Sunday, February 5, 2012

Dis/Appearance in Alaska



here is a really good side effect of the icy weather: i looked for a fitting book to read, one that also could match the global reading challenge. and arrived at a book from Alaska that waited in my to-read-shelf since a longer while: "Disappearance. A Map." by Sheila Nickerson.

the name rang a chord, but i couldn't place it. so i googled. and to my surprise, arrived at the inaugral edition of Thrush magazine, the one i blogged about in the blueprint book blog. Sheila Nickerson has 3 Poems in it. and the book i started to read now is mentioned in the footnote. only that i wouldn't have recognized it by it: i have the German edition, which comes with a slightly different title:
  • the original full title is: "Disappearance. A Map: A Meditation on Death and Loss in the High Latitudes"
  • the German title is: "Das gefrorene Meer. Auf der Suche nach dem dunklen Herz des Nordens" - "The frozen Sea - Searching for the dark heart of the North"
and the second find: the book moves back in time, to the beginnings of Alaska, and the Tinglit culture there. Tlingit. now that rang a bell i could easily place:  for the very first edition of the language/place carnival, i received a blog entry about Tlingit Language from Vivian Faith Prescott at Planet Alaska: Tlingit Language Revitalization in Southeast Alaska - and just last week, i put the feature for Vivian's poetry collection on Tinglit language together: The Hide of my Tongue.

so the icy weather brings good things after all. now, back to Alaska. :)

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