From the introduction to LIVING WITH WILDNESS: AN ALASKAN ODYSSEY, a collection of essays published in summer 2008 by the University of Alaska Press

The heart of this story is my relationship with Anchorage and adjacent Chugach State Park. At first glance, my choice to settle here may seem a strange one for someone who claims to be so passionate about the natural world. But in living along the city’s edge, I’ve gotten the best of both worlds, natural and man-made (though of course the two are connected). I love the amenities that come with living in an urban center, with its coffee shops and restaurants, movie theaters and Performing Arts Center, universities and libraries, community schools and sports programs. Here I’ve found intersecting circles of writers and outdoors enthusiasts and earth- and peace-loving activists. Yet I also have easy access to parks, trails, greenbelts, a coastal refuge, and a nearby mountain range whose remotest valleys and peaks are seldom visited. And I share the landscape with raven and bear, chickadee and coyote and lynx.

Living in Anchorage, I’ve rediscovered that wildness is all around us, all the time, even in the city. It’s just that most of us humans don’t notice the "wild side" of our busy urban lives (some, it’s true, are simply trying to survive their urban lifestyles, which leaves little, if any, opportunities for wild connections). Of course, in many a metropolis you have to look hard to find even hints of the wild behind the elaborate layers of human construct that shield us from the rest of nature. Anchorage’s juxtaposition of malls and moose, brewhouses and bears, or libraries and loons makes it easier to notice urban wildness here than in cities like LA or Tucson or even Lewiston, Maine, all of them places that I’ve lived. This city, more than any other, has opened my eyes and enlarged my awareness in a way the wilderness couldn’t.

In these pages I explore my relationship with Anchorage and reflect upon notions of urban wildness in chapters centered around the Hillside neighborhood I inhabited for 13 years; the city’s coastal refuge; and several of my neighbors, from birds to bears and frogs. And I return to my Connecticut days, to bridge the distance between my childhood and adult homelands and show the links that connect them.

For all my growing appreciation of Anchorage’s wildness, I still find it necessary to make trips deeper into Alaska’s wilderness. There I slow down, grow in awareness, move into a reality beyond city time and normal routine. I more easily open up to wildness and feel my connection to the larger world. I consider my relationship with wilderness landscapes in two chapters: first, my "steady" relationship with Anchorage’s next-door wilderness, Chugach State Park; second, an extended solo trip into the far-away Arctic backcountry, where the trappings and sensibilities of urban life are gradually stripped away.

Taking a different, but related path into wildness, I also reflect upon three encounters with "the other": wild creatures whose lives rarely intersect my own. Our paths cross under extraordinary circumstances, leading to new insights about the animals and my relationship with them. In one case, the "other" is a grandmother halibut, caught during a guided sport-fishing trip; in another, she’s a grizzly mom, protecting her cubs. In the third instance, I’m serenaded by howling wolves while camped alone during a backpacking trek through the Arctic. In every encounter, my senses expand, my world opens up.

Finally, Living with Wildness explores myths and ideas about the "Wild Man," an ancient mythic figure with roots in ancient times who has appeared, off and on, throughout human history. I’ll reflect upon my own encounters with the Wild Man, my participation in the men’s mythopoetic movement, the ideas discussed in Robert Bly’s best-selling book Iron John, and the relevance of this mythical character in today’s world, as well as the critical importance of embracing our own wild natures in addition to that of the larger world.

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What others have to say about LIVING WITH WILDNESS:

Bill Sherwonit has added a fine new volume to the literature of place, a literature that may be the most vital and venturesome of any kind being written in America today. Tracing "the intelligence of nature" from the streets of Anchorage to the mountains of Alaska’s Brooks Range, he marvels over chickadees and grizzlies, wood frogs and sandhill cranes, moose and mice and countless other creatures, along with snow and stars and shimmering northern lights. In prose as clear as an unsullied stream, he tells about his search for the wildness in the depths of mind that answers to the wildness in the world.
-- Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe

Living with Wildness is the story of one man's awakening to his place in the world as he learns to pay attention to the seasons, the land, and the creatures that surround him. As Bill Sherwonit encounters lynx, chickadees, frogs, cranes, and even a dead moose, he celebrates Alaska's wilder charms but also considers the compromises forced upon a wilderness that begins in his backyard. In this open-hearted inquiry, he learns what it means to make a home in the complicated landscape that emerges when wilderness and communities push against each other. Sherwonit movingly describes the explorations of the spirit that accompany his outdoor adventures. His discoveries remind us all that the most meaningful journeys begin with the smallest acts of awareness.
-- Sherry Simpson, author of The Way Winter Comes and The Accidental Explorer

Like one of his winter days in Anchorage, Sherwonit's book is bright and calm. Its gifts are a wild landscape of delight and a lesson in attentiveness.
-- Kathleen Dean Moore, author of The Pine Island Paradox.

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Reviews of other books by Bill Sherwonit

“Going to Denali? Even if you’ve already suffered upon that mountain, Bill Sherwonit’s TO THE TOP OF DENALI is a compelling read. . . its no bullshit prose and hard-won anecdotes put it in a league with such classics as [Art] Davidson’s MINUS 148."
-- Jonathan Waterman review, in Rock & Ice magazine

"Bill Sherwonit’s collection, DENALI: A LITERARY ANTHOLOGY, is a fitting tribute to one of the most remarkable places on earth. . . . Sherwonit knows his subject well. A nationally acclaimed photographer and essayist, he has prepared a comprehensive collection of 23 selections that cover a century of writing from the park. The result is a book that covers its subject in a comprehensive and eminently readable manner. DENALI: A LITERARY ANTHOLOGY, belongs in any library, public or private, that aspires to be complete on the subject of Alaska in general and Denali in particular. Bill Sherwonit and Mountaineers Books are to be congratulated on a job well done!"
-- John Murray, in The Bloomsbury Review

"Focusing on the theme ‘accessible wilderness,’ [Sherwonit] introduces readers to the unique and exciting attributes of each area through superb travel writing. . . . Complemented by 50 color photos and eight maps, this book will have readers packing their bags. One of the most refreshing travel guides this reviewer has encountered; highly recommended." -- Library Journal review of ALASKA’S ACCESSIBLE WILDERNESS

“Sherwonit’s book is an authoritative and well-written account of the Iditarod and some of its more important moments. An obvious fan and believer in the race, he doesn’t try to cover its warts.” -- Anchorage Press review of IDITAROD: THE GREAT RACE TO NOME

Born in Bridgeport, Conn., nature writer Bill Sherwonit has called Alaska home since 1982. A fulltime freelancer, he has contributed essays and articles to a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, journals, and anthologies and is also the author of 11 books about Alaska, including three books about Denali, two about the Iditarod, and others about Alaska’s state parks, his evolving relationship with wild nature, and bears. In his spare time, Bill teaches nature and travel writing. He lives in Anchorage’s Turnagain area, where he writes about the wildness to be found in Alaska’s urban center as well as in the state’s far reaches, while inspired by neighbors who include chickadee, squirrel, raven, frog, and bear.

News and Events

Following Bill's first creative-nonfiction book -- LIVING WITH WILDNESS: AN ALASKAN ODYSSEY (released in summer 2008 by the University of Alaska Press) -- his second will be released in fall 2009, also by the UA Press. CHANGING PATHS: TRAVELS AND MEDITATIONS IN ALASKA'S ARCTIC WILDERNESS will explore Sherwonit's long-running and life-changing relationship with the Central Brooks Range, as well as the necessity of wilderness, the roots of his passion for wild nature, and more. Check back here for more updates as publication nears. Interested in learning more about LIVING WITH WILDNESS? click on the link to the 49 Writers blogsite, located on this page.

Upcoming presentations, classes, and workshops

June 2009. Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference. Bill will be one of the presenters at the conference, June 12-16, headlined by poet Li-Young Lee. Go the the website for more information: http://writersconference. homer.alaska.edu.

July 2009. Bill is leading a workshop, "Writing the Chugach." Participants will join Bill on a day-long hike into the Chugach Mountains on July 11, to learn more about both Anchorage’s “backyard wilderness” and the writing process, from observation to note-taking and journal keeping and finally to story. The cost is $100, which includes pre- and post-trip meetings, a day in the Chugach, and essay critique. To sign up for this workshop or for more information, contact Sherwonit at 245-0283 or through this website.

September through December 2009, dates still to be determined. Bill will teach his 12-week, work-shop style nature-writing class. More details to come as the class approaches.