A vivid and insightful look at the culture and terrain of Antarctica, as well as the people who choose to live and work there, South × South celebrates and explores life at the extreme edge of our planet. Blending travel narrative, historical research, and the surprises of magical realism, Hood presents life in Antarctica and the history of polar aviation as both a miracle of achievement yet also as a way to understand humanity’s longing to be creatures of the heavens as well as the earth. South × South is poetry at its most inventive and surprising, insisting that the world is stranger and more glorious than we ever might have guessed.

Charles Hood’s journeys have taken him from the high Arctic to Patagonia, Easter Island, and the South Pole. He has been a dishwasher, a ski instructor, and a nature guide in Africa.

His previous books include Bombing Ploesti and Río de Dios from Red Hen Press, as well as Xopilote Cantos and The Half-Life of Salt: Voices from the Enola Gay. He has been the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, an Artist in Residency with the Center for Land Use Interpretation, and an Artists and Writers grant from the National Science Foundation. Charles Hood teaches photography and writing at Antelope Valley College, California.