Alaska is rich in natural resources, and its deep pool of talented storytellers is no less an important one. From above the Arctic Circle to the Southeast Panhandle, in a variety of forms, they detail Alaska's rich history, from Alaska Natives' forced enrollment in boarding schools to the fight to hold on to traditional ways; the journey to statehood and Alaska's fierce independence; and the inherent beauty and danger that have drawn people to Alaska for centuries. Here is a collection of fiction, nonfiction and poetry for children and adults alike.
Benchmarks: New and Selected Poems 1963 – 2013
Richard Dauenhauer, University of Alaska Press (2013)
Richard Dauenhauer, along with his wife Nora, was one of Alaska's most influential scholars on Tlingit language and culture. He was also a prolific poet—he served as Alaska's poet laureate in the early 1980s—and Benchmarks presents new and selected poems that span his 50-year career. Published a year before Dauenhauer's death in 2014 from cancer, the poems play with style—from the recognizable stanza and haiku to long-form, diary like poems—and theme, focusing on Alaska's people and places, as well as scenes from his life.
Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir
Ernestine Hayes, The University of Arizona Press (2006)
Part Tlingit, part white, raised by her mother, grandmother and aunt, Ernestine Hayes straddled two worlds growing up in Juneau, never feeling as though she fit into either. Though she spent part of her young adult and adult years in Washington and California, Hayes always returned to Juneau. Traditional Tlingit lore about her people's connection to the land are weaved throughout this beautiful and simply written memoir as Hayes explores the idea of home and what it means to belong.
To Russia with Love: An Alaskan's Journey
Victor Fischer (with Charles Wohlforth), University of Alaska Press (2012)
City planner. Constitutional delegate. State senator. Vic Fischer is one of the architects of modern Alaska, and in To Russia with Love, he and Wohlforth take readers on a journey through Alaska's formative years. The book also recounts Fischer's remarkable childhood—born in Germany, he spent his childhood in Moscow and Berlin during the rise of Stalin and Hitler, and escaped to America with his mother and brother in 1939. His personal history helped form the humanistic beliefs that guided him and ultimately shaped Alaska. Historical documents—Fischer had access to his writer-parents' letters and autobiographies—add substance to the book, which reads like a talk between friends over drinks.
Lucy's Dance
Deb Vanasse, Illustrations by Nancy E. Slagle, University of Alaska Press (2011)
Deb Vanasse has written numerous children's and young adult books, but Lucy's Dance is my and my six-year-old daughter's favorite. It recounts how traditional Native drumming and dancing was almost lost after white missionaries came to Alaska, and chronicles Lucy's attempt to rekindle the traditional dance festival in order to erase the sadness in her grandfather's eyes. Its straightforward storytelling introduces young children to the injustices Alaska Natives faced by those who didn't understand their ways, and paves the way for discussions on the importance of respecting other cultures, and that different doesn't always mean bad.
50 Miles from Tomorrow
William L. I??ia?ruk Hensley, Sarah Crichton Books (2009)
For all the benefits statehood brought Alaska, it also jeopardized the traditional Native way of life, threatening to limit access to lands the people had lived and hunted on for centuries. In 50 Miles from Tomorrow, Inupiaq former Alaska state legislator William L. I??ia?ruk Hensley, who helped establish the Alaska Federation of Natives, summons "the gift all Inupiat have within them—the art of storytelling." He recounts his childhood in Kotzebue and his involvement in the fight to pass the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which set aside 44 million acres of land and nearly $1 billion for Alaska Natives.
The Accidental Explorer: Wayfinding in Alaska
Sherry Simpson, Sasquatch Books (2008)
"I never became the sort of Alaskan who flies planes, kills wild animals ... or treks through the backcountry as if it were no more troublesome than driving to the local 7-Eleven," Sherry Simpson writes. But with a deep desire to discover her place in the land she's called home since childhood, Simpson became an adventurer nonetheless, kayaking, rafting and hiking her way around the state. Peppered with stories of early explorers who sought to unlock Alaska's secrets, Simpson's vivid depictions paint a picture of Alaska's beauty and peril that will transport those who have visited the places she describes back in time, and may just be enough to inspire those who haven't explored to set off on their own adventure.
My Name is Not Easy
Debby Dahl Edwardson, Marshall Cavendish (2011)
A 2011 nominee for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, My Name is Not Easy, by Barrow author Debby Dahl Edwardson, is a story about a 1960s Catholic boarding school and the Alaska Native children sent there to receive an education. Told from the viewpoint of five of those students, this work of historical fiction examines the injustice these children faced being taken from their home, their ability to form a family with those they were forced to live with, and the impact it had on their lives and, ultimately, the future of Alaska's Native people.
Amy Newman is a freelance writer living in Anchorage. When she can't explore Alaska, she enjoys reading about its people and places in books.
This article appeared in the Winter 2015 issue of 61°North. Contact 61°North editor Jamie Gonzales at jgonzales@alaskadispatch.com.