upon how her dogs behaved or not, reveal an entertaining imagination. If only in life, there were such things as "a five-minute flu."

Terri Fields and Rebecca D. Greeley

Terri Fields is an Athabascan from Fort Yukon. She is now living in Delta Junction and often recalls her Alaska Native heritage and culture in her writings.

Rebecca D. Greeley, who illustrated Terri's story, is a middle school teacher at Fort Greely School near Delta Junction. She teaches writing, reading, and incorporates art whenever she can into any lesson. Her favorite hobby is to find talent within her students and to promote them!

Read Floating on Ice

Amy Meissner

After completing undergraduate degrees in art and textiles in Nevada, Amy Meissner spent several years as a clothing designer in the United States and Canada. She worked as a pattern maker and designer in several factories, and in 1995 designed for an award winning competition in Toronto. Nine of her twelve years in the fashion industry were spent working with an elite clientele designing and creating couture wedding gowns. "I was given advice once: You have to fit the body, but more importantly, you have to fit the mind. I’ll never forget this. There is a lot of hand-holding during this creative process. Most brides are nervous about their wedding and need a sounding board … or a punching bag. I tried to be all things for them and still deliver their dream gown. These were the most challenging projects, but also the most rewarding. "

In the middle of her career in Canada she began to question whether or not the fashion industry fit her mind. She had a strong desire to create children’s books -- their pictures and their words. Unsure of the feasibility of such a leap, she decided to devote one year of her spare time to research and self-discovery. She enrolled in night courses to explore children’s literature and illustration. She met weekly with a fledgling artists’ group. Near the end of her self-allotted year, her husband was unexpectedly offered a job in Alaska. The timing was uncanny. She saw this as an opportunity for herself as well. They have since moved north and Amy is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage, while focusing on her artwork in her spare time.

Meissner’s adult fiction has been praised by the annual University of Alaska Anchorage Anchorage Daily News Creative Writing contest. She won first place in the College Fiction division with her short stories, “Canal” in 2001, and “Forgiving Eva,” in 2002, which was also awarded the contest’s Grand Prize.

Amy just completed the illustrations for her first picture book, Ollie Jolly, Rodeo Clown, written by Jo Harper, and published by WestWinds Press®, an imprint of Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company. The book will be available in stores in October 2002. This was a challenging project, as any first book would be, especially because Amy found herself in snowy Anchorage trying to recreate the landscape of the Nevada desert.

Amy is currently finishing the illustrations for the first two books in the Seldovia Sam series, written by Susan Springer, available through the Alaska Northwest Books imprint in spring and fall 2003. Her own story, Violet and the Rotten Ballerinas, is published here for the first time, followed by two other developing stories in first illustration form.

Read about Amy’s process of recreating the desert of her childhood
              Read two other  developing stories  
              Read Violet and the Rotten Ballerinas

Alice Cedeno

Alice Cedeno was born in Salinas, California, of Mexican parents. "I’m 100 percent Mexican," she says. She moved to Anchorage in 1974, and opened Alice’s Hair Design in 1982. Her memoir, Ama, was a labor of love, which she began after her mother’s death and completed in 1998.