Dispatches, Stories & Journalism: Hank Nuwer
Grab a coffee and enjoy the story clearinghouse of Hank Nuwer with photos of Alaska and its wildlife by Malgorzata (Gosia) Nuwer.
Hank Nuwer’s Indiana University Press books on hazing. Podcast in The Culture
Podcast of “Weed in the Garden of Academe” with Hank Nuwer
Scroll down for archived Realalaskadaily stories.Thank you for reading. Got a compliment or gripe? Drop a line to Hjnuwer@Alaska.edu. Gosia and I want to keep this site ad-free. A donation would be so helpful: Hank Nuwer, PO Box 73446; Fairbanks, AK 99707-3446.
Exclusive: The Indianapolis Partnership of Charles Volmer & Clemens Vonnegut, Jr.
[Author note: Biographer Charles J. Shields (And So It Goes) and Kurt, Jr. in Palm Sunday incorrectly and repeatedly spell Charles Volmer’s last name as “Vollmer,” contrary to the proper spelling published in multiple nineteenth-century Indianapolis city directories...
Exclusive from Hank Nuwer’s forthcoming Kurt Vonnegut bio: Ancestor Johanna Juliana (Julie) Junghans of Dresden
Hello, Readers. I am going to publish teaser sections from my in-progress biography of Kurt Vonnegut in hopes of raising funds to do more interviews in person. If you can help: send to Hank Nuwer, PO Box 73446; Fairbanks, AK 99707. Thank you. HN Kurt...
Blue Eggs: Short Fiction by Hank Nuwer
Xavier Lysiak rearranged the papers on his writing table. Today he planned to polish his dissertation, his ticket to a terminal degree and a teaching career. Now his cell phone rang, and he read the caller ID. “I’m handling a tragic mess at Dotty’s place,” his boss...
Ill Met by Moonlight: Charles Wason and the Cornell Fraternity Hazing Death.
By Hank Nuwer: The details and facts in this essay were taken from testimony delivered by members of KAS on October 12 and October 16, 1873, at a two-day coroner’s inquest in Ithaca, New York,. Charles Wason.. Mortimer Marcellus Leggett arrived at Cornell...
A Hazing Death: Human Rights and the Constitutional Right to Remain Silent.
Carl Dingens (team photo), Row Two, Blonde hair, second from right Carl L. Dingens, Cornell 1896: Carl Louis Dingens died in Buffalo on April 30, 1927..He was born in Buffalo March 22, 1873, the son of Joseph A. and Julia G. Dingens. He attended Canisius School...
Casey Dog’s Story
July 18, 2026 I was cleaning out my digital files today and came across an unpublished column (I pretended was) written by my dog Casey. Casey died in 2019. I miss him still. I dated and then married my wife Gosia. Before Casey, she had been afraid of dogs. Before...
Archival Records Reveal Nazi Party Membership of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Relatives
By Hank Nuwer, written for my Cordova Times (news outlet of Alaska) column: July 16, 2026. That article was edited for space. The full, updated, and complete version is below. Thank you. HN German soldiers captured Army scout Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in December of 1945...
Review: Collier’s Magazine’s reboot sputters. But there’s hope for Issue Two.
By Hank Nuwer Collier’s magazine once flourished as one of the most-read publications in America. Kurt Vonnegut fans celebrate the tale of his discovery by Collier’s fiction editor Knox Burger. Publishing a story in Collier’s encouraged Vonnegut to keep writing–even...
A bit of turbulence: On the Ground
Flying the Unfriendly Skies By Hank Nuwer Stories of unruly passengers causing airline pilots to take unscheduled forced landings seem to make headlines more frequently. We read about miscreants doing all sorts of tomfoolery and dangerous acts: storming...