Pit-fired in St. Michael

Abstract

'Pit-Fired in St. Michael' is a collection of essays exploring human landscapes inside the geography of place. Reflecting on the influences family, instinct, language, memory, community and nature have on the narrator, the essays move from the west coast of Alaska to the interior White Mountains, from hospital nurseries and grocery store lines to remote dog-sled trails and cabins. Essays about raising a child sit beside pieces that journey back through the narrator's early experiences in Alaska, college years in Oregon and childhood in the deserts and suburbs of Utah. These essays range in style from tight-knit anecdote to memoir to idea-based explorations. Utilizing story-telling techniques, dialogue, section breaks, and over-arching metaphor, these pieces borrow strategies from both fiction and poetry. Though the essays are diverse in both content and technique, they all center on the narrator's attempts to better understand self inside human and natural worlds.