Alaska Center for the Book Names Contributions to Literacy in Alaska Award Recipients

The Alaska Center for the Book has named four winners of the 2022 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska (CLIA) Award.

Honorees are Alaska State Library director Patience Frederiksen of Juneau, Anchorage early learning advocate Abbe Hensley, state writer laureate Heather Lende of Haines, and the southwest Alaska community of Igiugig.

The CLIA awards are presented annually by Alaska Center for the Book, Alaska’s liaison with the U.S. Library of Congress Center for the Book. Since 1993, the awards have been presented to more than 100 people and institutions making a significant contribution in literacy, the literary arts, or the preservation of the written or spoken word.

Patience Frederiksen is the Alaska state librarian and director of the Alaska Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums in Juneau. Her decades of work in the state library system have encompassed projects ranging from post-construction work and operation of the new state library facility, to administering millions in state and federal grant funding, and delivering books and online resources statewide. One nominator wrote, “As state librarian, Patience is a fierce supporter of Alaska libraries, the right to read, and historical preservation.”

Abbe Hensley is winner of CLIA’s Sue Sherif Literacy Award, named for a longtime Alaska librarian pivotal in efforts to support literacy in Alaska.  Hensley has spent more than 50 years advocating for childhood health and literacy across the state. In 2006, she helped found Best Beginnings, which has grown into a statewide agency introducing thousands of Alaskan children and families to reading, providing resources such as Imagination Library, StoryTRACKS, and Alaskan baby board books. A nominator wrote, “The creation, growth, and maintenance of Best Beginnings can be seen as one of Hensley’s crowning achievements in a professional life devoted to the education and support of young children and their families.”

Heather Lende is a prolific essayist and author of four best-selling books, most based around her work as an obituary writer in Haines. She was named Alaska’s writer laureate in 2021. She is also an energetic community volunteer, filling needs ranging from the local assembly and school board, to hospice care, and singing in her church choir. The CLIA awards look for people who reach beyond their personal goals to help others.  “Whether it’s acting as an interviewer for the AQR online poetry series, zooming in to requests from schools and writers’ groups, helping launch reading initiatives such as Alaska Reads, or just sharing her thoughts on family, community, and work, Heather is always there,” a nominator wrote.

The village of Igiugig is located in southwest Alaska, at the junction of the Kvichak River and Lake Iliamna. Led by village council president AlexAnna Salmon, the village has become known for creating hydrokinetic power, improving local educational opportunities, and more. In the literacy field, they have secured grants for library services, working on language revitalization, local oral history, bilingual children’s books, and most recently, an outdoor Storywalk. “To maintain and develop an active tribal library in a community of 71 people is an accomplishment in itself, but to create a community-wide effort to improve literacy and promote revitalization of the local Yup’ik dialect as well takes extra commitment,” a nominator wrote.

The CLIA Award winners will be honored at a reception at 7 p.m. Monday, July 11 at UAA’s Fine Arts Building, Room 150. The brief ceremony will be followed by readings from the Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Reading Series, part of the Creative Writing and Literary Arts MFA program.

Founded in 1991, ACB is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization. It participates in the National Book Festival, Alaska Reads, Alaska Book Week, and other events. For more information, see www.alaskacenterforthebook.org/.