Hank Nuwer Alaska Yarns
My Travel Blog
By Alaska’s Columnist of the Year
Welcome. Enjoy the official story clearinghouse of Alaska author Hank Nuwer with photos by Malgorzata (Gosia) Nuwer. Scroll down to very bottom of this main page for archived stories.
Bio: University of Alaska (Fairbanks) adjunct professor Hank Nuwer lives, writes, and acts (community theater) in northern Alaska.
Awards: 2025 Hoosier State Press Association first-place winner for commentary, 2023 and 2024 Alaska Press Club (APC) First-Place Columnist of the Year, and 2022 Ohio SPJ First-Place Columnist of the Year.
Gosia Nuwer photographs Alaska and its wildlife. She and Hank reside in Fairbanks, Alaska, with 5 acres in remote Alaska, and a vacation cabin in Poland.
Gosia and her husband in 2025 contributed an article on Alaska back-road trips for Phi Kappa Phi’s Forum Magazine.
Read Hank Nuwer’s short review of “And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life” by Charles J. Shields at the Cordova Times, March 27, 2026, And a longer Kurt Vonnegut biography review here with notes on Ginger Strand’s “The Brothers Vonnegut” at https://www.thestatehousefile.com/
Contact Prof. Hank Nuwer at Hjnuwer@Alaska.edu
Know someone who has fought hazing in student groups, the military or sports? Nominate him/her/them here for a Hank Nuwer Antihazing Hero Award at Hazing Prevention Network.
Kurt Vonnegut interview
Hank Nuwer interview on writing tips and methods
Timothy K. Rodeheffer: Merciless Monster Murderer
Timothy K. Rodeheffer. by Hank Nuwer On February 21, 1998, a 19-year-old gentle soul named Lynn Top from North Star, Ohio, walked for exercise on a less-traveled road off Ohio 49. A student at Wright State University’s Lake Campus in Celina, she had thick, abundant...
Garry Farnham’s Nenana Railroad Museum Review (Hank Nuwer)
Many years ago, on assignment for the AARP, Country Gentleman, and Outside magazines, I stayed at more than a dozen century-old hotels in the American West. Some like the Copper Queen in Bisbee, Arizona, were under renovation at the time, but their lobbies and dining...
Video: Hank Nuwer’s Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey
Link to the video review with photos
Going on a wild elephant chase By Hank Nuwer
On November 11, 1942, an escaped elephant stole headlines, including a story with an oversized photo in the Union City Times-Gazette. The Great American Circus with three starring elephants came to Wabash to put on a show as a fundraiser at the local high school...
They hung him high: a Shelbyville, Indiana true tale of shame and disgrace
When Fight Night Led to Mob Mayhem. By Hank Nuwer Randolph and Shelby County served as home to many distinguished citizens in the 1890s. However, rowdies also roamed the area. A custom on weekends in both counties for a time...
Why I’m a hard-bitten journalist
Alaska’s state bird is the “moose-quito,” so named by me because of their immense size and toughness. Our state’s mosquitoes are so mean that when you slap them, they slap you back. A 2017 report in the Cordova Times blamed climate change for sturdier...
A travel review of Cordova, Alaska for Lower 48ers by Hank Nuwer
My wife Gosia and I love visiting small cities in Alaska. The last two years, we’ve popped over to Sitka, King Salmon, Kodiak, Seward and Nome. This time we chose Cordova, Alaska. On the plane to Cordova we met our...
My Birthday Weekend in Cordova By Hank Nuwer
For my wife Malgorzata’s recent birthday, I bought a floral bouquet and, trying to be creative, a black-and-tan Louie’s Lunch Bucket from Duluth Trading Company ($89.95) to take to work. The bucket proved big enough to hold a six pack of soda pop,...
Contemplating the road least traveled at age 78
Ended my weekly column for Winchester, IN paper to put more time into something I've only dabbled in: writing short stories and longer memoir. Change is hard for me, where once it was easy, but this may be the right time. I've enjoyed seeing my stories and interviews...