2021 FisherPoets Gathering - they are salmon fishing in Alaska and having fun

FisherPoets Live on Zoom

Swap this super special pandemic treat with your favorite podcast for a couple of hours. This event is usually live in Astoria and you have to choose which acts to attend. This year you can watch all artists, whose common denominator is salmon fishing in Alaska, from the comfort of your own home.

We promise you will have such a deeper appreciation for your wild-caught seafood once you listen to the prose of the brave men and women who head out to sea to fill your bellies.

We give all acts a huge virtual round of applause for their shares.

Here are the highlights, in our humble opinion. What is linked below is our interpretation of the topic, not the piece title. Click on the yellow to view the author's name and listen to the title (if shared). Write your favorites in the comments below!

Folks who are salmon fishing in Alaska in the Prince William Sound + Copper River (where your Alaska Fresh Seafood fish are wild caught!)

The ultimate fisherpoet of CDV - Steve Schoonmaker, AK fisherman of 39 yrs, fisherpoet of 13, Louis Beaudry, who fished out of Cordova (CDV) singing about a famous local deckhand. If you've been to or worked in CDV, you know who this is or you've seen him on Main Street.

• Paying attention – Holly Hughes

• Cordovan (can't say former, b/c once you leave there, it never leaves your heart) on fisher moms - Erica Thompson Clark

The pandemic (COVID-19)

• Yupik & Tlingit native shares her thoughts on pandemic life - Melanie Brown

• Bristol Bay fishery tribal requests that the fishery not open - Elma Burnham

• Your boat's in quarantine/quarantine flag - Doug Rhoades

Observations on climate change

• oil spills

• All that has changed – Josh Wisniewski

• When our food is not made in the United States

• homage to Alaska

• The dangers of sourcing your fish from big box stores

The reality (and cost) of being a commercial fisherman

• Seasickness

• Being a greenhorn in Alaska fishing – “Corva May”

• Dangers of salmon fishing

• The hard life of a fisherman

• highliner/lives lost at sea – Kathy Stack

• Capsizing in Alaska – “God Bless the Captain,” Jan Bono

Characters of the industry

• How to make fish stock – “The Prize Inside,” Toni Mirosevich

• Author writing from the perspective of her boat, taking it up to Alaska for fishing

• Telling it like it is to be a woman fisherman, make the men comfortable - Alana

• Assigning meaning to the forgotten cannery workers from China, the Philippines or simply upriver - Katherine Ringsmuth

• Cannery driver and forklift queen

• Luck and superstition with fishing - Henry Hughes

• It's all about the gear

• WTF! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

• On sockeye salmon – Meezie Hermansen

• Poem about factory workers

• Pets and grief

The spirituality of fishing

• The original religion: fishing. "Temple of the Trout" by xxx

• Waiting for the tide to change/patience

• Humility and resilience of wild Alaska

• The physics of (ocean) sound

• On grief and herbalism by Moe Bowstern (what a name!)

• On being a woman, compromise and failure, Maggie Bursch

*Visit our store to learn more about the variety of fish Alaska has to offer, such as Copper River King Salmon, Wild Alaskan Halibut, Wild Alaskan Black Cod (Sablefish), and more.