Former Wrangell resident Vivian Faith Prescott recently had two books published — a compilation of Tlingit poetry and a fantasy novel for middle-grade-aged children — and says she is interested in bringing a printing press to town to publish the works of fellow Southeast Alaskan writers.
Prescott said she and her daughter, Wrangell resident Vivian Mork, hope to bring the small press, which may be called Petroglyph Press, to Wrangell by the end of the year. Prescott said its aim is to help expose the works of local authors.
“Our goal is to give Southeast Alaskan writers, intermediate or merging writers, a tool to say ‘I have been published,’” Prescott said.
The press will publish “chapbooks,” which are typically small, pocket-sized books under 50 pages in length. Currently, southeast Alaskan writers don’t have a lot of opportunities to expose their written work, said Prescott, who is familiar with the challenges of promoting her own stories.
“You end up where people just don’t know who you are,” Prescott said. “So we want to give the opportunity and the place for people to publish their stories.”
In Southeast Alaska, you end up inventing what you need, because it doesn’t exist elsewhere, Mork added.
“We need a printing press,” she said.
The mother-daughter pair also work together with their nonprofit Raven’s Blanket, which aims to enhance cultural wellness and traditions of Indigenous people as well as promote artistic works of Native and non-native Alaskans throughout the state.
Prescott, 50, published her novel “The Keeper of Directions” Jan. 6 and her book of Tlingit poetry “The Hide of My Tongue” just weeks later in mid-January. She currently resides in Kodiak, because that is where her husband is stationed with the Coast Guard, but also has a home in Sitka. Prescott was born and raised in Wrangell, and has a connection that “goes deep” with family ties to the town.
Her Tlingit heritage and the generational loss of the Tlingit language helped inspire Prescott to write “The Hide of My Tongue.” Prescott describes herself as a beyond-beginner, but not-quite-yet-intermediate Tlingit speaker, and said she and her daughters are the first in three generations of her family who are trying to learn the Tlingit language.
Her new poetry book has poems about that language loss as well as the revitalization of the language, and also includes poems about Tlingit history in Wrangell, Prescott said. While there are poems written in the Tlingit language in Prescott’s book, the majority of them are in English.
Prescott acknowledges the irony of a book about the Tlingit language written mostly in English, but said that is the only way she knows how to clearly convey her message. And, the poem “Mocking talking” in “The Hide of My Tongue” is exactly about that irony Prescott speaks of.
“I am kind of turning it on myself and making fun of myself,” she said.
The poetry book also has a sound chart to help people learn how to read her poems and speak the Tlingit language. Prescott hopes her book will be used in a classroom setting for cross-cultural studies.
“I like to use that kind of avenue of learning — learning through literature,” she said. Prescott has an interdisciplinary PhD in cross-cultural studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She leads writers’ groups for teens and adults, which allows her to teach at the community level and still have time to focus on her personal stories.
Prescott’s new novel, “The Keeper of Directions,” is also inspired by her Tlingit heritage. The book is about a ten-year-old boy named Lance who discovers that one of the ravens kept at the Tower of London has been stolen. The novel also examines the myth that the ravens at the Tower are not merely birds, but a clan of shape-shifters, Prescott explains.
She originally intended to write a poetry book about raven mythology, but once she came up with the story line for “The Keeper of Directions,” her “imagination took over,” Prescott said.
Before becoming a published writer, Prescott has been a storyteller since her children were young. She would create epic stories for each of her children and tell them to them before they fell asleep, so “they would go on this grand adventure into their nap time,” she said.
She sees her written work, whether its poems or novels, as something she can leave behind to her family.
“I see my writing as leaving a legacy to my children,” Prescott said. “I have always thought that.”
Prescott’s novel is published under her pen name: L.K. Mitchell. The name is a tribute to her mother Lorna, her stepmother Kay and her father Mitchell Prescott, who were all great storytellers, she said
“I am a product of all their stories,” Prescott said.
“The Keeper of Directions” is currently available as an e-book and the “The Hide of my Tongue” can be bought in hardcopy online.
Prescott plans to travel to Wrangell this spring to do readings from the two books, and possibly hold writing workshops.
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