Building Fires in the Snow
368 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:15 Sep 2016
ISBN:9781602233010
Building Fires in the Snow
A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry
Edited by Martha Amore and Lucian Childs
University of Alaska Press
Diversity has always been central to Alaska identity, as the state’s population consists of people with many different backgrounds, viewpoints, and life experiences. This book opens a window into these diverse lives, gathering stories and poems about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer life into a brilliant, path-breaking anthology.
In these pages we see the panoply of LGBTQ life in Alaska today, from the quotidian urban adventures of a family—shopping, going out, working—to intimate encounters with Alaska’s breathtaking natural beauty. At a time of great change and major strides in LGBTQ civil rights, Building Fires in the Snow shows us an Alaska that shatters stereotypes and reveals a side of Alaska that’s been little seen until now.
In these pages we see the panoply of LGBTQ life in Alaska today, from the quotidian urban adventures of a family—shopping, going out, working—to intimate encounters with Alaska’s breathtaking natural beauty. At a time of great change and major strides in LGBTQ civil rights, Building Fires in the Snow shows us an Alaska that shatters stereotypes and reveals a side of Alaska that’s been little seen until now.
Though it may seem that there is an anthology for everything these days, Building Fires in the Snow is truly unique: a collection of short fiction and poetry by LGBTQ Alaskans. However, to recognize this book for its novelty alone would be to sell it short. The real pleasure of this engaging anthology is in its depiction of the gay experience out of the typical milieu, showing the rich diversity of gay life throughout the world. . . . A beautiful reminder that there is more to the LBTQ world than can ever be dreamed of in white New York alone.'
Fits perfectly in alongside nature-exploration memoirs and gold rush histories. . . . Yet, Building Fires is also designed to critique and challenge some of the sub-market’s worst clichés, from its obsession with the (straight) man versus wild conflict to the artificial rural vs. urban dichotomy to the sheer existence of LGBTQ individuals that is so often ignored or outright denied. That it does all this in a collection of fiction is likewise a breath of fresh air in a non-fiction dominated market.
Memorable and affecting.
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.
Jerah Chadwick
Winter Country
Introduction
Rosemary McGuire
Luke
Elizabeth Bradfield
Eight Years
Legacy
Roughnecks and Rakes One and All, the Poet Speaks to Her Subjects, Polar Explorers
Correcting the Landscape
Creation Myth: Periosteum and Self
Remodeling
Concerning the Proper Term for a Whale Exhaling
We All Want to See a Mammal
August, McCarthy, Alaska
Martha Amore
Geology
Susanna J. Mishler
Anniversary at the Evening Cafe
Poem That Begins in Address to Nikola Tesla and Ends Up Offshore
Hemispheres
Tired, I Lie Down in the Parking Garage
Eve of the Apocalypse
Lucian Childs
The Go-Between
Black Spruce
Amber Flora Thomas
Marlboros at Dusk
Aubade
A Woman’s Jewelry
Hotel Reverie
Lake Shore Deer
Come in from the Sky
In the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Era of a Happy Heart
Here
Alyse Knorr
Fact-Checking
Anchorage Epithalamium
Moose are over-running the park and this makes me think of love
The Object Towards Which the Action of the Sea Is Directed
The Sleeping Lady
Conservation & Rehabilitation
Teresa Sundmark
Worse Disasters
Trespass
Indra Arriaga
Fragments
Pedazos
In the Bay
En la Bahía
There was a time, she said
Hubo un tiempo, ella dijo
19 Crescent
19 Crescent
Egan Millard
Mondegreen
Agni
Koimesis
Vacation
Zack Rogow
The Voice of Art Nouveau
M. C. Mohagani Magnetek
Creep
Shhhh-Be-Quiet
Shelby Wilson
Misread Signs
Fireweed
Leslie Kimiko Ward
Nest
Amy Groshek
What Goes Around Comes Over
The capacity for true love expires at age 25
Rubia Writes a Poem About Light for a Contest
Dinner at Her Place
Pearly Everlasting
Gabrielle Barnett
Mountain Man
Teeka A. Ballas
Carrots, Peas: in D minor
Cupid’s Arrow
Sandy Gillespie
The Trees Tell the Story
Morgan Grey
Breakers
Laura Carpenter
Mirror, Mirror
Kate Partridge
Model
Earthquake Park
M 4.0, 21 km S of Knik-Fairview
Dawnell Smith
What Would Derby Do?
Vivian Faith Prescott
The Minister’s Wife
Tales in Fairyland
Can I touch your Chinese Hair?
Before the World of Men and Boys, There Was the Land of Girls
Jerah Chadwick
Cold Comforts
Legacy
Returnings
Lesson of Bread
A Sense of Direction
Stove
The Life to come
Mei Mei Evans
Going Too Far
Works Consulted
Winter Country
Introduction
Rosemary McGuire
Luke
Elizabeth Bradfield
Eight Years
Legacy
Roughnecks and Rakes One and All, the Poet Speaks to Her Subjects, Polar Explorers
Correcting the Landscape
Creation Myth: Periosteum and Self
Remodeling
Concerning the Proper Term for a Whale Exhaling
We All Want to See a Mammal
August, McCarthy, Alaska
Martha Amore
Geology
Susanna J. Mishler
Anniversary at the Evening Cafe
Poem That Begins in Address to Nikola Tesla and Ends Up Offshore
Hemispheres
Tired, I Lie Down in the Parking Garage
Eve of the Apocalypse
Lucian Childs
The Go-Between
Black Spruce
Amber Flora Thomas
Marlboros at Dusk
Aubade
A Woman’s Jewelry
Hotel Reverie
Lake Shore Deer
Come in from the Sky
In the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Era of a Happy Heart
Here
Alyse Knorr
Fact-Checking
Anchorage Epithalamium
Moose are over-running the park and this makes me think of love
The Object Towards Which the Action of the Sea Is Directed
The Sleeping Lady
Conservation & Rehabilitation
Teresa Sundmark
Worse Disasters
Trespass
Indra Arriaga
Fragments
Pedazos
In the Bay
En la Bahía
There was a time, she said
Hubo un tiempo, ella dijo
19 Crescent
19 Crescent
Egan Millard
Mondegreen
Agni
Koimesis
Vacation
Zack Rogow
The Voice of Art Nouveau
M. C. Mohagani Magnetek
Creep
Shhhh-Be-Quiet
Shelby Wilson
Misread Signs
Fireweed
Leslie Kimiko Ward
Nest
Amy Groshek
What Goes Around Comes Over
The capacity for true love expires at age 25
Rubia Writes a Poem About Light for a Contest
Dinner at Her Place
Pearly Everlasting
Gabrielle Barnett
Mountain Man
Teeka A. Ballas
Carrots, Peas: in D minor
Cupid’s Arrow
Sandy Gillespie
The Trees Tell the Story
Morgan Grey
Breakers
Laura Carpenter
Mirror, Mirror
Kate Partridge
Model
Earthquake Park
M 4.0, 21 km S of Knik-Fairview
Dawnell Smith
What Would Derby Do?
Vivian Faith Prescott
The Minister’s Wife
Tales in Fairyland
Can I touch your Chinese Hair?
Before the World of Men and Boys, There Was the Land of Girls
Jerah Chadwick
Cold Comforts
Legacy
Returnings
Lesson of Bread
A Sense of Direction
Stove
The Life to come
Mei Mei Evans
Going Too Far
Works Consulted
