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.
Alaska’s Dan Sutherland: Spoiling for a fight By Hank Nuwer
As I examined old newspaper accounts mentioning pioneer Alaskan Congressional delegate Daniel Alexander (Dan) Sutherland, I noticed one consistent trend. If any bigwigs from the Lower 48 were in sight, Sutherland wanted to fight them. Alaskan voters kept this...
Cordova Times First-Place Column
Thank you to the Cordova Times for announcing the 2024 Suzan Nightingale Column award from Alaska Press Club. Cordova Times contributor wins first for best column at Alaska Press Club awards The Cordova Times Cordova Times columnist Hank Nuwer won first place for the...
2024 Alaska Press Club winners
The Alaska Press club winners have been announced. I'm blessed to have my Cordova Times column selected Best Column for second straight year. Links: https://alaskapressclub.com/contest/
Sportcut.com revisited
26 years ago, I denounced and rejected a policy for freelancers by Sportcut.com. About that time, Sportcut.com and Pete Rose announced a new scheme to get him reinstated into baseball despite his gambling on baseball. Then, not with a bang but a whimper, the lights...
Nebraska/Alaska Fiction Writer Daryl Farmer: A Review, Hank Nuwer
What happens after you find yourself mired in a precarious situation you could and should have avoided? That’s the premise driving “On the Old Denali Road,” a short story by Alaskan author Daryl Farmer in his collection “Where We Land,” published by...
Frank Butler & Annie Oakley: Stuck to Their Guns
By Hank Nuwer The love story of Frank E. Butler and his dead-shot bride began at a shooting match. He was a professional marksman with a male shooting partner. They traveled all over the Midwest in search of shooting matches....
A no-good skunk lit out for Nebraska. That wasn’t far enough to disappear.
By Hank Nuwer This is the story of George Washington Clear, born in 1849, the youngest son of Phillip and Mrs. Clear. On June 7, 1871, Clear married a young woman from Union City, IN, named Anna Moist. George and Anna soon raised a baby they...
The horrific 1930 Ohio Penitentiary fire killed a war veteran
By Hank Nuwer The Greenville Democrat said James J. (J.J.) Webster looked too dignified to be a criminal. “Rather did he appear as a bank clerk,” the paper said. Tall and dark, Webster wore spectacles and a brown business suit at his trial. The...
Wash, fold, and stab. Murder in a Chinese laundry.
By Hank Nuwer I became fascinated with the history of 19th century Chinese workers in America while conducting research for my historical novel, Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey.” In one chapter, an Idaho buckaroo attempts to cut off the queue...