Local girl wins first prize in writing contest

MARY LOCHNER

June 05, 2008 at 11:15AM AKST

Janessa Reamey describes long-time friend Geneva Hobson as eccentric and a whole lot of fun.

Hobson, a Dillingham resident, keeps more than 100 pet fish. She doodles squids and felines when she’s bored.

Her favorite song to play on guitar is Metallica’s “The Call of Ktulu.”

“She makes boring places seem happy,” Reamey said. “(If) it’s rainy and cold outside, she’ll just be happy and bouncy and make you want to go play out in the rain.”

Hobson’s creativity recently caught the attention of writing contest judges at Diigii Naii, an organization dedicated to providing positive role models for Alaska Native young men.

Hobson’s winning entry was a short story called “Whale Hunt.”

In the story, a bowhead whale named Khatya loses a brother to hunters in a village. A year later, he grieves for his brother when he returns to the same village. But he makes a special connection there with a woman whose husband died during the hunt, too.

“It’s a whale hunt from the whale’s perspective and a spiritual experience too,” Hobson said. “In the end there’s a bond between the whales and the tribe.”

Hobson, 18, said she was surprised when she got a message on her answering machine from Diigii Naii in early May informing her she’d won the contest.

When Hobson’s mother received an e-mail about the contest in February, she encouraged Hobson to submit something before the March 24 deadline.

“My mom and I were like, ‘Send it in, see what happens,’” Hobson said. “I didn’t expect to win.”

Hobson won a Nintendo Wii, the first-place prize for the contest.

Hobson and her mother, Gina Pope, said they think artistic, musical and literary creativity is a genetic trait from Pope’s side of the family.

“My cousin Billie Savage (from Kokenok) is known almost statewide for his guitar playing,” Hobson said. “My aunt Michelle (Ravenmoon) writes a lot of stories and does Native crafts. A lot of my aunts and cousins draw and paint and do a lot of fun stuff.”

Hobson said not much has changed about her writing habits since she won; she still writes, draws and plays music in her free time. But for the most part she devotes her time to home school studies.

Pope, an early intervention teacher with the Bristol Bay Area Health Corp., has a teaching degree and has homeschooled her daughter for three years.

Hobson said she wants to go into a science career. She’ll begin her high school senior year this fall and has been fulfilling some of her credits through botany classes taken at University of Alaska Fairbanks Bristol Bay Campus.

In the future, Hobson said she plans to go to college at UAF for biology.

Mary Lochner can be reached at (907) 348-2438 or (800) 770-9830, ext. 438.