FAIRBANKS — If you’re not dead tonight at the 19th Annual Dead Writer’s Celebration, then you might as well be a nobody. Feel free to come as you are, but if you want a shot at some cool prizes, come as your favorite dead author, poet, journalist, philosopher or songwriter.

For nearly two decades, graduate students, professors, community members and other literary enthusiasts have brought their favorite writers back from the dead for one night of witty entertainment.

“It’s not an esoteric thing reserved for only the ‘artsy’ folk,” said Eddie Kim, a poetry graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “We love seeing people from the community, and we’d like to make this an event the city knows about and looks forward to.”

The 21-and-over event has drawn not only such recognized literary celebrities as John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe but also more recent popular artists such as Kurt Cobain, Mae West and Jim Morrison.

Participants are encouraged to come on-stage and perform a reading of choice, preferably in full dead-writer costume, but any clothing, or none at all, will do. “From my understanding, in the past, there has been heckling — good-natured of course — and some nudity has been known to occur,” Kim said.

The term “reading” is used loosely, as many artistically minded performers have gone to great lengths in past celebrations to defy the term.

“Other than the allotted time period, there aren’t any rules,” Kim said. “Typically, people chose to read funny or bawdy excerpts, but it certainly isn’t a rule.”

Kim said past performances even include a shadow-puppet presentation from Goethe, the German author and playwright.

Just to make the celebration interesting, and to raise a little money, anyone who performs longer than three minutes will be charged a $3 penalty for every extra minute.

“We typically recommend people don’t perform Hawthorne or Melville unless they’re feeling exceptionally generous, but we’ve seen just about everything, even a shirtless Jim Morrison presentation of ‘Lament,’,” said Anne-Marie Patterson, a veteran of the English department and avid fan of the celebration.

Those who impress the audience will be awarded the honorary “Pullet Surprise” given out at the end of the evening. Door prizes, gift certificates from local vendors and artists are also offered to worthy impersonators.

The event’s proceeds support the Midnight Sun Visiting Writers series, a reading and lecture series that brings well-known and highly respected writers to Fairbanks each year. Past visitors have included authors such as Amy Bloom, Edward Hirsh, Jean Valentine and Charlie Baxter.

“This is an all-around good time that can get pretty rowdy at times, but it’s a blast nonetheless,” said Amber Thomas, an assistant professor with the UAF English department.

Patterson offered a bit of advice for aspiring impersonators.

“Take pride in an original performance, be creative and please try to be entertaining,” she said.

If you go

• What: 19th Annual Dead Writer’s Celebration

• When: Tonight at 7

• Where: The Blue Loon, 299 Parks Hwy

• Tickets: $15 at the door