Book Reading: Author Michael Engelhard

Fairbanks Author Michael Engelhard has two books coming out about his adventures around the state of Alaska, he will do a reading a Q&A about his many stories.

ARCTIC TRAVERSE: A THOUSAND-MILE SUMMER OF TREKKING THE BROOKS RANGE by Michael Engelhard

TRAVELING BY FOOT AND BY RAFT, anthropologist and award-winning author Michael Engelhard has crafted a lyrical portrait of Alaska’s northernmost mountain range rich with reflections on history, culture, conservation, and the idea of home. Respect for the land and its inhabitants have shaped his exploration of this incomparable place. Follow him through tussock-studded tundra for a remarkable tale of bear encounters and white-knuckled river moments as he realizes a long-held dream in an untamed region. Drawing on the knowledge of scientists and Indigenous elders and on conversations with guided clients, Engelhard shines a light on the spirit of Alaska.

WHAT THE RIVER KNOWS: ESSAYS FROM THE HEART OF ALASKA by Michael Engelhard

Edward Abbey, who never much liked Alaska, called it “our biggest, buggiest, boggiest state.” To others, it has been a cure for
despair. When Michael Engelhard moved to Fairbanks more than three decades ago, he was a cheechako, a subarctic tenderfoot.
Gathering skills and experiences the hard way, he attained “Sourdough” status while realizing there would always be more to learn, see, and do in the land of midnight sun and auroras.

En route, Engelhard suffered frostbite, stubborn yaks, grizzly charges, trophy hunters, cold-water immersion, heartbreak, incontinent raptors, one pesky squirrel, and honeymooners from abroad. He tried to rescue a raven and explored Arctic dunes and a glacier’s blue heart, and his own as he mingled with caribou on their epic journeys.

Michael Engelhard is the award-winning author of books that include Ice Bear, a cultural history of an iconic animal; the collection of canyon essays No Walk in the Park; and Arctic Traverse, his memoir of a thousand-mile solo trek from Canada’s Yukon border to the Bering Strait. Trained as an anthropologist, he worked for twenty-five years as an outdoor educator and wilderness guide.