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about F

WHAT IS F?
F Magazine is an award-winning, independently owned, hyperlocal arts, music and culture publication. Every month we take a close look at the personalities, the skills and the events that shape our community, covering all genres and mediums of the arts. We are completely run by volunteers. Since our first issue in May 2007, we have been blessed; hundreds of people have volunteered their time, their skills, their talents and their craft. F Magazine is a publication for the community, by the community.

IN THE NEWS – and social media

In June 2010, The Anchorage Daily News ran a front page article in the Sunday arts section about F Magazine. The Associated Press picked up the article and media outlets across the country, including NPR and the New York Times placed the story, or links to the story, on their websites. In addition, newspapers across Alaska reprinted the article in their paper editions.

  • F Magazine won first place for Best Feature Writing and Best Arts Coverage for the 2012 Alaska Professional Communicators awards.
  • KNBA features F Magazine music reviews every Friday afternoon.
  • F Magazine utilizes social media, including Facebook and Twitter and monthly e-blasts, to stay active and in contact with readers.

 

IN THE COMMUNITY

At F Magazine we believe in not just paying it forward; if we are to be for and about community, we have to be a part of the community.

  • In 2010, we hosted Scholastic Writing Competition – a statewide youth writing competition affiliated with a national organization that awards $30 million in scholarships and grants every year. The awards ceremony was held in Feb. 2011 in conjunction with the MTS-sponsored Scholastic Arts Competition. The winners from both competitions were published in the April issue of F Magazine. This was the first year the writing portion of the competition had ever been held in Alaska.
  • Publisher, Teeka Ballas holds regular lectures and free classes to both youth and adults on the craft of feature story writing.
  • F Magazine helped sponsor the event, “The Artists Have Left the Building” – a 2011 Spring celebration marking the close of the MTS Gallery, and the 7th Annual Studio Party – an artist fundraising event.
  • In June 2011, F Magazine sponsored “Live and Moving” – a spoken word, dance and music collaboration, and supported other aspects of the 2011 Spenard Jazz Festival.
  • 2011 marked F Magazine’s first annual Statewide Writing Competition

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Who We Are – founders:

 

Teeka A. Ballas, co-founder, publisher, content editor


Teeka Ballas first began working in journalism as a travel writer for a publication in Australia 15 years ago. Since then she has traveled extensively and worked in numerous U.S. states and countries covering everything from hostile environments to travel and leisure. Almost as an afterthought, she later went on to receive two degrees in journalism. In addition to giving her life, body and soul to F Magazine, Ballas currently hosts a show on Alaska Public Radio and is a contributing writer to numerous publications both regionally and nationally, covering travel, medicine, and engineering.

  • Alaska Press Club. 1st place winner of Best Arts Reporting, radio; 2nd place winner of Best News Photo, print. (2008).
  • Alaska Professional Communicators. 1st place winner of Personal Column; 3rd place winner of Compiled News, radio. (2007).
  • National Federation of Press Women. 1st place winner of Personal Column, radio. (2007).
  • Texas Intercollegiate Press Association. 1st place winner of Critical Review, print. (2006).
  • Outdoor Writers Association of America. Scholarship recipient. (2008).
  • Alaska Press Club. Scholarship recipient. (2007 and 2008).
  • Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Award. (News Editor/editorial contributor) Awarded to the entire staff of The Northern Light, though award was strongly based on news content of one issue (2009).

Gretchen Weiss – co-founder & contributor

Gretchen Weiss has a diverse media background that includes working in print, video, television and online. Weiss studied journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage while working as the photography editor and then the executive editor of The Northern Light newspaper.  Weiss worked in media locally at the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA Ch. 11 and various video and film ventures.
Weiss earned a BA in education and human development from the University of Wyoming. She attended training at the University of Georgia Athens Grady College of Journalism as well as attended multiple Women in Photojournalism conferences and seminars held by the National Press Photographers Association.
Weiss is passionate about F Magazine and strives to use the publication to create a forum for building a positive sense of community in Alaska through participation and knowledge of local arts.

  • Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Award for general excellence and outstanding achievement by a college newspaper in a national competition. Executive Editor (2009).
  • Alaska Press Club.  1st place winner of Best Section (2008).
  • Alaska Press Club. 3rd place winner of Best Graphic in large & small publications (2008).
  • Alaska Press Club. 1st place winner of Best Portrait Photo (2007).

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CONTRIBUTORS

Charlotte Alexander is an old lady who lives in a shoe. She has so many grandchildren and pets she doesn’t what to do. So she writes poetry.

Fawn Carparas

Jessie Desmond

Makenzie Rose DeVries

Bruce Farnsworth

Jack Gette Formally from everywhere Jack is drawn to change locations with the changing of seasons but makes an effort to visit Anchorage frequently in order to keep up on the happenings of beloved people.

Rebecca Goodrich In 1994, Goodrich left California’s glitter for the houseboat Brigadoon in Unalaska. Was Alaska
Writers Guild Marketing chair in Anchorage for the conference in 2009. She writes, edits, and consults
regarding books and manuscripts, and also promotes books and authors, and has even won a few
prizes, and been published in Reader’s Digest.

Serine Halverson

KB Imle KB Imle was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and raised in Alaska sincethe age of 3.  She got her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and then hit the ground running. Her writing took her from California, where she co-wrote and published a book, to West Africa, where she worked as a grant-writer for International Rescue Committee.  After twelve years of wandering she finally wound up back in Alaska, in the thriving metropolis of Anchorage where she is now a Certified Rolfer as well as writer and general Jane of all trades.

Theodore Kincaid

Sandra Kleven

Jonathan Lang

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Andi Powers Originally from Montana, Andi Powers began painting at the age of 12, watching the rapturous Bob Ross. At 13 she read her first beat poet. She has been writing and painting ever since. A graduate of APU, Andi currently bunks out in Fairview with her dog and continues to draw inspiration from all Alaska has to offer.

j.t. Shedaker Although j.t. Shedaker currently resides in Anchorage, he considers himself resident of
at least a dozen other places – “No place is like home until you live there.” His work has
been published in numerous regional and national journals, all under different names.

Matt Sullivan

Amanda Thompson

Jesus Landin-Torrez III