The way winter comes

the long version

Winner of the 1997 Chinook Literary Prize, Sherry Simpson's debut collection of essays manifests an original and distinctive vision of Alaska and signals the arrival of an uncommonly accomplished new writer. Simpson is a true Alaskan who lives all of the adventures and traverses the wild places of her essays. Her subjects range from a sobering introduction to the ways of trapping in "Killing Wolves" to a meditation on the terror of disappearing into the Alaskan outback in "The Book of Being Lost". With a clear-eyed, unsentimental appreciation of the great northern place, this writer expresses a commanding view of Alaska.