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
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 20 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.
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.
A Tribute to a Hunter Dying Young
Much of the pleasure in working as a journalist stems from opportunities to write outdoor columns and features for local and national magazines. My most moving assignment was writing a sad tribute column titled “To a Hunter Dying Young.” A lean, rugged and boyish...
Haleloke Kahauelopua, Randolph County’s refugee from Show Business
Far from Randolph By Hank Nuwer In the early 1950s an Admiral TV appeared in the Nuwer household’s living room. Because there were only four networks, even minor TV stars drew viewers the way Taylor Swift today transfixes fans. Everyone in America seemed to watch the...
Rep. David Eastman’s Immodest Proposal
"A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making them Beneficial to the Publick," commonly referred to in English Lit as "A Modest Proposal," is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and...
Good fences don’t always make good neighbors.
Good fences don’t always make good neighbors. By Hank Nuwer Leviticus 19:13 tells us, “Thou shall not oppress your neighbor.” That Bible quotation came back to me in Fairbanks, Alaska on Saturday at a brilliant, albeit disturbing performance of Native Gardens by...
Almost Iditarod time
It's that time of year! Time to brush up on which mushers are in and out at the Iditarod.
Another film project
I am excited to have auditioned successfully for the part of the uncle character in the upcoming UAF production of Love Me.
San Francisco’s last Super Bowl
In January 1986, I profiled Bill Walsh and the San Francisco Giants for Inside Sports magazine: Read it here at my web page at https://www.hanknuwer.com/the-winning-mind-of-san-francisco-and-former-stanford-coach-bill-walsh-by-hank-nuwer-inside-sports-magazine/
Alaska’s long deep freeze ends
After weeks of -40F and -30 and -20 temperatures, we in Fairbanks get two days of respite with temps in plus thirties. The coyotes and moose have been coming out of the deep snows to feed by the highway. Happy a chinook is here! Photo is of a young coyote snagging...
A lovely, friendly outpost in the Interior
Note: This trip was made right before the early snows fell in October. I held the story in hopes the roadhouse might open back up. It was published in the Winchester (IN) News-Gazette as a column. Photo is by Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer. Far from Randolph An oasis...