Hank Nuwer Alaska Yarns

My Travel Blog

Welcome, Guests 

 

Welcome. Grab a coffee and enjoy the story clearinghouse of two-time Alaska Press Club Suzan Nightingale Best Columnist Hank Nuwer with occasional photos by Malgorzata (Gosia) Nuwer.  Scroll down for archived Realalaskadaily stories.

Hank Nuwer: University of Alaska (Fairbanks) adjunct professor Hank Nuwer lives, writes, and acts in northern Alaska. Hank Nuwer Bio.  Alaska Hank Nuwer News.

 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 Hank recently collaborated on an article about Alaskan road trips for Phi Kappa Phi’s Forum Magazine.

Hank reviewed “And So It Goes,” a biography of Kurt Vonnegut by Charles J. Shields

Link to Hank Nuwer’s Indiana University Press books on hazing

Podcast of “Weed in the Garden of Academe” by journalist Ian Mandt with interviewee Hank Nuwer 

Nuwer interviewed by NPR’s Audie Cornish

Link to the Cordova Times

Podcast in The Culture

 

A Life-Changing Assignment

A Life-Changing Assignment

By Hank Nuwer Some of my best feature stories never appeared in print. That’s because the era from 1976 to 1992 — when I wrote every month — saw magazine and newspaper circulation numbers drop drastically. As a result, advertisers pulled out and many publications...

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Christmas 2023:  Remembrances of Christmas Past

Christmas 2023: Remembrances of Christmas Past

Remembrances of Christmas Past By Hank Nuwer My recent role in Fairbanks’ “Miracle on 34th Street” as Kris Kringle has made this a particularly memorable Christmas season. With so many child actors and carolers in the play, the acting experience felt as if family...

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The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi Hank Nuwer Christmas Day was both a special day and a day like any other for this professional writer. My wife Gosia and I are on a budget and so we exchanged gifts. I gave her “beautiful combs, pure tortoise-shell, with jeweled rims.” She gave me...

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6 Months in Fairbanks: Guy Walks into a Bard

6 Months in Fairbanks: Guy Walks into a Bard

by Hank Nuwer My six-month anniversary starting work at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska occurs today. My cheechako moments still happen, and sourdough status still is far away. Like last Sunday when I went on a hike by myself near Angel Creek off Chena Hot...

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Epitaph for a Writer

Epitaph for a Writer

By Hank Nuwer John Carlson started as a copyboy in the 70s at Muncie’s evening paper. Years later, gruff World War II veterans like Dick Stodghill asked him to bring over a coffee. But jokes aside, at a newspaper with many good writers, John was the best wordsmith. He...

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In praise of a lone elm

In praise of a lone elm

by Hank Nuwer   Once upon a time, every hamlet in the American Midwest had an Elm Street. But around 1930, a blight came overseas from its origins in the Netherlands. Similar invasions of shade trees also destroyed that king of the forest, the American chestnut...

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Santa is in the holiday spirit

Santa is in the holiday spirit

After performing Tues. morning for an audience of bussed-in schoolchildren, the cast sang a Christmas carol (with the kids) that raised the roof, and I (Santa) answered such sweet questions from the boys and girls. It looked like a fifth of the house or more had...

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1975

A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1975

One little confession: When I returned to acting onstage after nearly a half-century since I played Bottom in a Reno stage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1975, all my performances of my one-man hazing-prevention plays were stage readings. I honestly did...

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