Wilderness athlete and Iditarod finisher, Katherine Keith, recently authored her first book, the memoir Epic Solitude. She co-owns the business Remote Solutions, which focuses on meeting the needs of rural Alaska. Katherine has held roles as operations director, project manager, strategic planner, and technical writer. She holds a B.S. degree from University of Alaska Fairbanks and is a certified Bulletproof and Integrative Nutrition health coach. An advocate for wellness, Katherine supports Alaskans in building capacity through responsible, sustainable development. She helps clients establish, reach, and exceed their goals.

Katherine’s accomplishments as a wilderness athlete include six full Ironman triathlons and endurance sleddog races. She has competed in four Iditarods and two Yukon Quests. Katherine is now working toward completing climbs of the Seven Summits, the tallest mountains on every continent. She and her daughter fish commercially for salmon above the Arctic Circle in the summer.

RSVP for this luncheon

Katherine Keith

Stephanie Thornton has been obsessed with the stories of history’s women since she was twelve. Her most recent novel, And They Called It Camelot, has been called an “unforgettable portrait of the life of Jackie Kennedy: the beloved wife, mother, and First Lady who transformed herself into an American legend.”

Thornton’s USA Today bestselling novel, American Princess, reimagines the ninety-six year life of Theodore Roosevelt’s gum-chewing, cigarette-smoking, poker-playing daughter Alice as she uses her celebrity to become Washington’s Other Monument.

Thornton is also the critically acclaimed author of four novels about historical women set in the ancient world: The Secret History, Daughter of the Gods, The Tiger Queens, and The Conqueror’s Wife. She is a high school history teacher by day and lives in Eagle River with her husband and daughter, where she spends her free time running, traveling, and baking.

Photo of Stephanie Thornton

Photojournalist Erik Hill, who retired in 2017 after a 33-year career with the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch, will share images and discuss the field of photojournalism. Before arriving in Anchorage in 1984, he worked at The Kansas City Star as well as in Jacksonville, Florida, and Charleston, West Virginia. Erik is originally from Oregon, and earned degrees at Stanford University and Ohio University.

Memorable assignments for Erik include the Exxon Valdez oil spill, several Iditarod races, a drive up the Dalton Highway when it opened to the public, and a trip down the Yukon River by barge. Daily work was typically less exotic, but Erik’s personal goal was to make every story subject feel valued.

RSVP for Monthly Luncheons

Photo of Erik Hill

A wide variety of options now exist between traditional publishing and self-publishing books. Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan has been published by traditional publishers and a university press. She has also been commissioned to write books for others. In the process, she formed a small, specialty publishing company, Ember Press, which has published eight books through grants from the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area.

Johnson-Sullivan’s presentation will discuss hybrid publishing and how this model of bookmaking can work in the creation of exceptional books.

For more information about Ember Press, visit www.emberpressbooks.com. For more information about Kaylene, visit www.kaylene.us.

Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan

The world is moving beyond oil. By looking back at where Alaska’s economy has come since the pipeline boom started; noting new industries and growth within Alaska’s core industries, Kate Troll makes the case that Alaskans need not fear this shift in global energy policy. She also examines the ongoing clean energy economy and discusses how Alaska can benefit by joining in.
Kate Troll is an op-ed columnist, author, and speaker on conservation and climate issues. She moved to Alaska in 1977, seeking a career in natural resource management. Kate has worked for 22 years in coastal management, fisheries and climate/energy policy.

As Executive Director of the Alaska Conservation Voters, Kate helped draft the creation of the Alaska Renewable Energy Fund and lobbied for the Sustainable Energy Act, a roadmap to generate 50% of Alaska’s electrical energy from renewable sources by 2025. She served as Executive Director for United Fishermen of Alaska and also worked as a fisheries development specialist and policy analyst for the State of Alaska. Internationally, Kate was Regional Fisheries Director for the Marine Stewardship Council, a global eco-label program. She was elected to public office twice, serving on the Juneau-Douglas Borough and Ketchikan Borough Assembly. Kate was appointed by Governor Palin to serve on the Alaska Climate Mitigation Advisory Board, and was the only Alaskan invited to participate in Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2008 Global Climate Summit. She recently served on the Board of Directors for Renewable Energy Alaska Project.

From 2010-2016, she was a regular columnist for the Juneau Empire and then moved on to the Alaska Dispatch News (now the Anchorage Daily News) for two years. She remains a contributing columnist for both papers.

Kate Troll

Lisa Maloney is the author of three guidebooks: Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska, 50 Hikes Around Anchorage, and Moon Alaska. She will describe how the two great passions of her life—hiking and Irish dance—enabled her to emerge from a painfully shy person and taught her to embrace the vulnerable place where true communication happens.

A resident of Alaska for more than 25 years, Lisa is a former outdoors columnist for The Anchorage Press, has covered a nationwide hiking and backpacking beat for a travel website, and served as senior editor at Alaska magazine. She contributes outdoors and lifestyle articles to several publications.

Lori Townsend is the News Director for Alaska Public Media. In addition to herding the newsroom cats, she also offers edits and advice to reporters in public broadcasting newsrooms across the state and hosts weekly, statewide public affairs programs. She has been a reporter for nearly 25 years and has lived in Alaska for 20 of them. Her reporting work has taken her to communities across the Lower 48, Canada and Alaska.

She is the recipient of numerous journalism awards and has had fellowships at the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting and The Berkeley Center for Digital Media, as well as a short intensive at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Lori also has written two novels—American Home Wrecker and Ghost Ship—and is anticipating publication of her third mystery this fall.

Lori Townsend

Cameron was given the honor to continue the popular Tom Clancy line of book thrillers. Tom Clancy Oath of Office made the New York Times bestseller list in 2018, and Tom Clancy Code of Honor is anticipated in November.

Cameron is a master thriller writer. Details in his books stem from nearly three decades in law enforcement, serving as a policeman, SWAT officer, detective, and U.S. Marshal. His newly published book is Open Carry, a series debut of his new Arliss Cutter Novels, set in the Alaska wilderness. Arliss Cutter, like Cameron himself, is a professional tracker whose unique skills provide survival capabilities and psychological insights that offer advantages superior to those acquired in traditional law enforcement backgrounds.

Cameron will discuss the use of untouched wilderness in creating spooky settings. Characteristics of the Alaska wilderness that lend themselves to thriller novels are the isolation, the unforgiving terrain, the potentially deadly animals lurking in wait, and the possibility of vanishing without a trace.

Marc Cameron (photo by Vicky Otte)

Author Melissa Saulnier will describe how she is raising funds for and building awareness of community needs. Melissa is writing a mystery trilogy, Fallen Race, about a young woman’s introduction to dangerous secrets when she inherits her grandmother’s estate. The stories involve history of the Vatican’s Observatories, antediluvian relics, science, and ancient mysteries.

Formerly working as a music publisher, Melissa edited a songwriter’s magazine and wrote 27 songs and three books helping songwriters with copyright, royalties, and music publishing. She became Executive Assistant at Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska in 2016 and found that she could contribute to the agency’s mission through her writing. In her presentation she will discuss her exploration of two fundamental questions: How can the literary and arts communities become a more significant part of the greater community? How can they collaborate with local organizations in a way that brings attention to real needs?