University of Chicago Press: New Titles from 'University of Alaska Press'

Black Wolf of the Glacier

Deb Vanasse; Nancy Slagle — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

In 2003, Alaskans fell for a lolloping, dog-friendly wolf they named Romeo. Left without a pack, this lone wolf found a new family among Juneau’s domestic dogs and their owners, who became enamored with his striking looks and friendly demeanor. For years he remained a constant companion to residents of Juneau and their dogs, becoming a familiar and sociable presence in their lives. While his unusual tale had a tragic end, his legacy of respect and trust lives on.

Black Wolf of the Glacier tells the story of this beloved legend through the eyes of Shawna, whose dog becomes best friends with Romeo. While initially afraid, Shawna ultimately learns to love the benevolent wolf. When Romeo goes missing, Shawna begins a determined search to find him, bringing readers along for the adventure.

Deb Vanasse’s heartfelt prose and Nancy Slagle’s charming illustrations will delight Romeo’s many fans and capture the hearts of readers new to the story. Black Wolf of the Glacier beautifully captures the soul of Romeo’s story and celebrates the bonds we still form with our wild world.

City Beneath the Snow

Marjorie Kowalski Cole — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

The final collection of stories by award-winning writer Marjorie Kowalski Cole, The City Beneath the Snow is a portrait of contemporary Alaskans, their interactions, and their foibles. These stories reveal the moral decisions that lurk at unexpected corners in daily life as the characters confront a world at once magical and ordinary, joy-filled and tragic. Together, they give the reader an intimate portrait of a people and place more often portrayed through wilderness specials and reality adventure shows.

Oil and Water

Mei Mei Evans — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

What happens when the American dream collides head-on with a nation’s dependence on fossil fuels? Oil and Water, a novel by Mei Mei Evans, focuses on precisely this question. Starting with a star-crossed supertanker, a wayward fishing boat, and a well-known hazard in the Gulf of Alaska, the story presents a region plunged into an oil-slicked crisis. As thousands of miles of shoreline and sea are obliterated, the spill threatens the lives and livelihoods of the coastal community of Selby.

At the center of the disaster are Gregg, a down-on-his-luck skipper, and Lee, his lone deckhand. As they cross paths with the tanker and later the residents of Selby, they are faced with decisions that will have a lasting impact on the entire community. And when the residents are presented with a controversial deal—accept handouts in the form of work from the very company responsible for the disaster—they must learn just how important it is to find strength in the connections that bind humans to each other and the natural world.

Evans’s compelling story, influenced by her own experiences during the Exxon Valdez oil spill, is a provocative look at the choice that must be made between environmental safety and economic survival. A PEN/Bellwether Prize finalist, it will have readers reconsidering where they draw their own lines.

Gaining Daylight

Sara Loewen — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

For many the idea of living off the land is a romantic notion left to stories of olden days or wistful dreams at the office. But for Sara Loewen it becomes her way of life each summer as her family settles into their remote cabin on Uyak Bay for the height of salmon season. With this connection to thousands of years of fishing and gathering at its core, Gaining Daylight explores what it means to balance lives on two islands, living within both an ancient way of life and the modern world. Her personal essays integrate natural and island history with her experiences of fishing and family life, as well as the challenges of living at the northern edge of the Pacific.

Loewen’s writing is richly descriptive; readers can almost feel heat from wood stoves, smell smoking salmon, and spot the ways the ocean blues change with the season. With honesty and humor, Loewen easily draws readers into her world, sharing the rewards of subsistence living and the peace brought by miles of crisp solitude.

Upriver

Carolyn Kremers — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

There is a triumphant and satisfying feeling the first time one returns to a once-unfamiliar place and finally feels like it is home. When strangeness is shed and familiar patterns emerge, there is a deep sense of comfort that is the reward for those who venture into new places. When Carolyn Kremers moved alone to Alaska to teach in Tununak, a village on the Bering Sea, she faced the challenge of making a place for herself in the remote coastal town. Struck by both a sense of adventure and a painful longing for the familiar, she was forced to confront what it really meant to feel at home.

Upriver picks up on the story where Kremers’s previous book, Place of the Pretend People, left off, further exploring what it means to truly love a place and how it feels to return, like a salmon swimming upriver. Setting her story in four distinct locations—Tununak, the Alaska Interior, the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta, and Fairbanks—Kremers uses poetry, music, Yup’ik language, and much more to tell her story. Infused with a sense of spirituality, the book will resonate with anyone who has found a new home beyond the familiar.