Carolyn Servid

Carolyn Servid co-founded The Island Institute, a nonprofit organization in Sitka, Alaska, in 1984, and lead the organization until her retirement in 2014. Under her leadership, the Institute grew into a multi-faceted organization recognized around the country for its literary arts programs connected to community resilience. Those programs included the annual Sitka Symposium, a residency program for writers, the literary journal Connotations and a variety of civic initiatives focused on collaborative leadership.

Carolyn is the author of the memoir Of Landscape and Longing: Finding a Home at the Water’s Edge and Sitka: A Home in the Wild with photographer Dan Evans. She is co-editor of two collections—The Book of the Tongass with Donald Snow and Arctic Refuge: A Circle of Testimony with Hank Lentfer. Her anthology From the Island’s Edge: A Sitka Reader received a Critics Choice Award.

In keeping with her literary interests, Carolyn is now also working as a consultant in book design.