Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment

The essays and poems collected in Crosscurrents North offer thoughtful meditations on the Alaska environment and the relationship between humans and nature. By distinguished writers such as John Haines, Nick Jans, Marjorie Kowalski Cole, Sherry Simpson, and Bill Sherwonit, these sixty-one compelling pieces celebrate the wildness and wonder of nature as well as the human impact on it. The writers tackle weighty topics such as the changing Alaska...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1602230226
• ISBN13: 9781602230224
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: University of Alaska Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

literary, smart Alaskans speak out with a different take

This is a brilliant collection that has been too long in coming, and offers non-Alaskans an important counterpoint to prominent voices coming out of there recently that made world news and gave an impression that shamed me as an Alaskan. The preface and introduction tell it all: Alaskans exist (Alaskans with brains and sophistication and literary skill) who care urgently about the environment and don't want to plunder it, despoil it or pave it like everywhere else. Some of these writers are treehuggers and some have guns and kill and eat animals, some are men and some women, some poets and some essayists, some have lived in Alaska ten years and came from large cities while others are indigenous or were born in Alaska to "Outsider" parents, and they all still care, they still feel a profound spiritual connection and want to preserve the Great Land and its nonhuman life. And they articulate so well. Bravo to the writers and to the editors and publisher! ~ Lesley Thomas, author of arctic novel Flight of the Goose

A beautiful tribute to the wonderful wilderness of Alaska

The largest state in the country, Alaska's natural state has more to offer than its stereotypical tundra. "Crosscurrents North: Alaskans of the Environment" is a large collection of essays and poems based on the natural beauty that Alaska brings to the table with its large wilderness and massive assortment of wild animals that provoke much inspiration into its writers. With a foreword by late former governor Jay Hammond, "Crosscurrents North" is a beautiful tribute to the wonderful wilderness of Alaska.