I’m hitting the road tomorrow on a two-day drive to the Northwest Territories, where I’ll meet my guides and co-travelers for a seven-day guided trip on the Nahanni River. I can’t wait!
I’ll be without phone or email access until I get back on July 26th.
Posted in Updates | Tagged Canoeing, Nahanni National Park, Nahanni River, Northwest Territories, Paddling | Leave a Comment »
I had a hell of a time writing my Outside Online story, Before Cheryl Met Oprah: 5 Other Outdoor Adventure Memoirs by Women. When I pitched it, I’d had an idea of the books I wanted to include in the list, but I wanted to be sure I wasn’t overlooking anything crucial — and as I googled and cruised the library stacks and asked friends and colleagues for recommendations, the job got harder and harder. Turns out I was tapping into a seriously rich vein.
Here are some of the female-authored outdoor adventure books that didn’t wind up on the final Outside list, but which have definitely landed on my personal To-Read list:
Remember the fearless female ship captain who radio-bantered with George Clooney in “The Perfect Storm”? Greenlaw is her real-life inspiration, and her two books on life in the New England fishing industry have hauled in praise and sales.
Posted in Tangents | Tagged Books, Outside, Travel Books, Women | 4 Comments »
It’s been an exciting two weeks for Up Here Publishing! On June 7, my colleague Katherine Laidlaw won a silver National Magazine Award in the How-To category. And last night, at the Western Magazine Awards, Up Here won in two written categories – Business and Environmental – while Up Here Business art director Michael Ericsson won for Best Photograph, People and Portraiture.
Meantime, a few items from Up Here’s June issue are now online – I especially recommend this very sad story about an Inuit man who lived as an exhibit in a German zoo and kept a journal of his experience – and we’ve posted a handful of short pieces from the June Up Here Business to our UHB Tumblr, too.
Posted in Updates | Tagged National Magazine Awards, Up Here, Up Here Business, Western Magazine Awards | 3 Comments »
I flew home from Yellowknife to Whitehorse on Tuesday – it feels great to be settling back in right as the Northern summer is arriving. (It’s 9:30pm now, and still broad daylight.)
I was sick for a good portion of my last three weeks in Yellowknife, so chances are pretty good that I owe you an email. Hang in there, I’m working on it.
What else? I have a profile coming out in the new Up Here Business, which should be on newsstands shortly. We published a 6000-word epic about rafting the Grand Canyon on World Hum this week. Over at Vela, Simone’s latest is a wonderful essay on unexpectedly becoming an army wife. And my friend Luke’s phenomenal story on the Joplin tornado won the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing tonight!
Speaking of National Magazine Awards — Canadian edition — the nominees were announced earlier this week, and Up Here is up for four, including Best Single Issue. It’s an exciting publication to be a part of.
Lots of summer travel plans in Alaska, the Yukon and NWT. More to come!
Posted in Updates | Tagged Luke Dittrich, National Magazine Awards, Up Here, Up Here Business, Vela, Whitehorse, World Hum | 1 Comment »
A couple weeks back, the New York Times published a piece by Joel Stein, arguing that adults should not read books aimed at youth. There have been plenty of cogent, scornful, and indignant responses, but for my money C.S. Lewis, speaking from the grave, says everything that needs to be said:
Critics who treat ‘adult’ as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development.
When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
Thanks to The Daily Dish for the Lewis quote.
Posted in Tangents | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Joel Stein, Reading | Leave a Comment »
I leave tomorrow morning, and will be working at the Up Here office there for at least a couple of months before I make it back to Whitehorse. I’m really excited to get to know a second northern city.
Posted in Updates | Tagged Northwest Territories, Up Here, Up Here Business, Yellowknife | Leave a Comment »
Eva Holland 