KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
Two writers will do an author meet and greet at the Kodiak Public Library tonight. Abigail Calkin is the author of eight books, including one about a Coast Guard rescue from the 1980s, and is publicizing a personal account she published with Familius last year called “The Soul of My Soldier.” It’s about her experience as the wife of a veteran, and she says the idea came from a conversation with a woman she met at a writing workshop.
“She asked me about the camel that I wear around my neck, and I told her that my husband has brought it back from Desert Storm, and she said thank you, please tell him thank you from for his services, how is he? And I said fine from Desert Storm, but he is not fine from two years in Vietnam.”
She says telling the woman her husband’s story made her realize that there was potential for a book, but from a military wife’s perspective. The book includes poetry and short, poetic prose, as well as personal essays.
Calkin will be sharing the meet and greet with Fran Kelso, who wrote a memoir which details her adventures on Spruce Island, where she built her house with the help of friends.
Kelso says she was born in Connecticut and lived there until she was nine, when she moved to Colorado with her family. She’s a musician and says, as an adult, she visited Kodiak to play a gig, and didn’t venture very far thereafter. She says she’s lived in Gustavus for about five years, but lived in Kodiak for 42 years.
She says she self-published her book last year.
“I call it ‘Alaskan Attitudes’ because we here in Alaska have a certain attitude that we’re not gonna let anything stop us, we’re going to overcome all challenges and we’re going to do what we set out to do. And you really need that attitude when you’re living in the bush and you’re by yourself and you’ve got to do everything.”
You can meet both authors and get your books signed at the Kodiak Public Library tonight at 7 p.m.
