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Posts Tagged ‘Up Here Business’

New Story, New Gigs

Posted in Stories, Updates, tagged , , , , on January 17, 2015|

Happy New Year!

I’ve had a busy start to 2015. I launched a biweekly reported column for Pacific Standard, Dispatches From a Changing Arctic, about environmental issues in the North – I’m excited to work on it throughout the year. I also have a new story in the January issue of Up Here: Cold Hard Competition is about the athletes who run for hundreds of miles through the frozen Yukon backcountry in the annual Yukon Arctic Ultra.

Speaking of Up Here, there have been some big changes there. Sister mag Up Here Business has been merged with Up Here, and the new incarnation of the magazine will come out monthly, instead of 8 times a year. I’m now on contract as the Yukon Correspondent, and will be contributing regularly to future issues.

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New Story: ‘Chasing Alexander Supertramp’

Posted in Stories, Updates, tagged , , , , , , on December 21, 2013| 2 Comments »

It’s been ages since I’ve posted here – I’ve had my hands full with work and some on-again, off-again health issues that, happily, seem to be under control now.

I’m really excited about my latest story. It’s a long look at the “McCandless pilgrims” who risk their lives trying to reach the bus from Krakauer’s Into the Wild. I put a lot of work into it, and got a lot of help and information from some amazing people I connected with along the way, and I am very pleased with how it came out:
Chasing Alexander Supertramp

I’ve also got a new story out in the December issue of Up Here that deals with similar themes. It’s called Hiding Among Us, and it’s about the long tradition of people coming to the North to disappear.

Another Up Here story, from the September issue, is about a group of miners abandoned on Great Slave Lake: The Great Escape From Outpost Island Mine

Meanwhile, some amazing news arrived in September: My Vela essay,
Not an Ike and Tina Thing, was listed in the Notable Selections of The Best American Essays 2013, while Three Kites on the Ice landed in the notables for The Best American Sports Writing 2013.

I’ve got a bunch of new features in the works for early 2014. Stay tuned!

Update: The story has a new online home now. Thanks!

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Big News! New story + a Western Magazine Award

Posted in Stories, Updates, tagged , , , , , on June 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Two things: Earlier this month I had a second story published over at SB Nation Longform. It’s about the centennial of the first ascent of Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, and I got to go to base camp to report it, which was challenging and great. Check it out: The High One.

Second, on Friday night I got word that my Up Here story about Skagway’s seasonal workers – ‘I Found the Sweet Life’ – won the Western Magazine Award for best travel and leisure story. Exciting! Up Here won a second WMA, in profile writing, for my pal Katherine Laidlaw’s story about an activist in Nunavut.

I spent the first week of June in Toronto, at MagNet, Canada’s national magazines conference, where I also attended a handful of journalism-related galas. Up Here Business won best magazine of the year at the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards (honoring the best in professional, trade and B2B mags in Canada), and Up Here won small-circulation mag of the year at the Editors’ Choice Awards. We were nominated in five categories at the National Magazine Awards but came away from that one empty-handed – still an incredible week for a pair of small magazines from the sub-Arctic!

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New Stories: Lots of ‘Em!

Posted in Stories, tagged , , on May 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A heap of stuff just went online. First up, my travel story from Up Here’s July/August 2012 issue, ‘I Found the Sweet Life,’ is now online in honor of its nomination for a Western Magazine Award. Yay.

Second, I have two features in the May issue of Up Here Business: a profile, The Queen of Klondike Korner, and the cover story about the Yukon’s growing “knowledge sector”: Off the Grid But in the Know. I also wrote this sidebar to the cover story, profiling a Yukon-based talent manager.

Over at Outside, I’ve had four more “Adventure Adviser” columns go live: What are the best cheap boat trips?, Where’s the best hiking under the Midnight Sun?, Should I climb Denali? and What are the best hikes in Britain?

I’m keeping busy. More to come!

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Good News All Around

Posted in Stories, Updates, tagged , , , , , , on May 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I came home from the Aleutians to find all sorts of good news waiting.

Last week, we learned that Up Here and Up Here Business have been nominated for a combined five National Magazine Awards and nine Western Magazine Awards. At the WMAs, two of my Up Here features, The One Who Jumped and ‘I Found the Sweet Life,’ are nominated in the Human Experience and Travel and Leisure categories, and Up Here and UHB are both nominated for Magazine of the Year – Alberta/NWT. Up Here Business was nominated for a further five Kenneth R. Wilson Awards, including Magazine of the Year – Professional.

I’m also excited to be filling in for the next while as Outside’s online “Adventure Adviser” columnist. I’ll be writing two short pieces each week, answering questions about travel and outdoor adventure, and my first two columns are already up: Should I be worried about sinkholes? and Does beer attract bears? Send me a question if you’ve got one!

Meanwhile, the April/May issue of Up Here includes my feature about the current state of Yukon mushing: End of the Trail? And I have two features in the May issue of Up Here Business, including the cover story about the Yukon’s growing “knowledge sector.” They’re not online yet, but you can check out the cover.

Finally, check out my friend Sam’s story about the Yukon’s homegrown Filipino basketball league. The North just keeps getting more interesting the longer I stay here.

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New Story: ‘No Sleep ‘Til Fairbanks’

Posted in Stories, Updates, tagged , , , , , on March 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m really excited about this one. My story about the Yukon Quest’s handlers – the support crews who work behind the scenes throughout the race – is now live at SB Nation Longform. Check it out:

No Sleep ‘Til Fairbanks

Elsewhere, Vela has a hot new redesign, and we’re also soliciting suggestions for female-authored books that are overlooked in the usual best-of books lists.

My feature in the February issue of Up Here Business is now online; it’s about a new fresh fish truck that’s finally bringing the local catch to Whitehorse. I also have a long Q&A with the Yukon’s top expediter in the March UHB, and a couple of small items in the March issue of Up Here.

Finally, at World Hum, I was pleased to publish Brian Kevin’s The End of Wend, an essay that ponders what the crunchy mag’s demise says about travelers and travel publishing.

It’s been a hectic start to 2013: Lots of work on the go, plus I spent two crazy weeks on the road in February during the Yukon Quest. I’ve got more travel on the horizon, too.

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Gearing up for 2013

Posted in Stories, Updates, tagged , , , , on January 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’ve got lots of news to kick off the New Year. Most importantly, my temporary position at Up Here / Up Here Business wrapped up on December 21 – so I’m back to full time freelance writing. I learned a ton during my ten months on staff at the magazines, and I’m looking forward to applying that knowledge as I jump back into the self-employment fray. (I also expect to continue working closely with my editors at Up Here and UHB as a freelancer.)

Earlier this week, my latest went live at Outside: It’s a big winter service package called 40 Frozen Experiences of a Lifetime. And in December, I was thrilled to contribute a short essay to the “Why’s This So Good?” series over at Harvard’s Nieman Storyboard: Why’s This So Good? No. 68: Jonathan Lethem and the Godfather of Soul.

I’ve got big plans and a busy travel schedule for 2013. First up, in February, a couple of assignments will take me back on the Yukon Quest trail again. Looking forward to it!

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Down the Stewart-Cassiar

Posted in Photos, Stories, tagged , , , on October 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This is the Bell II Lodge, my home base for a reporting trip down the Stewart-Cassiar Highway into northwestern B.C. a couple weeks back. It was an amazing spot, and I can’t wait for the story to come out in the next issue of Up Here at the end of this month.

Meanwhile, a couple of my recent Up Here Business stories are now online: Into the Wild, about the business of wilderness tourism in the North, and Staking a Claim, about several groundbreaking new agreements between mining companies and First Nations. Check ’em out.

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Happy Birthday, Vela!

Posted in Stories, Updates, tagged , , , , , , , on September 10, 2012| 2 Comments »

Vela Magazine turned one year old last week, and we’ve been busy celebrating with the launch of a Twitter account – @VelaMag – and a blog to go with our Facebook page. And, of course, there’s still the magazine itself: My most recent story there is called Three Kites on the Ice, and it’s about a kite-skiing expedition that attempted to set a new record for Arctic travel. Check it out!

Elsewhere, my feature from the August issue of Up Here Business is now online: Big Booze Ambitions (PDF). It’s about the Yukon’s growing craft beer and spirits industries. The September issues of both magazines are out now, too – I’ve got a feature in Up Here, “My Nahanni Luxury Cruise,” that’s not yet online, and a shorter historical piece on an obscure bit of Northern history: How the Trumps Struck Klondike Gold. What, you didn’t know that Donald Trump owes his millions to the Yukon?

I’m settled back home in Whitehorse after a busy few months of work/travel that took me from the Yukon to Alaska, the Northwest Territories *and* Nunavut – the ultimate Northern summer.

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New Stories: Skagway Summer, Yukon Brunch + More

Posted in Stories, tagged , , , , , , on July 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

My feature in the July/August issue of Up Here is called ‘I Found the Sweet Life’ and it’s about the week I spent living among the seasonal tourism workers of Skagway, AK. It features drinking games, creative use of tarps, and a 200 lb. St. Bernard named Bronco. (It’s not online, but I had a fun time putting it together.)

I’ve also got a feature story in the July issue of Up Here Business, about the changing face of Whitehorse retail and food/drink businesses: Let Them Eat Brunch. Also in that issue, I wrote about the impact of the Parks Canada budget cuts on the Yukon tourism economy, and the arrival of a new Filipino grocery store in town.

Meanwhile, a couple of my shorter pieces from the June issue of UHB are now online: The Perils of Northern Branding is a short business advice column (!) about common Northern business names, and Ship Day in Skagway is about how the businesses in that small port town operate on their own unique daily rhythm.

More to come – the August issue of Up Here Business lands on newsstands this week, and the September issues of both magazines are in the final stages of production.

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