Anchorage Daily News

Author Nancy Lord of Homer has been selected as the new Alaska writer laureate.

A press release last week from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, which makes the pick, stated that Lord will serve a two-year term, which started Wednesday.

Originally from New England, Lord moved to Homer in 1973. She is best known for her nonfiction books, including: "Fishcamp: Life on an Alaskan Shore" (Island Press, 1997), "Green Alaska: Dreams From the Far Coast" (Counterpoint Press, 1999), "Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale's Truths" (Counterpoint Press, 2004) and a new essay collection/memoir, "Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life," forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press in 2009.

Lord is also the author of three short-fiction collections: "The Compass Inside Ourselves" (Fireweed Press, 1984), "Survival" (Coffee House Press, 1991) and "The Man Who Swam With Beavers" (Coffee House Press, 2001).

For many years she wrote and recorded commentaries for National Public Radio's "Living on Earth" program. She has received two Boochever fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, a Rasmuson Foundation fellowship, a scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writing Conference and numerous fellowships for writing residencies including the MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation and the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers.

Lord is a regular faculty participant at the Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference in Homer. She has taught writing workshops and classes at the Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College/University of Alaska and been a visiting writer in schools around Alaska and the Lower 48.

Similar activities will occupy her as state writer laureate. She will represent the arts council and the state in communities, schools and libraries, conducting workshops and readings.

Lord takes over the position from John Straley of Sitka.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

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