Professor of Alaska Native Languages X̱'unei Lance Twitchell to receive 2025 Rasmuson Foundation award
Twitchell will use the award to complete a novel centered on family survival and support.
Juneau, Alaska
Date of Press Release: December 10, 2025
X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, Ph.D., a writer, multi-media artist, and UAS professor of Alaska Native languages, will be receiving a 2025 Rasmuson Foundation project award in literary arts and scriptworks. Twitchell will use the $10,000 grant to complete a novel centered on a family trying to survive in a violent, colonial world while supporting one another.
“Tlax̱ ḵúnáx̱ sh tóog̱aa x̱at ditee,” Twitchell said. “I am so grateful to the Rasmuson Foundation for their ongoing support of arts in Alaska. Every year I see incredible talent being recognized and supported, and I am filled with gratitude to be included this year.”
Twitchell has taught the Tlingit language for more than two decades and has worked as a professor of Alaska Native languages at UAS for 15 years. He holds a doctorate in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization from the Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaii Hilo, a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in American Indian studies from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Twitchell has authored several works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with additional projects underway, including films, plays and language curriculum. He won an Emmy for writing for the PBS television show “Molly of Denali” and is also a visual artist working in Northwest Coast Native design, Alaska Native modern art, and digital media art, with many projects ongoing.
“As I continue to work on this novel, I am thinking of all the storytellers I have worked with and the writing teachers and colleagues who have helped me along the way,” Twitchell said. “I want to congratulate all of the amazing artists who are supported this year, and to encourage folks in Alaska to tell the stories in their minds and hearts. Gunalchéesh tlein (big thank you).”
Twitchell is one of 50 Alaska artists to receive the 2025 Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award, which is designed to support short-term projects and artistic development with the overarching goal of contributing to Alaska’s culture and communities.
"We are enormously proud of Professor Twitchell and grateful for the recognition that he has received from the Rasmuson Foundation,” said UAS Chancellor Aparna Palmer. “In supporting his work, the foundation is not only nurturing the arts in Alaska but also enriching the education we offer at UAS."