Contact: Andrea Noble
Executive Director
Alaska State Council on the Arts
w. 907-269-6610 | andrea.noble@alaska.gov | arts.alaska.gov 

Vera Starbard Announced as new Alaska State Writer Laureate

Anchorage, AK – The Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA), in partnership with the Alaska Humanities Forum, is pleased to announce Vera Starbard, T’set Kwei, as the new 2024-2026 Alaska State Writer Laureate. Starbard, a Tlingit and Dena’ina playwright, magazine editor, and Emmy-nominated television writer, brings a breadth of experience and a passion for storytelling to this prestigious role.
“My brief lifetime of storytelling hasn’t been enough to properly showcase the real beauty of our state, the warmth and the pain of it, the wisdom and richness inherent in our land and its people. So how exciting to think I’ll have the privilege of spending the next two years working to promote more stories from Alaska, and encourage more Alaskan storytellers,” said Starbard. 

Starbard’s work spans multiple media and genres, from television to theater. She was Playwright-in-Residence at Perseverance Theatre through the Andrew W. Mellon National Playwright Residency Program, and longtime newspaper and magazine editor for various publications, including ten years as First Alaskans Magazine Editor-in-Chief. Starbard also engages youth audiences as a writer for the PBS Kids children’s program “Molly of Denali,” which won a Peabody Award in 2020 and was nominated for two Children and Family Emmys in 2022, and three in 2023. Through this, Starbard was nominated twice for “Writing for a Preschool Animated Program” on “Molly of Denali,” and once for “Best Short Form Program” as Co-Head Writer on “The Big Gathering” shorts series. She was also a staff writer for ABC’s “Alaska Daily,” and continues to work on a variety television, theatre and book projects and commissions.

Over her decades as a professional artist, Starbard has won numerous local, statewide and national individual writing and editing awards, including the Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award, The Alaska Arts & Culture Foundation Alaska Literary Award, a 2021 Governor’s Arts & Humanities Award, and the First Alaskans Institute’s Young Alaska Native Leader Award.

Starbard’s Individual theatre productions include: Stage play “Our Voices Will Be Heard” in 2016, which was published in the textbook “Contemporary Plays by Women of Color” in 2017, and adapted to a one-hour radio play streamed nationally in 2018; stage play “Devilfish” produced in 2019; full-length play “A Tlingit Christmas Carol” adapted for an online audience in 2020; and one-act play “Yan Tután” produced in 2022.

“I am delighted with the selection of Vera as Alaska’s next State Writer Laureate, a position for which she is eminently qualified”, said Benjamin Brown, Chair of the Alaska State Council on the Arts Board of Trustees. “She brings an amazing wealth of experience in a richly diverse array of writing genres and media, and I look forward to her strengthening and growing the State Writer Laureate Program with her talents and indigenous wisdom.”

The Alaska State Laureate program is an honorary two-year appointment recognizing an Alaskan writer who has demonstrated literary excellence and a commitment to the advancement of literary arts in Alaskan communities. The award began in the early 1960s, when the Juneau Poetry Society created the Poet Laureate Program; in 1996, ASCA broadened the position to include all genres of writing with the establishment of the Alaska State Writer Laureate. In 2016, ASCA brought the Alaska Humanities Forum on as a program partner. 

The Alaska State Council on the Arts is a public corporation housed in the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, and governed by eleven trustees appointed by the Governor. Founded in 1966, ASCA is supported with general funds appropriated by the Alaska State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support for arts education programs from Rasmuson Foundation. ASCA represents, supports and advances the creative endeavors of individuals, organizations and agencies throughout Alaska.

The Alaska Humanities Forum is a 501(c)(3) organization. Founded in 1972, the Forum is one of 56 state and territorial humanities councils supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Forum is also a member of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. The mission of the Alaska Humanities Forum is to connect Alaskans through stories, ideas, and experiences that inspire understanding and strengthen communities.