Writing While Black: A Panel Discussion with Black Alaskan Authors

Writing While Black: A Panel Discussion with Black Alaskan Authors

Join Alaska Writers Guild in this special virtual program as we kick off Black History Month with five Alaskan authors discussing their individual writing journeys.

When: Tuesday, February 2. 7:00pm

Cost: Free

Where: Online with Zoom: bit.ly/AWGFeb2021

Meeting ID: 897 1186 7273

Passcode: 469841

Cheryl Burghart is an International Beauty Queen, a former singer/songwriter, and a member of the Alaska Romance Writers of America. She was raised in a suburb just outside Washington, D.C. as the youngest of seventeen children. Cheryl attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts as a Violin Major/Piano Minor, and completed her first novel in 2016. She and her husband now have four children in college.

Toya Brown is an Alaskan poet who often finds content while hiking, writing in an attempt to find equanimity in chaos. She has published a short pamphlet of poems, titled, Through the Window Pains, and her work can be found in Alaska Women Speak as well as other publications. She has run several writing workshops, including a “healing through the arts” program, where she taught literary techniques to Alaska’s at-risk youth.

Asya Gipson is Toya’s daughter and a high school senior in the Anchorage School District. She is Alaska’s 2020 Poetry Out Loud state champion and founder of the Poetry Rap club at her high school, where she strives to enrich her peers’ experiences with rhythm and help them find their voices. In her spare time, she participates in local poetry slams, where you can find her performing her own written work.

M.C. MoHagani Magnetek, residing in Anchorage, is a military veteran with degrees in Anthropology, English and an MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Arts. Currently pursuing a Master of Science in Forensic DNA & Serology, MoHagani is a prolific writer of nonfiction, poetry and novels of speculative fiction, using her special touch of wit and humor to create evocative narratives.

Mattie "Randi" Owens began writing poetry at the age of fourteen as a form of self-expression and escape while living in a foster home with four of her five biological siblings. She has published a three-part series of poetic self-help books, titled, “This…Is About Life.” Randi is also a U.S. Air Force veteran who has been employed as a counselor for at-risk youth and victims of substance abuse. She has lived in Alaska for more than twenty-nine years with her husband of more than forty years. Together they have four adult children and eight grandchildren.