1999 Barbara Kingsolver Award Winner

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1999 Barbara Kingsolver Award Winner

Friends of the Homer (AK) Public Library

alaska earthquake 64 Friends of the Homer Public Library in Homer, Alaska, received the Fifth Annual Kingsolver Award at the FOLUSA Author Breakfast, January 17, 2000, in San Antonio.

The Homer Friends support the library in a community of about 4,000 on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. Their prize-winning project combines fund-raising with the promotion and preservation of local literature.

The "Top Drawer" collection at the Homer Public Library includes more than sixty books by local writers, published by the Friends and added to the library's circulating collection. The collection has been growing since 1989, and this year the Friends had the books bound and commissioned artwork and illustrations for the covers. Information and excerpts on their web page have helped to publicize the collection.

In another publishing venture, more than fifty local residents, some of whom had never written a story, were asked to contribute their memories of the Alaskan earthquake of 1964, the strongest ever recorded in North America. A paper-bound book, Alaska Earthquake '64 - Where Were You?, was the result, and sales have so far raised more than $17,000 for library support.