Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry

Diversity has always been central to Alaska identity, as the state’s population consists of people with many different backgrounds, viewpoints, and life experiences. This book opens a window into these diverse lives, gathering stories and poems about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer life into a brilliant, path-breaking anthology.             In these pages we see the panoply of LGBTQ life in Alaska today, from the quotidian urban adventures of a family—shopping, going out, working—to intimate encounters with Alaska’s breathtaking natural beauty. At a time of great change and major strides in LGBTQ civil rights, Building Fires in the Snow shows us an Alaska that shatters stereotypes and reveals a side of Alaska that’s been little seen until now.  

Table of Contents:
Jerah Chadwick Winter Country             Introduction   Rosemary McGuire Luke   Elizabeth Bradfield Eight Years Legacy Roughnecks and Rakes One and All, the Poet Speaks to Her Subjects, Polar Explorers Correcting the Landscape Creation Myth: Periosteum and Self Remodeling Concerning the Proper Term for a Whale Exhaling We All Want to See a Mammal August, McCarthy, Alaska   Martha Amore Geology   Susanna J. Mishler Anniversary at the Evening Cafe Poem That Begins in Address to Nikola Tesla and Ends Up Offshore Hemispheres Tired, I Lie Down in the Parking Garage Eve of the Apocalypse   Lucian Childs The Go-Between Black Spruce   Amber Flora Thomas Marlboros at Dusk Aubade A Woman’s Jewelry Hotel Reverie Lake Shore Deer Come in from the Sky In the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Era of a Happy Heart Here   Alyse Knorr Fact-Checking Anchorage Epithalamium Moose are over-running the park and this makes me think of love The Object Towards Which the Action of the Sea Is Directed The Sleeping Lady Conservation & Rehabilitation   Teresa Sundmark Worse Disasters Trespass   Indra Arriaga Fragments Pedazos In the Bay En la Bahía There was a time, she said Hubo un tiempo, ella dijo 19 Crescent 19 Crescent   Egan Millard Mondegreen Agni Koimesis Vacation   Zack Rogow The Voice of Art Nouveau   M. C. Mohagani Magnetek Creep Shhhh-Be-Quiet   Shelby Wilson Misread Signs Fireweed   Leslie Kimiko Ward Nest   Amy Groshek What Goes Around Comes Over The capacity for true love expires at age 25 Rubia Writes a Poem About Light for a Contest Dinner at Her Place Pearly Everlasting   Gabrielle Barnett Mountain Man   Teeka A. Ballas Carrots, Peas: in D minor Cupid’s Arrow   Sandy Gillespie The Trees Tell the Story   Morgan Grey Breakers   Laura Carpenter Mirror, Mirror   Kate Partridge Model Earthquake Park M 4.0, 21 km S of Knik-Fairview   Dawnell Smith What Would Derby Do?   Vivian Faith Prescott The Minister’s Wife Tales in Fairyland Can I touch your Chinese Hair? Before the World of Men and Boys, There Was the Land of Girls   Jerah Chadwick Cold Comforts Legacy Returnings Lesson of Bread A Sense of Direction Stove The Life to come   Mei Mei Evans Going Too Far   Works Consulted  

About the Author :
Martha Amore is a fiction writer who teaches writing at Alaska Pacific University and the University of Alaska Anchorage. Lucian Childs is a writer who divides his time between Anchorage and Toronto.

Review :
"Though it may seem that there is an anthology for everything these days, Building Fires in the Snow is truly unique: a collection of short fiction and poetry by LGBTQ Alaskans. However, to recognize this book for its novelty alone would be to sell it short. The real pleasure of this engaging anthology is in its depiction of the gay experience out of the typical milieu, showing the rich diversity of gay life throughout the world. . . . A beautiful reminder that there is more to the LBTQ world than can ever be dreamed of in white New York alone."   “Fits perfectly in alongside nature-exploration memoirs and gold rush histories. . . . Yet, Building Fires is also designed to critique and challenge some of the sub-market’s worst clichés, from its obsession with the (straight) man versus wild conflict to the artificial rural vs. urban dichotomy to the sheer existence of LGBTQ individuals that is so often ignored or outright denied. That it does all this in a collection of fiction is likewise a breath of fresh air in a non-fiction dominated market.” "Memorable and affecting."