Anchorage Daily News

Between Fire and Water, Ice and Sky

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By Gretchen Diemer (NorthShore Press, $18)

The blurb: "With this generous and thoughtful new collection, Gretchen Diemer has revealed a seriously engaged Alaska writer, one deserving the attention of readers for whom poetry is more than another distraction of the entertainment industry."

Excerpt: "Where we stand, on the bank of the Kobuk River, the chained dogs howl. Last night the aurora borealis poured its brilliant light across the black sky, swallowed the Big Dipper and flowed toward heaven. A barge idles in a flood of light with a full cargo of dozers and graters, tents and military men. The river is too dark to travel. These important men, sent north to work in the Arctic, in peacetime, plan future operations with the village children hanging off their clothes, the young women floating among them, images of fallen men imprinted on their wombs."

A Carol for Gabriel

By Violet May Fadeff (Stoneydale Press Publishing Co., $14.95)

The blurb: "The book's origins actually were in the early 1960s in Alaska when Mrs. Fadeff, whose husband was with the U.S. Army there, spent long winter nights dreaming up the story of Gabriel, drew the original illustrations, and then wrote the adventurous story."

Excerpt: "I looked over to see if the beautiful reindeer with the silver hooves was still there, and he was; only now he was lying down with his head hanging over the edge of the hill so that he could see every move they made without them seeing him. He looked so sad lying there. And I knew it was because he was a stranger to Santa Claus and all the other reindeer and elves."

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