These fresh, startling, wonderful stories deserve a wide readership. I
gobbled them up.--Maxine Kumin
Nancy Lord writes subtly but eloquently about the natural splendors of
the state. . . . Survival speaks volumes about the real Alaska, a
place where anything goes--but only if you're willing to pay the price.
--The New York Times Book Review
Alaska--wild, grand, still unsubjugated--
lives in this book. --The Boston Review on Survival
Inspired by the Native Alaskan myths and legends of her adopted state,
Nancy Lord explores the persistent human need for contact with nature in
the quietly ironic fables set that make up The Man Who Swam with
Beavers. It is not my intent to appropriate, retell, or improve on the
traditional source stories, but to use them as starting points to
explore the dilemmas and delights of modern American life. The title
refers to a Dena'ina traditional story about a man who lived with
beavers, with the moral that all creatures have their own lives, as
complete and legitimate as any others. These wise, charming stories
examine individual and collective responsibilities to one another and to
the natural world.
Nancy Lord was born in New Hampshire and has lived in Homer, Alaska,
since 1973, where she writes, teaches creative writing for the
University of Alaska, and fishes commercially for salmon. Her stories
and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Antioch Review, Sierra, North
American Review, and Manoa. Her books include Green Alaska: Dreams
from the Far Coast, Fishcamp: Life on an Alaskan Shore, and
Survival.
