Oops! Somehow the year got away from me, and now it’s December 1 and I haven’t posted an update here since 2016… So, without further ado, here’s everything I wrote this year.
Back in January, The Walrus published the last in my series of short dispatches from Nunavut: Running the Road to Nowhere. Sticking with the northern theme, in February I wrote a quick hit for Hakai about a new study of Arctic shipping patterns, and for Pacific Standard I interviewed Alethea Arnaquq-Baril about her excellent and important documentary, Angry Inuk. I also wrote a short, fun dispatch for Up Here about life on Arctic Internet Time.
In late winter I had a traffic jam of features coming out all in a row. For Longreads, I profiled an elite birder and explored our need to classify and categorize the world around us: Bird Man. For Esquire, I attempted to cure my fear of heights by learning to rock climb: Exposure Therapy and the Fine Art of Scaring the Shit Out of Yourself On Purpose. For Seattle Met, I looked back at the aftermath of the Tunnel Creek avalanche (of “Snow Fall” fame) five years later: After the Fall. And for Outside, I wrote about a wild endurance climbing competition in the Ozarks: Headbangers Wall.
I also reviewed Dan Egan’s new book, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, for the Globe and Mail. (You should read it, it’s great!) And I really enjoyed writing this short dispatch for Pacific Standard about a communal sunset in Arches National Park.
In the summer, Up Here published my short profile of a woman who built an Arctic archive on Baffin Island: The Accidental Archivist. Outside dispatched me to the Kenai Peninsula to cover another extremely rugged event: Mount Marathon is the Toughest 5K on the Planet. And Amazon published my Kindle Single about a disastrous 1928 Arctic airship expedition – it’s available for purchase for just a couple of bucks, and I’d be thrilled if you checked it out: Mussolini’s Arctic Airship. (That’s the U.S. Amazon site. And here’s the link for Canadians.)
That’s it! Roughly 38,000 words, less than half my usual output in the last few years, but my goal has been to get to a place where I can write less and still pay the bills. (I’ve got a few things slated to come out in January that I’ve already written as well. Stay tuned.)
Still a month to go, but happy almost-New Year!
