Academic Presses – Alaska Books and Calendars

Attu Boy

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:16 +0000

In the quiet of morning, exactly six months after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese touched down on American soil. Landing on the remote Alaska island of Attu, they assailed an entire village, holding the Alaskan villagers for two months and eventually corralling all survivors into a freighter bound for Japan. One of those survivors, Nick Golodoff, became a prisoner of war at just six years old. He was among the dozens of Unangan Attu residents swept away to Hokkaido, and one of only twenty- five to survive. Attu Boy tells Golodoff’s story of these harrowing years as he found both friendship and cruelty at the hands of the Japanese. It offers a rare look at the lives of civilian prisoners and their captors in WWII-era Japan. It also tells of Golodoff’s bittersweet return to a homeland torn apart by occupation and forced internments. Interwoven with other voices from Attu, this richly illustrated memoir is a testament to the struggles, triumphs, and heartbreak of lives disrupted by war.Except for his imprisonment in Japan, Nick Golodoff (1935–2013) lived his life in the Aleutian Islands. Rachel Mason is a cultural anthropologist for the National Park Service in Anchorage, Alaska.

Entangled: People and Ecological Change in Alaska’s Kachem

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:15 +0000

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.Marilyn Sigman is a specialist in marine education and wildlife management who taught and served as a naturalist guide for more than a decade in Kachemak Bay.

Captain Cook’s Final Voyage: The Untold Story

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:15 +0000

Maritime historian James K. Barnett discovered extraordinary journals and paintings of Captain James Cook’s demanding final voyage languishing in Australian archives. Expedition artist John Webber and two young officers “Discovery” first lieutenant James Burney, and “Resolution” Master’s Mate Henry Roberts–offer remarkable eyewitness accounts of initial European contact, the first reasonably accurate maps of North America’s west coast, the earliest comprehensive report from the Bering Sea ice pack, and portrayals of the celebrated mariner’s dramatic death at Kealakekua Bay. Particularly astonishing for depictions of landings along Hawaii, Vancouver Island, and Alaska, Barnett adds context and commentary to complete the story.

Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:09 +0000

From fish and fiddleheads to salmonberries and Spam, Alaskan cuisine spans the two extremes of locally abundant wild foods and shelf-stable ingredients produced thousands of miles away. As immigration shapes Anchorage into one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country, Alaska’s changing food culture continues to reflect the tension between self-reliance and longing for distant places or faraway homes. Alaska Native communities express their cultural resilience in gathering, processing, and sharing wild food; these seasonal food practices resonate with all Alaskans who come together to fish and stock their refrigerators in preparation for the long winter. In warm home kitchens and remote cafés, Alaskan food brings people together, creating community and excitement in canning salmon, slicing muktuk, and savoring fresh berry pies.This collection features interviews, photographs, and recipes by James Beard Award-winning journalist and third-generation Alaskan Julia O’Malley. Touching on issues of subsistence, climate change, cultural mixing and remixing, innovation, interdependence, and community, The Whale and the Cupcake reveals how Alaskans connect with the land and each other through food.Julia O’Malley is an Anchorage-based food journalist, writing teacher, and editor-at-large at the Anchorage Daily News, for which she writes recipes and a regular Alaska food newsletter. She was the Atwood Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage from 2015 to 2017 and now teaches writing workshops around the state. She has written about food, climate, and culture for the Guardian, Eater, National Geographic, High Country News, and the New York Times, among other publications. She won a 2018 James Beard Award in the foodways category.

Kennecott Story: Three Mines, Four Men , and One Hundred Yea

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:09 +0000

“While copper may seem less glamorous than gold, it may be far more important. Copper proved vital to the industrial revolution and indispensable for the electrification of America. Kennecott Copper Corporation, at one time the largest producer of copper in the world, thus played a key role in our economic and industrial development. This book recounts how Kennecott was formed from the merger of three mining operations (one in Alaska, one in Utah, and one in Chile), how it led the way in mining technologies, and how it was affected by the economy and politics of the day. As it traces the story of the three mines, the narrative follows four mining engineersmen whose technological ingenuity was responsible for much of Kennecott’s success. Accounts of the Guggenheimsunder whom the mines were unitedand other investors are also woven into the text. Without their funding, the infrastructure necessary for the mining operations may not have been built. (The railroad required for the Alaska mine alone cost more than three times what the United States had paid to buy all of Alaska only forty-five years prior.) As a geologist with first-hand knowledge of mining, author Charles Hawley aptly describes the technological workings in a way that both geologists and the general reader will appreciate. Through engaging stories and pertinent details, he places Kennecott and the copper industry within their historical context and also allows the reader to consider the controversial aspects of mineral discovery and sustainability in a crowded world where resources are limited. “

Among Wolves: Gordon Haber’s Insights

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:08 +0000

Gordon Haber died when his research plane crashed in Denali National Park, and with his passing Alaska’s wolves lost their fiercest advocate. Passionate, tenacious, and occasionally brash, Haber devoted his life to Denali’s wolves. His writings and photographs reveal an astonishing degree of cooperation between wolf family members as they hunt, raise pups, and play. These social behaviors and traditions were previously unknown to the world, and the wolves were at risk of being destroyed by hunting and trapping. His studies of wolf families advocated for a balanced approach to wolf management, and his fieldwork registered as one of the longest studies in wildlife science, with a lasting impact on wolf policies. Haber’s field notes, his extensive journals, and stories from friends all come together in Among Wolves to reveal much about both the wolves he studied and about the researcher himself. Wolves continue to fascinate and polarize people, and so Haber’s work will continue to resonate. In this striking full-color tribute, Adams entices us to reconsider our ideas of this unique and compelling land and its equally individual residents. He captures subjects on urban streets and rural villages, revealing what daily life in Alaska is really like. The portraits focus on moments both ordinary and extraordinary, serious and playful, while capturing Alaskans at their most natural. Subjects range from Alaska Native villagers to rarely seen portraits of famous Alaskans, including Sarah Palin, Vic Fischer, and Lance Mackey. Through photographs, Adams also explores his own half-Iñupiat, half-American Alaska identity in the process, revealing how he came to define himself and the state in which he lives. Frame by frame, Adams powerfully and honestly shows what it means to be an Alaskan.

Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:06 +0000

In her first book, Blonde Indian, Ernestine Hayes powerfully recounted the story of coming back to Juneau and to her Tlingit home after many years of wandering. The Tao of Raven takes up the next and in some ways more interesting question: once the exile returns, then what? Using motifs from the story Raven and the Box of Daylight to deepen her narration and reflection, Hayes expresses an ongoing frustration and anger at the obstacles and prejudices still facing Alaska Natives in their own land, but also recounts her own story of attending and completing college in her fifties and becoming a professor and a writer. Now seventy years old and thinking very much of the generations who will come after her, Hayes speaks for herself but also has powerful things to say about the possibilities and complications of her Native community.Ernestine Hayes is assistant professor of English at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Yup’ik Words of Wisdom: Yupit Qanruyutait

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:06 +0000

This bilingual volume focuses on the teachings, experiences, and practical wisdom of expert Native orators as the instruct a younger generation about their place in the world.

Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska Lgbtq

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:04 +0000

The Great Land, the historical moniker of the state of Alaska, is a place of majestic beauty and vast wilderness teeming with wildlife where people still lead subsistence lifestyles. It is also a modern American state where its mainly urban citizenry busy themselves with trips to the supermarket, dinners with friends, and children s play dates. The stories and poems in “Building Fires in the Snow” offer a window into these diverse lives from the viewpoint of the state s dynamic Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning people. Rugged nature has long been thought to be the domain of white heterosexual men who pit themselves against it in order to prove their (hetero) manhood. The stories and poems in” Building Fires in the Snow” tell a different narrative, not of conquering, but of finding one s true identity through an intimacy with nature. While some works in the collection tell of wilderness survival, most relate day-to-day urban experiences lived in proximity with wild lands. Ours is a time of great change in the United States and Alaska regarding civil rights. These stories and poems capture what it is to live through such times from the heyday boom of the 1970s oil pipeline to the more recent decisions granting marriage equality and equal rights protections. Within the context of this social change, “Building Fires in the Snow” celebrates the diverse LGBTQ communities thriving in the cities and rural areas at the edge of Alaska s rugged wilderness.Martha Amore is a fiction writer who teaches writing at Alaska Pacific University and the University of Alaska Anchorage. Lucian Childs is a writer who divides his time between Anchorage and Toronto.

Alaska’s Greatest Outdoor Legends: Colorful Characters Who

itadmin — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 23:09:04 +0000

Outdoor tourism is one of Alaska s biggest industries, and the thousands of people who flock to the state s dramatic landscapes and pristine waters to hunt and fish are supported by a large and growing network of guides, lodges, outfitters, and wildlife biologists.This book honors two dozen of those remarkably colorful characters, past and present, people whose incredible skills were their calling cards, but whose larger-than-life personalities were what people remember after the trip is over. Taken together, these portraits offer a history of outdoor life in Alaska and celebrate its incredible natural beauty and the people who devote their lives to helping us enjoy it.Doug Kelly is the author of “Florida s Fishing Legends and Pioneers” and is field editor for “Florida Sportsman.”