The North Words Writers Symposium will feature biologist and award-winning nature writer Bill Streever as the keynote speaker for the 11th annual event May 27-30 in Skagway. 

Joining Streever will be Alaska and regional authors Heather Lende, M Jackson, Caroline Van Hemert, Nicole Stellon O’Donnell, Bryan Allen Fierro and Eva Holland. 

Streever’s books include “In Oceans Deep,” “Cold,” “Heat,” and “Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind.” The bestselling author and former Alaskan has worked on issues ranging from the environmental effects of underwater sound to the evolution of cave crayfish, the restoration of tundra wetlands to climate change, according to his website. 

“With his wife, marine biologist Lisanne Aerts, he lives aboard the cruising sailboat Rocinante, currently in South America.” 

The North Words Writers Symposium describes his work as bringing “the natural world into crystalline focus.” 

Streever will address the symposium’s theme: “Writing at a time of a threatened natural world.” 

North Words mixes panel discussions about various aspects of writing and publishing with workshops, consultations, readings and a variety of outdoor activities. 

Registration is now open on the website at http://nwwriterss.com/. The event is limited to 40 participants. The fee is $395. 

Skagway residents interested in attending can apply for a scholarship with the Skagway Arts Council. 

Heather Lende is a well-known Alaska memoirist, author of four books including this summer’s “Of Bears and Ballots” about her political travails in Haines. 

Caroline Van Hemert, a scientist from Haines and Anchorage, is the author of “The Sun is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds,” a memoir tracing her epic journeys in the Inside Passage and across the Brooks Range. 

Formerly of Skagway, M Jackson is a geographer, glaciologist and author of “The Secret Lives of Glaciers” and “While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change.” 

Other authors participating in the event include Fairbanks poet Nicole Stellon O’Donnell, Anchorage firefighter and paramedic Bryan Allen Fierro, and Whitehorse author Eva Holland. 

The North Words staff is publisher-historian Jeff Brady, bookseller-publisher Katrina Woolford, writer-educator Daniel Henry, and teacher-writer Kent Fielding.