Alumni authors crowd the shelves
Photo by Mareca Guthrie
Marjorie Kowalski Cole participated in a book-signing event in the Wood Center multilevel lounge.
Photo by Mareca Guthrie
Marjorie Kowalski Cole shares a moment with Summer Sessions鈥 Florie Wilcoxson.
Marjorie Kowalski Cole
When Marjorie Kowalski Cole set out to write about the world as she saw it, she succeeded beautifully--so much so that she attracted the eye of the Bellwether Prize Award committee, headed up by founder Barbara Kingsolver. As the 2004 prizewinner, her book, Correcting the Landscape, was contracted to a major publisher--and a new author was born. In the past two years she finished a second novel, A Spell on the Water.
Kowalski Cole has spent years working as a writer, with many published short stories, poems and essays to her credit before trying her hand at a novel. Her career path began at 蜜桃影像 where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in English.
鈥淚 had some excellent teachers, particularly Bob Allen. He loved literature, and gave a sense of the depth of American literature and the thrill of it.鈥
Kowalski Cole had planned to use college to prepare for a medical career, with the hopes of becoming a psychologist. After she discovered American literature, her career path instead moved into the realm of books. She鈥檚 worked for years as a librarian after earning her M.A. degree at 蜜桃影像, then a master of library science from the University of Washington. Her years on the business side of the bookshelf were good for her writing, she says.
鈥淟ibrarians have interesting hobbies,鈥 she notes. 鈥淎nd more importantly, at the end of the work day, we still have energy left to pursue those hobbies.鈥
In Correcting the Landscape she captures changes wrought by 鈥減rogress鈥 and how a community and its interconnected citizenry come to terms with it. Her protagonist is a journalist/publisher named Gus, who is, Kowalski Cole believes, both Don Quixote and Sancho Panchez--polar opposites who complement each other.
Having lived in Fairbanks for much of her life, she decided to set her novel here. 鈥淚 wanted to catch the sense of Fairbanks as a character,鈥 she said. Her approach to storytelling presents a slice of 1990s history and the 20-year back-story to go with it. Her next novel is set in Michigan, where she has strong family connections.