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Best-selling Alaskan author spends time with students
By Sean Smith
Whalesong Staff
and Sarah Carter
Whalesong Contributor
Fairbanks author
Velma Wallis thought she might have exposed too much of her family’s
secrets in her newest book, “Raising Ourselves Memoir.”
Much to her surprise her family enjoyed the book, as did a number
of other people, seeing that the book is already in its second printing.
Wallis, best-selling and award winning author spent
Dec. 4 on campus speaking to students and signing her books. The
author of, “Two Old Women,” “Bird Girl,” and
the recently released, “Raising Ourselves Memoir,” took
time from her constant touring schedule to spend the day indulged
in campus life.
Wallis also had a book signing open to the public and
spoke at the Evening at Egan series during a special Thursday night
edition.
English professor Don Cecil spoke of her visit as: “...
great to see that UAS is now getting the well known authors to come
visit like the bigger schools from down south.”
Wallis, with a lot of help from her brother, released “Two
Old Women” in 1993, which catapulted her into a life much different
from the one she had been living. After growing up in a subsistence
based village of Fort Yukon, Wallis got the idea for the book from
her mother who was passing down stories told for generations. Of
her mother, Wallis says, “She is a beautiful storyteller. She
added nuances and personal knowledge. She divorced the stories from
herself and gave them a collective imagery that we could understand.
People ask me where I heard my stories and I say from my mother.”
Calling herself a “reluctant writer,” Wallis’
new book released just six weeks ago has already sold out and is
in its second printing. “I write from my personal experiences,
it just so happens that everyone can relate to me in some way,”
Wallis said about her books being read around the world.
“I had no intention of being a writer. I would
have been happy to make a few copies and pass it around Fort Yukon
for people to read. Barry (Wallis’ brother) told me I would
be a writer, he helped me get “Two Old Women” published.
After it was published I went back to Fort Yukon and was going to
get on with regular life, but Barry said I needed to keep writing.
Inspired by his belief in me, I thought of other stories I knew
and began with Bird Girl and the Man who followed the Sun,”said
Wallis.
Although in “Raising Ourselves Memoir,” Wallis
exposes a lot of family secrets that she expected would ban her
from the family, there is overwhelming support from the family saying
everything is true that she writes.
“I thought they were going to kick me out because
of the things I wrote, but like most families, we all have problems,”
said Wallis. “I want to speak to younger children and show
them the roots of dysfunction. Families have dysfunctions and my
stories hopefully will get beyond that.”
Wallis was surprised at the rate her books sold out
for two reasons; the first is that the publishers did not expect
the book to do as well as it did, and also because it was more Native-based
then the previous releases. After selling like hotcakes it is apparent
that the book has no racial lines and it can be relevant to even
those in Germany where “Two Old Women” is extremely popular.
Wallis spoke to a number of different classes and attended
a potluck planned by Wooch.een followed by a reading, lecture and
book signing that was open to the public to join.
Her books can be bought this coming semester in the
UAS bookstore or any book outlet around town.
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