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Writer, editor, teacher: Jaclyn Wilmoth has been a force in Alaska’s literary scene for a decade.This is part of Alaska Authors, an occasional series about authors and other literary figures with ties to the 49th state.Jaclyn Wilmoth has been a force in Alaska literature for more than a decade now.Since embarking on her English master’s degree at University of Alaska Fairbanks, she’s edited Permafrost, the department’s literary journal; co-founded another literary journal, Marrow Magazine; taught creative writing through UAF; and published her first novel.For Wilmoth, it’s what she’s been doing all of her life.“I don’t remember a time before I was writing,” she said.“It’s always been the way that I’ve made sense of my world and my thoughts.” Wilmoth’s debut novel, an Alaska fantasy titled “The Snow Witch,” distills her approach to writing.The story delves deeply into how intrusive, suppressed and frequently traumatic memories can suddenly emerge, how manufactured realities compete with actuality, the impacts of environment on people’s lives, the difficulties of pregnancy and much more.The book opens when Lumi, a young woman, moves into an off-the-grid cabin in Interior Alaska with her new husband, Cole, just as winter is setting in.Initially finding peace in her new surroundings, her mood darkens as daylight recedes and snow begins falling without end.Isolated and with Cole often absent, Lumi begins experiencing often frightening memories she’s unsure are her own.Soon her psyche begins breaking down.When she finds a book of spells on a shelf in the cabin, she begins casting them, seeking to end the never-abating storms.Then she finds herself pregnant.Working in part with a cut-and-paste approach reminiscent of the works of William S.Burroughs, Wilmoth said she “wanted to capture the way that memories and reality get slippery when you’re dealing with trauma and the disorientation of being in a place that’s so unfamiliar.” She added there were “also some issues of pregnancy and how, when you’re growing another person inside of you, your sense of self also shifts pretty significantly because you are not just yourself anymore.” Wilmoth is no stranger to personal challenges and placing herself in unfamiliar settings.Born and raised in Vero Beach, Florida, which lies roughly halfway between Daytona and Miami on the Atlantic Coast, she was drawn from a young age to fantasy and horror stories.“I remember as a 7-year-old writing a play like ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,’ but with vampire sisters,” she recalled.In high school, she was on a state champion cheerleading squad, but decided writing was her true passion.Her school published a literary magazine, which she edited for one year.Her desire to explore unusual pathways led her into the nontraditional liberal arts-focused New College of Florida.There she studied literature and comparative religion in the school’s self-guided programs.“I really thrived in that environment because when you tell me to do something, then I don’t want to do it.” At New College, she returned to editing literary journals, launching the school’s publication Backwards and Ugly.She mostly wrote poetry at the time, something she said still reflects in her writing.“I’m not trying to say something as much as I’m trying to share a feeling.” After graduating in 2004, Wilmoth came north for summer work as a counselor at Camp Kushtaka near Cooper Landing.Coming from Florida, known for being flat, she was awestruck by the scenery, saying to herself, “This is unlike any place I’ve ever seen.” After that summer, Wilmoth wandered the world for several years, spending long periods in Thailand, New Zealand, Prague and San Francisco among other places, supporting herself by teaching English as a second language and environmental education.Eventually, she decided to earn her master’s.She applied to several schools with good programs, but said UAF was the only one she picked due to its location.She was accepted and returned to Alaska in 2013.She calls her thesis a “hybrid memoir,” describing it as “an imagined family history that helped me understand myself more.It went back and forth between my great-great-grandmother’s stories of coming to the U.S.and my story of traveling,” she said.“Because it’s a fiction/nonfiction hybrid that also has some poetry in it, I think it’s hard to classify.” Around this time, Wilmoth began writing under her pen name.Her actual surname, Bergamino, is what she teaches under, but for publication she uses Wilmoth, which was her grandfather’s name.“I felt very connected to my grandfather,” she said.“I wanted to do something to honor him.” Also in 2013, she met Alaska novelist Kris Farmen online.After a lengthy correspondence, they met in person at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Seattle the following year.In 2017 they were married, and their daughter arrived in 2018.“Nobody else in my life really took my writing seriously,” she said.But for Kris, “it was his profession.He was very serious about it and it made me feel like, oh, this isn’t just a passing fancy that I have.” Earning her master’s included a stint as editor of Permafrost, which enhanced her skills at writing as well as mentoring others.She also became involved with the multimedia shared universe project Dirigibles of Denali, conceived by Anchorage residents Nathan Shafer and Joelle Howald and based on former U.S.Mike Gravel’s proposal for building domed cities around Alaska.“So much of the plan reminded me of Disney World,” she said.“That was what the domed cities evoked for me.” Describing it as a manicured facade, she added: “They were going to make this playground for tourists, and they were going to be shielded from the landscape and the weather.So that was the thread that I started with.” In “The Snow Witch,” a domed city lies beyond the horizon of Lumi and Cole’s cabin, offering a potential for refuge.The book is the first in a trilogy titled “The Boreal Witch,” and Wilmoth said that city will become increasingly central as the story progresses.In 2021 Wilmoth started the online literary journal Marrow Magazine with two other former Permafrost editors, Caitlin Woolley and Kori Hensell.“All three of us have a passion for literary magazines and I feel part of my purpose is helping other people get their stories out into the world,” she said.Initially a pandemic project, it’s gained a national profile, and was voted one of the top 10 Bold and Weird – Best Lit Mags of 2025 by the submission platform Chill Subs.Currently, Wilmoth teaches creative writing and intermediate fiction online for UAF.Unlike some instructors, she doesn’t grade based on her personal assessment of students’ work, instead giving them credit as long as they finish their assignments.“I’m trying to help my students develop their own voices.And what that looks like usually is, we pick one craft element to work on.And when I give feedback, I tell them how I see it working and then ideas for expansion,” she said.Regardless of which among her many endeavors Wilmoth is engaged in, she said ultimately, what she’s doing comes from inside herself.“I’m writing to try to figure my own things out instead of just telling a story.There’s a lot of me in it,” she said.“It would be very difficult for me to tell stories from other perspectives.”