10. June 2009 by John Smelcer.

In mid-May, 2009, I took a road trip up the northeastern coast, through upstate NY, Massachusetts, lower New Hampshire, Maine, and New Brunswick, Canada, ending up in Nova Scotia. Took the ferry across from St. John. Nice trip. Too long at 1,800 miles.

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10. June 2009 by John Smelcer.

Spent the spring semester 2009 working on a new YA adventure novel. Plan to finish this summer. Story based loosely on my own life; my brother and I marooned on a small island in Prince William Sound while deer and bear hunting in the fall of 1987.

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10. June 2009 by John Smelcer.

Went home to Alaska over the Christmas 2008 break. I had to put down my 13 year old Black Lab named Tikaani (Ahtna for wolf), the same dog from The Trap. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I loved that dog. I keep a photo of him on my dresser with his collar draped over it and a little wooden box containing some of his ashes sitting close by.

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10. June 2009 by John Smelcer.

photo by john updike

John Updike has been a friend of mine since the late 1990s when we co-judged the National Poetry Book Award together (Denise Duhamel won that year). In late August of 2008, I traveled to Beverly, Massachusetts to visit him and to talk about our poetry book manuscripts-in-progress. His was to be called Endpoint, named similar to some of his earlier volumes; mine was later to be called The Binghamton Poems. After our three-hour meeting at a little restaurant on the bay near his home, we went our separate ways with the promise of editing each other’s work during the fall and early winter. Both are due out in mid 2009.

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