front cover of Coming Out of Nowhere
Coming Out of Nowhere
Alaska Homestead Poems
Linda Schandelmeier
University of Alaska Press, 2018
“The earth near our place/ was cradle, / it rocked us— / became our skin. / House doors opened, / spilled us out, / we disappeared into trees— / they clothed us in delirious green. /. . . We knew the song / of this place, made it up, / sang it—”
 
Homestead life is often romanticized as a valiant, resilient family persisting in the clean isolation of pristine wilderness, living off the land and depending only on each other. But there can be a darker side to this existence.

Linda Schandelmeier was raised on a family homestead six miles south of the fledgling town of Anchorage, Alaska in the 1950s and ’60s. But hers is not a typical homestead story. In this book, part poetic memoir and part historical document, a young girl comes of age in a family fractured by divorce and abuse. Schandelmeier does not shy away from these details of her family history, but she also recognizes her childhood as one that was unique and nurturing, and many of her poems celebrate homestead life. Her words hint at her way of surviving and even transcending the remoteness by suggesting a deeper level of human experience beyond the daily grind of homestead life; a place in which the trees and mountains are almost members of the family. These are poems grounded in the wilds that shimmer with a mythic quality. Schandelmeier’s vivid descriptions of homesteading will draw in readers from all types of lives.
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The Tanana Chiefs
Native Rights and Western Law
William Schneider
University of Alaska Press, 2018
At the turn of the twentieth century, life was changing drastically in Alaska. The gold rush brought an onslaught of white settlers to the area, railroad companies were pushing into the territory, and telegraph lines opened up new lines of communication. The Native groups who had hunted and fished on the land for more than a century realized that if they did not speak up now, they would lose their land forever.

This is the story of a historic meeting between Native Athabascan leaders and government officials, held in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1915. It was one of the first times that Native voices were part of the official record. They sought education and medical assistance, and they wanted to know what they could expect from the federal government. They hoped for a balance between preserving their way of life with seeking new opportunities under the law.

The Tanana Chiefs chronicles the efforts by Alaska Natives to gain recognition for rights under Western law and the struggles to negotiate government-to-government relationships with the federal government. It contains the first full transcript of the historic meeting as well as essays that connect that first gathering with the continued efforts of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, which continues to meet and fight for Native rights.
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On Time Delivery
The Dog Team Mail Carriers
William S. Schneider
University of Alaska Press, 2012
From the turn of the twentieth century in interior Alaska, dog team mail carriers were charged with maintaining the trail systems and carrying the mail until they were replaced in the late 1930s and ’40s by airplane mail service. With the advent and widespread adoption of aviation, many of the trails were abandoned, and a generation of rural Alaskans has now grown up with few ties to the overland trail system that supported their grandparents and inspired modern traditions such as the world-famous Iditarod Race.
In addition to chronicling the history of this unique postal service, On Time Delivery pays tribute to the men who carried the mail and the families who supported them, and considers the changing nature of how people experience the country where they live—and how this is affected by the systems of communication and transportation upon which they depend. 
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Tongass Odyssey
Seeing the Forest Ecosystem through the Politics of Trees
John Schoen
University of Alaska Press, 2020
Tongass Odyssey is a biologist’s memoir of personal experiences over the past four decades studying brown bears, deer, and mountain goats and advocating for conservation of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The largest national forest in the nation, the Tongass encompasses the most significant expanse of intact old-growth temperate rainforest remaining on Earth. Tongass Odyssey is a cautionary tale of the harm that can result when science is eclipsed by politics that are focused on short-term economic gain. Yet even as those problems put the Tongass at risk, the forest also represents a unique opportunity for conserving large, intact landscapes with all their ecological parts, including wild salmon, bears, wolves, eagles, and other wildlife. Combining elements of personal memoir, field journal, natural history, conservation essay, and philosophical reflection, Tongass Odyssey tells an engaging story about an enchanting place.
 
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Outside Passage
A Memoir of an Alaskan Childhood
Julia Scully
University of Alaska Press, 2010
When Julia Scully was seven years old, her father committed suicide, and she and her sister were sent to an orphanage.  Two years later, emotionally damaged by the isolation and brutality of the orphanage, the girls followed their mother to the near-wilderness of the gold-mining territory north of Nome, Alaska, where she had leased a roadhouse in the tiny settlement of Taylor.  Julia had no idea what to expect when she arrived, but to her surprise, she found a healing power in the stark beauty of the vast tundra.  Later, she reveled in the boisterous, chaotic boomtown atmosphere that prevailed when thousands of American troops descended on Nome at the outbreak of World War II.  

Outside Passage is a lyrical and affecting memoir of those years, simultaneously an emotional account of a young girl’s first steps into adulthood and a unique portrait of a vanished frontier life.
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front cover of For the Sake of the Light
For the Sake of the Light
New and Selected Poems
Tom Sexton
University of Alaska Press, 2009

This collection of new and selected poems by the former poet laureate of Alaska, Tom Sexton, opens a door on the essence of life in Alaska and Maine. Sexton divides his year between the two states, and he captures here the small but powerful sensual details of day-to-day life in these contrasting, yet similar, environs. His carefully crafted verse distills the birch and aspen, lynx and ptarmigan, and the snow on high peaks. Through his poems we thrill to experience encounters with the wild, the seasons, and the sublime landscape.

     His language is clear, without tricks or fancy moves, yet his directness is powerful, and the effects are human”—Paul Zimmer, Georgia Review

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front cover of I Think Again of Those Ancient Chinese Poets
I Think Again of Those Ancient Chinese Poets
Tom Sexton
University of Alaska Press, 2010
This all-new collection by former Alaska poet laureate smoothly blends his life in Maine, his years in Alaska, and his love of Chinese poetry—which has been a key influence on his work—into a lyrical fantasy that will enchant lovers of verse. These tightly rhythmic, compact eight-line poems demonstrate a rare deftness with—and an even more uncommon ear for—language, revealing poetic form to be neither a puzzle nor an accomplishment in itself, but a compositional tool and a spur to creativity.
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A Ladder of Cranes
Tom Sexton
University of Alaska Press, 2015
Whether watching men releasing caged birds at dawn in New York City or a ladder of cranes rising from a field in Manitoba, Tom Sexton is a keen observer of the interconnectedness of the natural and human worlds. The former Alaska poet laureate takes to the road in this new collection, wending a lyrical and at times mystical path between Alaska and New England.
Travelers along the way include the fabled wolf of Gubbio, old and lame and long past his taming encounter with Saint Francis of Assisi, and Chinese poet Li Bai chanting to a Yangtze River dolphin. Yet, while Sexton’s journey crosses borders—and occasionally centuries—his ultimate destination is always the landscape and people of Alaska. A Ladder of Cranes showcases Sexton’s mastery of both traditional forms and free verse. The tensions of his formal influences, Chinese and European, force the reader to experience these spare lines and tight observations in stunning new ways.
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front cover of Li Bai Rides a Celestial Dolphin Home
Li Bai Rides a Celestial Dolphin Home
Tom Sexton
University of Alaska Press, 2018
“On the night Li Bai tried to embrace the moon / in its fullness on the surface of the Yangtze River, / blossoms scented the air, and beyond the moon / pale stars powdered the sky. That faint shiver / of white near the surface was a dolphin rising. / I carry a book of his poems whenever I travel, / poems that touch the heart like a gentle snow. / Look, over there in that marsh, a snowy egret rising.”

​The day after their wedding, Tom and Sharyn Sexton set off on the more than 4,500-mile journey from Massachusetts to Alaska. Now, more than fifty years later, Tom Sexton is retracing those steps through his exceptional poetry. He describes the communities they passed through and ruminates on the changes, good and bad, that have taken place in the decades since. He still finds hope in the country and draws transformative hope from the land that connects all of us.
Appropriate for a journey that moves from east to west, the Sexton’s real-life voyage is embedded in the imaginary journey of the ancient Chinese poet, Li Bai, from Broad Pass to Polychrome Pass in the Alaska Range.
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Changing Paths
Travels and Meditations in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness
Bill Sherwonit
University of Alaska Press, 2009

Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska’s Arctic Wilderness is an autobiographical exploration of author Bill Sherwonit’s relationship with the Alaska wilderness. Written in three parts, it first describes Sherwonit’s introduction to the Brooks Range and his years as an exploration geologist. Taking a step back, the author then takes us into the past to explore his childhood roots in rural Connecticut and his recognition of wild nature as a refuge. He concludes with his emergence as a nature writer and wilderness advocate.

An engrossing, fascinating, and eye-opening tale of one man’s life and of wilderness conceptions, this vivid description of an area of Alaska that few people get to experience is authentic and enlightening. It is an extraordinary contribution to the literature of place from one of Alaska’s most accomplished nature writers.

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front cover of Big Game in Alaska
Big Game in Alaska
A History of Wildlife and People
Morgan B. Sherwood
University of Alaska Press, 2008
With the Klondike gold rush, a struggle erupted in Alaska between the protection of big game animals and man’s economic ambitions, a riveting story chronicled by Morgan Sherwood in Big Game in Alaska.

In concise and clear prose, Sherwood charts the history of this environmental and political conflict, examining the creation of the Alaska Game Commission in the early 1930s, the use of distorted science and menacing technologies, the antipathy of farmers and fishermen toward animals, and the prevailing belief in man’s right to shoot wild animals at will. An incisive historical study of the flawed attempts to govern big game predation, Big Game in Alaska will be essential reading for historians and environmentalists alike.
 
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Climate of Alaska
Martha Shulski
University of Alaska Press, 2007
Those of us in the lower forty-eight states tend to think of Alaska as an unremitting wasteland of frigid temperatures, ice, and snow. But in reality, because of its immense size and its position at the edge of the Arctic, Alaska has a remarkably varied and complex climate.

Replete with striking photos, maps, and charts, The Climate of Alaska presents a detailed picture of what to expect in this state of climate extremes. From the 40-below temperatures of the Interior to the twenty-four hours of daylight in a northern summer, Alaska’s climate presents challenges to its inhabitants on a daily basis. Readers will find   accessible descriptions of temperature, humidity, precipitation, and climate change that will enrich a visit to the state and provide insight on the living conditions of this fascinating place.
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front cover of Entangled
Entangled
People and Ecological Change in Alaska's Kachemak Bay
Marilyn Sigman
University of Alaska Press, 2018
Chronicling her quest for wildness and home in Alaska, naturalist Marilyn Sigman writes lyrically about the history of natural abundance and human notions of wealth—from seals to shellfish to sea otters to herring, halibut, and salmon—in Alaska’s iconic Kachemak Bay.
Kachemak Bay is a place where people and the living resources they depend on have ebbed and flowed for thousands of years. The forces of the earth are dynamic here:  they can change in an instant, shaking the ground beneath your feet or overturning kayaks in a rushing wave. Glaciers have advanced and receded over centuries. The climate, like the ocean, has shifted from warmer to colder and back again in a matter of decades. The ocean food web has been shuffled from bottom to top again and again.
In Entangled, Sigman contemplates the patterns of people staying and leaving, of settlement and displacement, nesting her own journey to Kachemak Bay within diasporas of her Jewish ancestors and of ancient peoples from Asia to the southern coast of Alaska. Along the way she weaves in scientific facts about the region as well as the stories told by Alaska’s indigenous peoples. It is a rhapsodic introduction to this stunning region and a siren call to protect the land’s natural resources in the face of a warming, changing world.
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The Upper Tanana Dene
People of This Land
William E. Simeone
University of Alaska Press, 2022
The Upper Tanana Dene conveys the history and knowledge of Dene elders to current and future generations. Oral accounts reveal a unique and compelling perspective on a traditional way of life and offer fascinating commentary on a holistic way of life that is as relevant today as it was generations ago. These narratives, along with photographs and illustrations, show the history of the region alongside a detailed portrait of the people themselves.
 
As young Dene migrate to towns and cities far from their homeland on the upper Tanana River of east central Alaska, they may never learn what it was like living from the land. In these interviews elders express concern that young Dene are becoming ignorant of the traditions that made their ancestors disciplined and strong enough to withstand the rigors of life on the land. The old life was taxing and made demands on the body and soul, and the struggle to achieve security placed a premium on knowledge, endurance, and constant effort. Modern conveniences have made life easier, but elders believe their knowledge is still vital to the survival of future generations. 
 
With text in both Dene and English, The Upper Tanana Dene is a link to Dene experiences, lives, and understanding of the world and is meant for those interested in Dene heritage, as well as students and scholars of cultural and ethnic studies and history.

 
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front cover of Worldviews of the Greenlanders
Worldviews of the Greenlanders
An Inuit Arctic Perspective
Birgitte Sonne
University of Alaska Press, 2017
Ninety years ago, Knud Rasmussen’s popular account of his scientific expeditions through Greenland and North America introduced readers to the culture and history of arctic Natives. In the intervening century, a robust field of ethnographic research has grown around the Inuit and Yupiit of North America—but, until now, English-language readers have had little access to the broad corpus of work on Greenlandic natives.
Worldviews of the Greenlanders draws upon extensive Danish and Greenlandic research on Inuit arctic peoples—as well as Birgitte Sonne’s own decades of scholarship and fieldwork—to present in rich detail the key symbols and traditional beliefs of Greenlandic Natives, as well as the changes brought about by contact with colonial traders and Christian missionaries. It includes critical updates to our knowledge of the Greenlanders’ pre-colonial world and their ideas on space, time, and other worldly beings. This expansive work will be a touchstone of Arctic Native studies for academics who wish to expand their knowledge past the boundaries of North America.
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front cover of The Big Wild Soul of Terrence Cole
The Big Wild Soul of Terrence Cole
An Eclectic Collection to Honor Alaska’s Public Historian
Frank Soos
University of Alaska Press, 2019
This collection of essays honors beloved Alaska historian Terrence Cole upon his retirement. Contributors include former students and colleagues whose personal and professional lives he has touched deeply. The pieces range from appreciative reflections on Cole’s contributions in teaching, research, and service, to topics he encouraged his students to pursue, plus pieces he inspired directly or indirectly. It is an eclectic collection that spans the humanities and social sciences, each capturing aspects of the human experience in Alaska’s vast and variable landscape. Together the essays offer readers complementary perspectives that will delight Cole’s many fans—and gain him new ones.
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front cover of Giinaquq Like a Face
Giinaquq Like a Face
Suqpiaq Masks of the Kodiak Archipelago
Amy F. Steffian
University of Alaska Press, 2009

Masks are an ancient tradition of the Alutiiq people on the southern coast of Alaska. Alutiiq artists carved the masks from wood or bark into images of ancestors, animal spirits, and other mythological forces; these extraordinary creations have been an essential tool for communicating with the spirit world and have played an important role in dances and hunting festivities for centuries. Giinaquq—Like a Face presents thirty-three full-color images of these fantastic and eye-catching masks, which have been preserved for more than a century as part of the Pinart Collection in a small French museum.

            These masks, collected in 1871 by a young French scholar of indigenous cultures, are presented for the first time in their complete cultural context, celebrating the rich history of the Alutiiq people and their artistic traditions. In addition to the stunning photographs, Giinaquq—Like a Face includes an informative text in three languages—English, Alutiiq, and French—in order to provide a cross-cultural understanding of the masks’ traditional meaning and use.

            This captivating and revealing book will be an essential resource for anyone interested in indigenous art and culture.

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front cover of Geology of Southeast Alaska
Geology of Southeast Alaska
Rock and Ice in Motion
Harold Stowell
University of Alaska Press, 2006
The most powerful forces on earth have shaped the landscape of Southeast Alaska. Scientists and visitors from around the world trek north to experience wild rivers, powerful glaciers, and breathtaking mountain peaks. Now, for the first time, a handy guide to the region is available. Complete with color illustrations revealing millions of years of geological history and in-depth descriptions of Sitka, Juneau, and Glacier Bay, Geology of Southeast Alaska is essential reading for anyone fascinated by rock and ice in motion.
Written by a geologist with over twenty-five years of experience in the north, Geology of Southeast Alaska will entertain and inform with abundant photographs and detailed drawings. Whether you want to understand the forces that shaped the state of Alaska, or you want to learn the basics of glacial movement, this compact, authoritative book is for you.
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front cover of The Rising and the Rain
The Rising and the Rain
Collected Poems
John Straley
University of Alaska Press, 2008
John Straley crafts here a collection of poems that pay homage to his home of the Pacific Northwest and southeastern Alaska. His narrative poetry is infused with sharp wit and delicate details, as he meditates on the natural world of the Pacific coastline and its rhythmic seasonal patterns, cycles of rain, and rich abundance of earth. Straley intertwines the personal and political to create elegies of refreshing honesty and universal scope, making The Rising and Rain a powerful work by one of the top emerging poets today.
 
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front cover of Apun
Apun
The Arctic Snow
Matthew Sturm
University of Alaska Press, 2009

There are some twenty-five words for “snow” in the Inupiaq language. Each word denotes a different kind of snow—fresh powder snow, hard pack, soft snow, very wet snow, or just snow. Such fine distinction is reasonable, for over the centuries, Natives of the Arctic have had to rely on their knowledge of the snow to survive. Now Matthew Sturm has prepared an educational children’s book designed to teach a new generation of Arctic residents the importance of Arctic snow cover. Fully illustrated to demonstrate the cycle of the snow cover, Apun covers each phase of the “snow year.” Geared towards grades 3–4, this is a must read for elementary science classes.

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front cover of Apun
Apun
The Arctic Snow (A Teacher's Guide)
Matthew Sturm
University of Alaska Press, 2009

There are some twenty-five words for “snow” in the Inupiaq language. Each word denotes a different kind of snow—fresh powder snow, hard pack, soft snow, very wet snow, or just snow. Such fine distinction is reasonable, for over the centuries, Natives of the Arctic have had to rely on their knowledge of the snow to survive. Now Matthew Sturm has prepared an educational children’s book designed to teach a new generation of Arctic residents the importance of Arctic snow cover. Fully illustrated to demonstrate the cycle of the snow cover, Apun covers each phase of the “snow year.” Geared towards grades 3–4, this is a must read for elementary science classes.

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front cover of A Field Guide to Snow
A Field Guide to Snow
Matthew Sturm
University of Alaska Press, 2020
People love snow. They love to ski and sled on it, snowshoe through it, and watch it fall from the sky. They love the way it blankets a landscape, making it look tranquil and beautiful. Few people, however, know how snow works. What makes it possible for us to slip and slide over, whether that’s falling on sidewalks or skiing down a mountain? What makes it cling to branches and street signs? What qualities of snow lead to avalanches?

In A Field Guide to Snow, veteran snow scientist Matthew Sturm answers those questions and more. Drawing on decades of study, he explains in clear and simple ways how and why snow works the way it does. The perfect companion a ski trip or a hike in the snowy woods, A Field Guide to Snow will give you a new appreciation for the science behind snow’s beauty.
 
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front cover of Finding the Arctic
Finding the Arctic
History and Culture Along a 2,500-Mile Snowmobile Journey from Alaska to Hudson’s Bay
Matthew Sturm
University of Alaska Press, 2012
The history of the Arctic is rich, filled with fascinating and heroic stories of exploration, multicultural interactions, and humans facing nature at its most extreme. In Finding the Arctic, the accomplished arctic researcher Matthew Sturm collects some of the most memorable and moving of these stories and weaves them around his own story of a 2,500-mile snowmobile expedition across arctic Alaska and Canada.
During that trip, Sturm and six companions followed a circuitous route that brought them to many of the most historic spots in the North. They stood in the footsteps of their predecessors, experienced the landscape and the weather, and gained an intimate perspective on notable historical events, all chronicled here by Sturm. Written with humor and pathos, Finding the Arctic is a classic tale of adventure travel. And throughout the book,Sturm, with his thirty-eight years of experience in the North, emerges as an excellent guide for any who wish to understand the Arctic of today and yesterday.   
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