Alaska Sampler 2015

In Sampler tradition, this 2015 volume showcases the “best of the best” of Alaska-inspired prose, beginning with author Heather Lende, who proves that life in the small town of Haines, Alaska, is anything but ordinary. In an excerpt from her popular memoir If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, a brush with death is a reminder of the choices, large and small, that inform our existence.

Where Lende’s account of danger on ice leaves off, authors Deb Vanasse and David Marusek take over. In an outtake from her novel Cold Spell, Vanasse probes the tensions inherent in marriage, friendship, and faith against the backdrop of an Alaska glacier. In an excerpt from his forthcoming novel Upon This Rock, Marusek’s fictional glacier is a hotbed in every sense. Charged with overseeing the national park next to the quirky town of McHardy, Alaska, ranger Casey Minder entertains the fantasy of seducing a French tourist atop the ice. But Papa Prophecy and his strange brood interfere with Minder’s amorous intentions—and then there’s the little problem of a strange object that descends from the night sky.

Three Sampler authors probe the Alaska Native experience. In a powerful testimony to strength and the will to overcome, an excerpt from the memoir of Inupiaq author John Tetpon shows the devastating effects of colonial attitudes on Alaska’s Native peoples. At school in the 1940s, Tetpon is punished for speaking his own language; at Nome in the 1950s, he is abused and denied entry into restaurants; in Anchorage in the 1960s, he is expelled for holding hands with a girl.

On the beach of Wrangell, Alaska, petroglyphs preserve the stories of Charlie Johns’ Tlingit ancestors. In an excerpt from Vivian Faith Prescott’s forthcoming novel, tourists and government regulations confound Charlie’s best efforts to protect the petroglyphs until finally, as a big storm brews, he resorts to drastic measures. And when a bad man kills the husband of a self-reliant Yup’ik woman in a tale by Jerry McDonnell, the wrong must be righted. With accusations as foreign to Anita as the fixed-winged objects have begun to appear in the Alaska skies, the kass’aqs pursue her for murder.

In Alaska, lots of things can kill you. Even the rain, with a fawn bleating for its downed mother, and a love triangle gone wrong in C.B. Bernard’s story set in Sitka. At fifty-seven below in Fairbanks, Alaska, an excerpt from Gerri Brightwell’s The Dead of Winter exposes another lethel combination: a life-worn cabbie, an unwanted guest, and a phone that won’t quit ringing.

Once winter sets in, there’s no road access to Eagle, Alaska, where in biographical sketches by Louise Freeman-Toole, two old-timers live—and die—on their own terms. In a parallel nod to life, liberty, and the unexpected ways a community shows its love, Jeremy Pataky writes of Independence Day, a big deal in small town Alaska, where a man’s shots from his truck are understood and accepted.

Humor lightens Richard Chiappone’s story of eighteen-year-old Chaz, who knows he has to get out of Alaska. The prospect of shocking his uber-cool parents adds satisfaction to his impulsive decision, until his beloved sister returns unannounced, with a secret. In companion nod to the tragi-comic, screenwriter David Hunsaker rewinds to 1972, when he and the fellow Vietnam vet he calls “Nick Adams with an Afro” join the spit rats along the iconic waterfront of Homer, Alaska, where making sense of the world happens one relationship at a time.

In fiction and fact, in bold strokes and finely wrought details, this is Alaska by those who know it best, a gift to you from Alaska’s uniquely author-curated co-op, Running Fox Books.

What readers are saying about the Alaska Sampler:

“One of the best trips I ever took was to Alaska. This book is a chance to visit again, with a variety of fascinating viewpoints, and without even packing a suitcase! Led to it by one favorite author, walking away with several new favorites.”

“Laughter and tears brought to you by my most beloved state. Thanks to the multitalented for sharing. A real treat.”

“Loved this sampler. Left me wanting to read more.”

“Seeing Alaska from several different viewpoints, and each written in a different style, this is a delightful read.”