Picture of Ronald Spatz

Dean of Undergraduate Research
and Scholarship Program

Director of the University Honors Program

Executive and Founding Editor of the
Alaska Quarterly Review

Founding Editor and Project Director
of the Statewide website,
LitSite Alaska

MFA in Creative Writing, University of Iowa Writer's Workshop

afrms1@uaa.alaska.edu

Alaska Native Writers, Storytellers & Orators

Book cover of Alaska Native Writers, Storytellers & Orators    

from Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1999

"...This is quite a tidy little omnibus of poems, oral histories, folk tales, and stories by Native Alaskans, many appearing in their original languages with translations on facing pages. ...Alaska Quarterly Review is to be commended. ...Those unfamiliar with Alaska culture will find in the very extensive commentaries a useful orientation to what remains a largely unknown world. The commentaries and notes, in fact, may prove of greater interest to many than the tales and poems themselves, offering as they do a glimpse into the history of our Last Frontier."

From The Congressional Record, September 24, 1999

Tributeto Alaska Native Writers, Storytellers & Orators by Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski, United States Senate.

Intimate Voices, Ordinary Lives

Book cover Intimate Voices, Ordinary Lives    

from Hurricane Alice

"Alaska Quarterly Review’s Intimate Voices, Ordinary Lives: Stories of Fact and Fiction does not make a distinction between its fiction and non-fiction. Ronald Spatz, the editor, calls this "a personal invitation to search for truth." It’s an interesting challenge. The exquisite craft of the stories, fictional or not, allows the reader to suspend all doubt, to fully enter these stories and find the truth within. …This is a thought-provoking, well-crafted collection."

--Kathryn Duhamel

One Blood

Book cover One Blood    

Clockwatch Review: An Online Quarterly of Books

"One Blood: The Narrative Impulse, AQR's glossy-covered companion to
Intimate Voices, Ordinary Lives (1997), showcases a captivating  assortment of first person narratives. According to AQR's executive and  founding editor Ronald Spatz, the premise behind this latest special  collection is the  notion that an absence of genre allows "the primacy of narrative  itself, "thereby amplifying the "truthfulness of the story." .While the
narrative impulse "toward story" unites these 31 stories, excellence in storytelling technique is what defines and distinguishes this stunning collection. Highly recommended."
-- Chelle Miko

PopMatters
"Remarkable stories."
-- Phoebe Kate Foster, PopMatters Associate Books Editor