Alaska authors Townsend, Harbeson Jr. and Jones Discuss Their Latest Books

Abstract

Alaska authors Stan Jones (Big Empty), Lori Townsend (Ghost Ship) and George Harbeson Jr. (Shadowed Times) discuss their new books, writing, and Alaskan literary genres. Stan Jones-mystery author of Tundra Kill; White Sky, Black Ice; Shaman Pass; Frozen Sun; and Village of the Ghost Bears-collaborated with Patricia Watts on the sixth Nathan Active series called The Big Empty. In the story, Nathan Active investigates a suspicious plane crash in Chukchi. Lori Townsend's novel Ghost Ship welcomes back Anchorage-based reporter Zilla Gillette, who is investigating an unusual disappearance of a group of nine teenagers from the Bering Strait community of Nome. Lori Townsend is the news director for the Alaska Public Radio Network. Her first book, American Home Wrecker, introduced the tough and insightful Zilla Gillette. George Harbeson Jr.'s short story collection Shadowed Times: Alaska stories of another age was a finalist in the Brighthorse Books' Prize for Short Fiction, 2017. George Harbeson Jr. is also author of Homesteaders in the Headlights, a memoir that traces his family's move to and homestead in Knik, Alaska, starting in 1954.