Arctic Entries

Nyakor is the mother of nine children and owns a business here in Anchorage. She was born in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, after her father migrated to the country in 1975. Twenty years later, she moved with her family to the United States. Five months later, she got married and started a family in New York City. In 2012, she and her children moved to Anchorage. Today, she continues to pursue her education, with the goal of earning a BA in Psychology through Wayland University.

Zakiya a local journalist and student at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is the proud owner of 35 liquid lipsticks and continues to search for a perfect taco in Anchorage.

For his midlife crisis, Eric bought something more expensive than a Porsche: a law degree and a career in public service.

Bridgette moved to Alaska in 1989 with her father, mother, and four sisters. She now runs a solo legal practice. Bridgette loves her work, helping families as an attorney for parents and children in Child In Need of Aid cases, and as a mediator in a variety of cases. Her biggest accomplishments this summer include (not necessarily in their order of significance): winning the Parkstrip E League Softball Championship, as a member of the Gumbo House Deciders; and landing the man of her dreams—due to be married in November.

Rachel is from Seattle. She has a Master’s in Botany from the University of Minnesota. She has studied plants in the Australian rainforests of far north Queensland, and she loves to give impromptu lectures on invasive species and the differences between fruits and vegetables. She lives with her husband Chris and his sexy head of hair, and her eight pets.

Matthew Cahill - The Bear Who Tried to Eat My Courage by Arctic Entries

Megan Johnson - Modesty by Arctic Entries

Rhonda Anderson - Stranded by Arctic Entries

Brent Williams - Slaying Bears with Jimmy Buffett Songs by Arctic Entries

Johanna Sestito - My Romantic Adventure by Arctic Entries

Becca loves freckles, cats, and 90’s hip-hop. She hails from Spenard and likes to swear. Her heart is happy when her community is strong and healthy.

Katy and John are high school sweethearts born, raised, and married in Anchorage. After 12 years away, living in Seattle, they’ve returned home to raise their two boys and share with them all the adventures Alaska has to offer.

Erin is a writer, scientist, and a compulsive adventurer. She’s lived in Alaska for a decade and walked about 8,000 miles of it, much of that with her two young kids. Her latest book is Mud Flats and Fish Camps: 800 Miles around Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Bretwood is a geologist, data scientist, and wilderness adventurer. He grew up in Seldovia, and loved it enough to move back, where he helps run 501c3 nonprofit Ground Truth Trekking, and works for Nuka Research and Planning.

Luz is a first generation Mexican immigrant who has lived in Alaska most of her life. She enjoys traveling with her Fiancé Andy all over the world, embracing different people and cultures. Anaely has spent her days working as a classroom teacher for the last 20 years in the Spanish Immersion Program, while moonlighting with her husband as a competitive amateur salsa dancer and professional chauffeur for her three beautiful anchor babies.

David and Debbie are a cliché: she is a teacher, and he is an engineer. He likes to hunt and fish, and she likes to cook and go to church. They have two kids, a dog, and a mortgage.

Josie grew up in Wisconsin. There may be a food on this Earth more delicious than deep-fried cheese curds, Josie has yet to encounter it. Paul is a first-generation American, autodidact, and Renaissance man. Recently retired from the military, he is using his new-found freedom to experiment with facial hair.

Nick is a father, ski bum, and guide.

Adyson spent her early childhood in Wyoming but moved to Valdez with her family as a teenager. She loves all things outdoors and daydreams of the next adventure. She has one dog named Otter and a stellar husband whom she continuously drags on random explorations.

Ira is the Executive Director of The Atwood Foundation, one of Alaska’s oldest and largest family philanthropies. The foundation provides grants and scholarships for education, arts and journalism projects. A 40-year resident of Spenard, he and his wife Virginia, an avid gardener, live in a picturesque log home surrounded by beautiful flowers. They have two grown daughters, Esther and Sara. The impresario of the Anchorage Concert Association for 20 years and former director of the Alaska Humanities Forum, Perman is a charter member of The Motorheads, Alaska’s Extraordinary Gentlemen Snowmachiners, who each year perform their Motorhead Follies to standing room only crowds in tiny roadhouses in snowy remote corners of our state.

Having grown up in the semi-wilds of New York’s Adirondack Mountains and in the total wilds of 11 siblings, Joe came to Alaska 30 years ago in search of more wild experiences. As a wildlife biologist and park ranger, he has worked in many wild places and has become an aficionado of things like brown bears, Norway rats, sea lion feces, and walrus penises.