By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The first dozen copies of Brendan Jones’ new book “Whispering Alaska” were gone within days of their arrival at Old Harbor Books.
But those aced out of the first shipment can get a sneak preview at a Zoom reading Tuesday, until more copies make it to Sitka – or you get to the top of the waiting list at the library.
Sitka Public Library is hosting the Zoom event celebrating the release of the book for youths by the local author, with illustrations by Rebecca Poulson, also of Sitka.
The event is 5:30 p.m., with Jones reading excerpts, and both he and Poulson available for questions. Registration for the program is by email to margot.oconnell@cityofsitka.org or by calling the library at (907) 747-4020.
“I’m super excited,” Jones said Sunday about the local reception after copies arrived at Old Harbor Books. “Everybody’s showing up. ... The day they came out I went in to sign them, and we had folks ask for personalized signatures.”
Brendan Jones stands outside his home this morning. (Sentinel Photo)
Publisher Penguin Random House described the book as an “eco-focused middle grade novel” that tells the story of twin sisters (Nicky and Josie) who move to a small town in Alaska for a new start after the death of their mother.
“It’s about them being introduced to the island, understanding this is Tlingít Aaní,” Jones said. “The Tlingit tribes have been here for 10,000 years. It’s about the twins trying to wrap their little pre-teen heads around that concept. ... What it means to live in the middle of the forest and make a living in the forest, working with the wood but also not clearcutting it.”
Jones, 43, came to Sitka at the age of 19, as a volunteer in mission at the Sheldon Jackson College hatchery. He also spent a year working at the Sentinel before returning to Columbia University, then finishing undergraduate and graduate degrees at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University. He was a building contractor in Philadelphia, a Fulbright Scholar in Siberia, and a Wallace Stegner Fellow and adjunct professor at Stanford, in addition to his writing and teaching at the University of Alaska.
He and his partners are renovating the now-closed Presbyterian Church property on Sawmill Creek Road into housing units.
The idea for “Whispering Alaska” came to him from an editor of Random House, Beverly Horowitz, who had an idea of twins going to Alaska and reinventing their lives. After an unsuccessful first draft, Jones returned to Siberia to continue teaching.
Horowitz is the young adult – middle grade division editor at Random House.
“It was actually in Russia – it was right there when COVID hit in February – I was able to drop down into a creative space and really start thinking about the stand of old growth in Indian River Valley,” Jones said. “I just wrote the whole thing instead of just the first 30 pages and Beverly just loved it so that’s what we went with.”
This is Jones’ second novel and his first for young adults/middle grade. His first was “The Alaskan Laundry.”
He said he was excited not only to get this book done, but to reach young readers with an Alaska story.
“It’s just a pleasure to see it go out into the world, especially because I have three young daughters of my own,” he said. Brendan and his wife Rachel have three kids, Haley, 6, Kiera-Lee, 5, and Quinn, 1.
Jones said he enjoyed collaborating with Poulson, whom he’s known since his first year in Sitka. Poulson also spent time with Jones and his family in Philadelphia when she was there working on her MFA degree at Temple University.
“When I first came to Sitka, I borrowed her kayak – and she’s always been an inspiration to me as an artist, and how to live an artistic life in Alaska,” Jones said. “She just did an incredible job, reading the book, thinking about it and putting it through her process and coming up with these drawings that – not only in their subject matter but in their tone – are in line with the feeling of the book. She really captured it in so many ways. To actually get a hard copy of the book in my hands, open it up and see her drawings in there was really cool.”
For her part, Poulson called it an enjoyable process.
“The publisher let me – instead of literally illustrating the story – being more to the theme, which is the importance of old growth to environmental health, and its beauty,” Poulson said by email. “And fun to try scratchboard,” she added. Her preferred scratchboard stock, the British EssDee brand, was surprisingly hard to find, said Poulson, who usually works in wood engraving and watercolor.
Poulson said her son Asa Dow went with her up Indian River to take reference photos for the art, and found landscape that “was just magical.”
“There’s a lot of fallen logs, and everything is covered in moss,” she said. “It’s just sort of a fairy land.”
Jones called “Whispering Alaska” a “truly Sitka book” since it includes Poulson’s art, as well as help from local readers including Roby Littlefield, Ed Littlefield, Nick Galanin, Marian Allen and Poulson’s daughter Cora Dow.
Jones expressed thanks to the Sitka Public Library and Adult Services Librarian Margot O’Connell for setting up the reading, and Old Harbor Books for getting the books in quickly. After his reading of passages from the book, he and Poulson will have a Q&A.
The virtual event is free and open to folks of all ages.
