If your New Year’s resolution was to learn to dance, you’re in luck. A pair of dance instructors from Anchorage will be in town to offer a series of four classes in west coast swing on Saturday at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center -- also the venue for that night’s monthly ballroom dance.

Instructors Liv Froholm and Van Rauch, who are coming to town courtesy of the Juneau International Folkdancers, welcome dancers of all levels.

Making a list of a handful of bright moments from the past year in the arts is a great way to renew your appreciation for the bounty we Juneauites enjoy on a daily basis, in part because the task is virtually impossible. How can you narrow it down? For me, the only way to approach it is to view the list as an arrow, rather than a box; the items I listed don’t make up a finite group, but point the way toward many more.

Less than 24 hours after his arrival in Juneau in 1970, Dan Hopson instinctively knew he’d found a home in Southeast. Physically, however, it was a bit of a rocky landing.

On his first day in town, straight off the ferry, the adventurous young biologist secured a temporary position with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, even though he had no real plans to stay; on day two, he climbed aboard a float plane bound for Admiralty Island to meet his new boss, local naturalist Bob Armstrong.

Notable Alaska books published in the past year include Juneau author Ernestine Hayes’ “Aanka Xóodzi ka Aasgutu Xóodzi Shkalneegi,” a children’s book published in Tlingit and in English, and Barrow author Debby Dahl Edwardson’s “My Name is Not Easy,” a finalist for the National Book Award in the young people’s literature category.

Here’s a look at some other titles released in 2011. (This list is not intended to be exhaustive.)

Southeast authors

FICTION AND POETRY