Over the years I’ve learned and lived a lot of Alaska history. As I look at what’s written, some of what I would say is missing. So I’ve decided to write a history book. On Tuesday I’ll be giving a talk on my ideas via Zoom. The link is at the end of this newsletter. …
We’re not particularly good at talking about our feelings in my family, but we do write books, and after my dad wrote his memoir four years ago, at age 88, I felt I understood his biggest life decision. Thankfully, he had told his story well, as too few authors of family memoirs do. It’s common …
When I went to the Arctic to write a book about Iñupiaq whalers, my invitation had to go to a vote of the captains of the several dozen crews in Utqiagvik who hunted from skin umiaq boats. If I lost the vote, they would shun me and tell me nothing. If I won, I would …
The death two weeks ago of my father-in-law, Mark Rowland, got me thinking about where writing talent comes from. He was a respected judge, a pilot, and a legendary outdoorsman, and he crafted exquisite letters, written with a fountain pen on fine stationary, using elegant prose that despite its perfection also conveyed powerful emotions, connection, …
Christine Cunningham explained to me the choice she made between being a vegetarian and a hunter. For her, the two choices were not far apart: they were both about integrity. The integrity of Christine’s writing, and that of her partner Steve Meyer, lights the pages of their book, The Land We Share: A love affair …
I was ready to go home at the end of my work day when I got a call about a possible mutiny at sea. November 1990. We were in the middle of perhaps the last great American newspaper war, between my morning Anchorage Daily News and the evening Anchorage Times. Well-funded owners were throwing everything …
