Dead Writers to read at the Blue Loon

October 24, 2016

Jeff Richardson

The University of Alaska Fairbanks English Department will host the 2016 Dead Writers event Friday, Oct. 28, at the Blue Loon. Dead Writers, now in its 26th year, is an annual Halloween event that raises funds for the Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series, which brings talented writers to Fairbanks for readings and workshops.

The doors will open at 6 p.m., with performances beginning at 7 p.m. The reading features university students, professors and community members performing, in costume, as their favorite deceased writer. Grand prizes will be awarded for the best performances of the night, and door prizes will be offered throughout the evening..

Spectators are welcome, but must be 21 or older to attend.

Tickets are $12 if purchased in advance or $15 at the door. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the UAF Wood Center or by contacting Micah Allen, English student and Dead Writers organizer.

“Dead Writers is the quintessential liberal arts experience. It is the ultimate fusion of literature, performance art and degeneracy,” says James Campbell, a past first-place winner. “Performers dress up under such illustrious names as Julia Child, Emily Dickinson, William 'Shakesbeer' or Carl Sagan and read a piece of the dead author's work, modify it to suit a theme, or make it up on the fly, always in the interest of pushing good taste. It is an annual community-fed rabble-hall for the creative and the morally bankrupt alike."

The English Department is part of the UAF College of Liberal Arts. The College of Liberal Arts, the largest of UAF’s academic units, is composed of 20 academic departments representing the arts, humanities, social sciences and language disciplines.