Alaska Story Project

Brad Matsen has been fascinated and writing about water and the ocean for over forty years. He is the author of, "Death and Oil: A True Story of the Piper Alpha Disaster on the North Sea"; "Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King"; "Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss", a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2006; the New York Times bestseller, "Titanic's Last Secrets"; "

This podcast features the work of author, editor, and teacher, and FisherPoet, Lara Messersmith-Glavin. In each essay from her recently published book, "Spirit Things", Lara holds an object or detail from her early life aboard the family's Kodiak seiner and then takes us beyond into realms of history, science and story. In the Introduction to "Spirit Things", Lara writes, 'When we

Bruce Rettig recently published Refraction, An Arctic Memoir. Refraction is a Pushcart prize nominee, and has received recognition and multiple awards including an award for non-fiction with the San Francisco Writing Contest, an International Chanticleer Book Award and a Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Award. Bruce also writes literary short stories, creative non-fic

Brendan Jones lives in Sitka, Alaska with his wife, three daughters, six chickens, and one dog. He first came to Sitka as a young man to land what work he could find. Soon he was writing for the Sitka Sentinel, and has gone on to write for a range of publications including The New York Times, the Smithsonian, GQ, Washington Post, Patagonia and others. He has recently won the 2022 G

Dan hosts John and Becca Wolfe, co-authors of Alaska Adventure, 55 Ways, Southcentral Wilderness Explorations, published this summer by Mountaineers Books, Seattle, Washington.This 50th anniversary edition of 55 Ways, first written by Helen Nienhueser, represents three generations of wilderness exploring and collaborative writing. Helen writes in the Forward: “It gives me great p

Award winning author of several books, including The Only Kayak and Jimmy Bluefeather, Kim Heacox is also an opinion piece writer for The Guardian US. He’s published some 18 pieces—10 in the last year with The Guardian. Kim: “My Guardian pieces are framed within my credo of activist writing, that it’s not only my right but my responsibility to challenge power & the prev

Award-winning author and naturalist Hank Lentfer returns to the Alaska Story Project with an audio piece, “10 Sounds That Make You Feel More Alive”.Hank reads from his book, Ravens Witness, the Alaska life of Richard K. Nelson, a passage from his earliest memories living with the Iñupiaq in the Arctic. “We yearn to pull together with neighbors and celebrate our collective su

Ray Troll's Ichthyomuse, Art and Rock & RollFormative years, early influencesArt as Ray’s childhood superpowerKansas to Seattle, art scene, grad school, up to KetchikanKetchikan, art scene, native culture, studio above a fish plantObsessing, drawing and painting fish; First T-shirt project, “Let’s spawn”Growing his T-shirt empire; “Spawn ’til you Die”; “Humpies

A thought and theme from Wendell Berry, “coming into the peace of wild things.”A story from the Alaskan cabin with an astonishing encounter with a large, magnificent buck.Reading liner notes from a collaborative DVD project with Kurt Hoelting, ASP podcast #5.“Wildness is a process and not a place. Nothing stands alone. The environment is inside as well as outside. The human m

Jonathan White is a writer, surfer, sailor and educator. His work has been published in Orion, The Sun, Fine Homebuilding, and Natural History. His first book, Talking on the Water, (Sierra Club, 1993), explores creativity and the natural world. It grew out of "Seminars Afloat" with writers Gretel Ehrlich, Ursula Le Guin, and Peter Matthiessen, along with other visionaries, activis