Stories, Journalism & Vonnegut Bio Hank Nuwer
Grab a coffee and enjoy the story clearinghouse of Hank Nuwer with photos of Alaska and its wildlife by Malgorzata (Gosia) Nuwer.
You’ll find that I’ve added some finished and partially finished biography-in-progress of Kurt Vonnegut, “The Man in the Hole.”
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. Trying to raise funds for last-minute research on my Kurt Vonnegut biography: “Kurt Vonnegut: The Man in the Hole. A Life of Reinvention.” (“Not authorized, but authentic scholarship”). Your donation would be so helpful: Hank Nuwer, PO Box 73446; Fairbanks, AK 99707-3446.
David Eastman’s immodest proposal by Hank Nuwer Feb 22, 2023
Here is an oldie from Feb. 22, 2023 ‘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...
Helen Atkinson: What an Alaskan Lady
My office wall at the News-Miner was mostly bare except for a calendar in Polish. This past week I purchased a low-budget painting of a cabin in the woods signed by watercolorist Helen Atkinson. The artist was born Helen Linck in 1915. Her birthplace was Gold Road,...
Pride cometh before a snowfall
The road to sourdough from cheechako received another setback Thursday. My snowplow guy had not yet cleaned my driveway, but somehow, I made my little Jeep barrel over ice and deep snow right up to the garage door. Right that moment, I felt pride. And we all know what...
Consider the. outhouse…many, many moons ago
I see that the News-Miner web page carries an ad for a calendar with outhouse photos. Outhouses on both western New York boyhood farms of my grandparents were hardly a photographic attraction. My German grandfather stocked real toilet paper in his outhouse. My Polish...
Snug as a bug in cabin
Gosia unloaded the last of the boxes and supplies today that we carted to Alaska from Indiana. Now her bags are packed for a 12:30 a.m. boarding for American Airlines Fairbanks to Seattle to Indianapolis. Our friend and former colleague Ray will give her a ride to...
Arrived in Fairbanks!
"Hank, we have a problem,” my wife Gosia said from the open window of her Jeep. We were just 10 feet into Alaska after a 3,500-mile drive. The temperature was 11 below zero. Five minutes earlier, I passed through U.S. Customs. The female officer asked why I...
Today’s “Mooseletter”
The views yesterday were incredible. Each turn of the Alaska Highway brought a new peak. Traffic was sparse. Since leaving U.S. Customs, Gosia and I have yet to read a single state license plate from the U.S. The grand views are even worth the now-busted windshield on...
Living on a Prayer
“I'm goin’ down, down, down, down,” I crowed out of tune along with the radio. I steered the Chevy van from the Alberta highlands near Bezanon toward the stark and rugged terrain of Grande Prairie. Bruce Springsteen’s lament about his bored lover was appropriate...
Vehicle trouble times two
Friday, June 6, started off with double scares. The Jeep Renegade tire pressure was a dozen pounds less than Jeep recommended. The automatic door on the Chevy Uplander failed to close fully after loading. Improbable as it seems, the Jeep and Chevy dealerships...






