Selection from “Confessions of a Tour Guide” by Chris Klein published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Chris Klein.
Selection from “Deep Inside the Wilderness” by Karen Jettmar published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Karen Jettmar.
Selection from “Doublestar (Why I Write)” by Dustin W. Leavitt published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Dustin W. Leavitt.
Selection from “The Great, Big, Broad Land Way Up Yonder” by Pat O’Hara published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Pat O’Hara.
Selection from Rex Allen Rock, Sr. excerpted from Growing Up Native in Alaska by Alexandra J. McClanahan. Copyright © 2000 by The CIRI Foundation. Reprinted by permission of the CIRI Foundation.
Selection from “The Hard Way Home” by Steve Kahn published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Steve Kahn.
Selection from Iditarod Classics: Tales of the Trail Told by the Men & Women Who Race Across Alaska by Lew Freedman reprinted by permission of Epicenter Press. Copyright © 1992 by Lew Freedman.
Selection from “Paddling Solo in the Fjords of the Far West Shore” by Jon Nickles published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Jon Nickles.
Selection from “Paris! Rome! Deadhorse!” by Robin Cerwonka published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Robin Cerwonka.
Selection from “Plowing the Driveway” by Dana Greci published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Dana Greci. Selection from “Reality Bites Back” by John Woodbury published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by John Woodbury.
Selection from “Steambath” by Tim Troll published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Tim. Troll.
Selection from “A Time Machine Called the Chilkoot Trail” by Dana Stabenow published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by Dana Stabenow.
Selection from “The Whale’s Gift” by James Dorsey published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2003 by James Dorsey.
About the Editors
Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Anchorage nature and travel writer Bill Sherwonit first visited Alaska in 1974 while employed as a geologist. After switching from geology to journalism during the late 1970s, he returned to Alaska in 1982 as a sports writer for The Anchorage Times. Sherwonit worked at the newspaper ten years, the last seven as its outdoors writer/editor.
Now a full-time freelancer, he’s contributed stories and photos to a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, journals, anthologies, and guidebooks. He’s the author of several books on Alaska: To the Top of Denali: Climbing Adventures on North America’s Highest Peak, Iditarod: The Great Race to Nome, Alaska’s Accessible Wilderness: A Traveler’s Guide to Alaska’s State Parks, Alaska Ascents, Alaska’s Bears, Denali: A Literary Anthology, Denali: The Complete Guide, and most recently, Wood-Tikchik: Alaska’s Largest State Park. Bill also teaches classes in wilderness writing and travel/adventure writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Sherwonit lives in the foothills of the Chugach Mountains with wife Dulcy Boehle and eighty-one year old mom, Torie Sherwonit, a recent transplant from Virginia. There he writes about the wildness to be found in Alaska’s urban center, as well as in the state’s backcountry wilderness.
Andromeda Romano-Lax drove to Alaska from her native Chicagoland in December 1994 with her husband Brian, baby son Aryeh, and dog. During the month-long trip, their car broke down seven times, they maxed out every credit card they owned, and they spent Christmas Eve with nothing to eat but frozen jalapeño peppers. They’ve been too afraid and too broke to risk driving the Alcan Highway again, and so Anchorage has remained their home. By air, they also travel to Mexico, where Romano-Lax and family (including a second child, daughter Tziporah) have paddled and sailed the Sea of Cortez, and Puerto Rico, where she studied the cello as research for a forthcoming novel. Romano-Lax is the author of five books, including four guidebooks to Alaska and Mexico, and a travel narrative, Searching for Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja’s Desert Coast. She teaches creative writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage and in children’s workshop settings.
Ellen Bielawski was born in Alaska and still prefers northern life to any other, although she has worked as an archaeologist in West Africa and trekked in Tibet. Her two sons have accompanied her from Ghana to Grise Fiord. They refuse to drive the Alaska Highway with her one more time. Her editing credits include scientific papers as well as essays. She is the author of Rogue Diamonds, an account of diamond miners and aboriginal people on Canada’s Barren Lands, and Life in Ancient Alaska, as well as numerous magazine articles.
Travelers' Tales Alaska Page 26