John Kooistra reading from his recent book, Long Voyage Gathering Light

Join Fairbanks Arts in the Bear Gallery for a literary reading and book signing with John Kooistra! This free event will start at 7:00 pm in the Bear Gallery. All attendees are required to wear a mask. John will be reading from his recent book, Long Voyage Gathering Light published by Cloudbank Books. The book is a winner of the 2021 Vern Rusala Book Prize, and the August, 2022 Poet Laureate Young People's Book Selection for The Poetry Foundation. John Kooistra grew up in Ohio and gravitated to Alaska after earning a Ph.D in philosophy from Cornell University in 1971. He’s taught philosophy at the University of Alaska, Purdue University, and the College of Wooster in Ohio. Along with fishing commercially in Cook Inlet, Alaska for over three decades, he worked as a tradesman. He served as the artist-in-residence for Denali National Park and for Holland-America as well as publishing poems and essays in journals including Artful Dodge, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Cloudbank. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact (907) 251-8386 or email literary@fairbanksarts.org.