Winner of the 1997 Chinook Literary Prize, Sherry Simpson's debut collection of essays manifests an original and distinctive vision of Alaska and signals the arrival of an uncommonly accomplished new writer. Simpson is a true Alaskan who lives all of the adventures and traverses the wild places of her essays. Her subjects range from a sobering introduction to the ways of trapping in Killing Wolves to a meditation on the terror of disappearing into the Alaskan outback in The Book of Being Lost. With a clear-eyed, unsentimental appreciation of the great northern place, this writer expresses a commanding view of Alaska.

A sequel to the award-winning Buffalo Dance offers a dramatic and poetic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark expedition into the unexplored wilderness of the American West in a series of poems that share the narrator York's perspectives on the members of the party and the people and places they encounter along the way. Simultaneous.

A survivor of the Donner Party excursion recounts her life as a teenager escaping an abusive family, taking the journey with the Donner family and enduring a tragic winter in the Sierras.

A glamorous ski resort becomes the setting for unspeakable evil in this “chilling, fascinating novel” by the New York Times–bestselling author of Last Summer (Los Angeles Times). Sandy, David, and Peter met as bored teenagers vacationing with their parents on a small resort island. The horrific crime they committed five years ago bound them together forever, cursing their friendship in blood and setting them on a path toward nihilism and destruction. Now in their early twenties, the glamorous and sophisticated trio has come to an exclusive ski resort just days before Christmas to satisfy their appetite for danger and enjoy the physical company of the only human beings they can still tolerate: one another. But an interloper soon finds her way into their closed circle. Mary Margaret is no gullible innocent. She’s smart and mischievous and appears bent on tearing the friends apart. Will Sandy, Peter, and David keep their sinister ménage-à-trois intact, or have they finally met their match? On the steep and icy slopes of Semanee Peak, a dangerous game of cat and mouse comes to a shattering end. “An unforgettable exploration into the nature of evil,” Come Winter is the chilling sequel to Last Summer and a “brilliant . . . dazzling” portrait of young sociopaths at play (Burlington Free Press).

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In these acclaimed essays, Sherry Simpson recounts her experiences as an ordinary woman confronting the vast expanses of water and wilderness of her home state. Her adventures include a harrowing bear encounter and a near-death experience falling into a glacial river, but she also finds an Alaska of surpassing, almost supernatural beauty and power. These lyrical essays thoughtfully explore one woman's effort to map both a sense of place and a sense of self in a world at once comforting and unforgiving.