Alaska Native authors’ books selected to be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival

Two Alaska Native authors will have their works featured at the 2023 National Book Festival as part of the Great Reads from Great Places program.

Lily H. Tuzroyluke’s “Sivulliq: Ancestor” was chosen as Alaska’s selection for adults while Michaela Goade’s “Berry Song” is the selected book for youths.

“We are especially honored to recognize two indigenous creators this year,” Alaska Center for the Book co-president Sara Juday said in a statement. The Alaska Center for the Book is all-volunteer, nonprofit affiliate of the National Library of Congress Center for the Book, which sponsors the Great Reads from Great Places program

Since 2002, each state has had a book for kids or young adults featured as part of the program. In 2022, a second book for adults was added.

[The ancestry and activity that informed Alaska author Lily Tuzroyluke’s celebrated debut novel]

Tuzroyluke will be part of a video, soon to be viewable on the Library of Congress YouTube channel, that features other authors of the selected books for adults. Goade will be a featured presenter at the festival. She’s scheduled to join former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo for “A Poem Is a Pocket That Can Hold Your Dreams,” a discussion stemming from their book “Remember.”

This year’s festival will be held Aug. 12 in Washington, D.C.