Hank Nuwer Alaska Yarns

Our story thus far: Made a widow in a World War Two dirigible accident that killed her young Airman husband, Sara Burleson Dunn came to Alaska for a postwar vacation. In 1947 she wed Unalakleet children’s book author Frederick (Fred) Machetanz. By Hank Nuwer Fred and...

by Hank Nuwer, Cordova Times Sara Burleson Dunn’s world came crashing down on May 16, 1944, when a U.S. naval air station dirigible slammed into a hangar on a training mission and plunged 258 feet to a concrete runway. The tragedy occurred at Lakehurst, New Jersey,...

  Last Frontier Tales By Hank Nuwer          When a short list of 20th Century Alaskan legends is discussed, chances are Merle K. “Mudhole” Smith is somewhere up at the top of the heap.          After all, the one-time barnstormer and bush pilot served as...

Last Frontier Days Polar Attraction: A Bear-Watching Trip to Utqiagvik Review by Hank Nuwer          Last weekend arrived, and it was time for us to fly out to yet another remote Alaska city, because that’s my wife Gosia’s bucket list dream. We’ve recently scratched...

Last Frontier Day “Aunt Jean”: An Unforgettable Alaskan Artist By Hank Nuwer          It was 1980, in northern Colorado, when I chatted with Martha Jean Shadrach for the first time. A contributing writer to Denver Magazine then, I accepted an invitation from Jane, my...

From Slavery to Freedom to Public Service: The Healy Family By Hank Nuwer First published in Cordova Times          Irish immigrant Michael Morris Healy and his lifelong companion Mary Eliza Clark Smith found solace in their Catholic religion and took joy in the...

Here is the link to this powerful podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/weed-in-the-garden-of-academe/id1460320573?i=1000706636684

Yesterday for the first time I read a sad, brilliant piece of creative nonfiction in The Georgia Review, a periodical my long-ago house mate once appeared in. And like my former house mate, the author of this story was a Pushcart Press award winner. The title is "If...