Three new books available from UA Press

May 4, 2012

The University of Alaska Press announced the publication of the three new books:

Finding the Arctic: History and Culture Along a 2,500-Mile Snowmobile Journey from Alaska to Hudson's Bay,

Mission of Change in Southwest Alaska: Conversations with Father Rene Astruc and Paul Dixon on Their Work with Yup'ik People, 1950 – 1988, and

Boots, Bikes, and Bombers: Adventures of Alaska Conservationist Ginny Hill Wood.

Finding the Arctic, by accomplished arctic researcher Matthew Sturm, is a classic tale of adventure travel written with humor and pathos.

The history of the Arctic is rich, filled with fascinating and heroic stories of exploration, multicultural interactions, and humans facing nature at its most extreme. Sturm collects some of the most memorable and moving of these stories and weaves them around his own story of a 2,500-mile snowmobile expedition across arctic Alaska and Canada. During that trip, Sturm and six companions followed a circuitous route that brought them to many of the most historic spots in the North. They stood in the footsteps of their predecessors, experienced the landscape and the weather, and gained an intimate perspective on notable historical events, all chronicled in the book by Sturm. Throughout the book, Sturm, with his thirty-eight years of experience in the North, emerges as an excellent guide for any who wish to understand the Arctic of today and yesterday.

Mission of Change is an oral history describing various types of change—political, social, cultural, and religious—as seen through the eyes of Father Astruc and Paul Dixon, non-Natives who dedicated their lives to working with the Yup’ik people. Their stories are framed by the author's analytic history of regional changes, together with current anthropological theory on the nature of cultural change and the formation of cultural identity. The book presents a subtle and emotionally moving account of the region and the roles of two men, both of whom view issues from a Catholic perspective, yet are closely attuned to and involved with changes in the Yup’ik community.

Ann Fienup-Riordan edited this book and is a cultural anthropologist who has lived and worked in Alaska since 1973. In 2000 she received the Alaska Federation of Natives President's Award for her work with Alaska Natives.

Boots, Bikes, and Bombers is an intimate biography of Ginny Hill Wood, a pioneering Alaska conservationist and outdoorswoman. Born in Washington in 1917, Wood served as a Women's Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) in World War II and flew a military surplus airplane to Alaska in 1946. Settling in Fairbanks, she went on to co-found Camp Denali, Alaska's first wilderness ecotourism lodge; helped start the Alaska Conservation Society, the state's first environmental organization; and applied her love of the outdoors to her work as a backcountry guide and an advocate for trail construction and preservation.

An innovative and collaborative life history, Boots, Bikes, and Bombers is a valuable contribution to the history of Alaska as well as a testament to the joys of living a life full of passion and adventure.

Karen Brewster, research associate with the Oral History Program at the Rasmuson Library, edited the book. She is also the editor of The Whales, They Give Themselves: Conversations with Harry Brower, Sr.

To order visit www.uapress.alaska.edu or call 888–252–6657.