Seth Kantner is a commercial fisherman, writer and wildlife photographer. He was born and raised in northern Alaska and his art reflects his love for this land and the animals who live on it, and his belief in the importance of wildness left wild.

Seth was schooled at home and on the land. He attended the University of Alaska and later the University of Montana where he received a BA in Journalism.

 

He's worked as a fisherman, trapper, gardener, mechanic, igloo builder and adjunct professor. His writings and photographs have appeared in Outside, Alaska Geographic, the New York Times, Prairie Schooner, Orion and various literary journals and anthologies. Currently he's a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News.

 

In 2004 his debut novel, Ordinary Wolves, was released to literary acclaim. Publisher's Weekly called it "A tour de force." The Los Angeles Times named the book "A rare thing of beauty." The novel won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and Seth received a Whiting Award naming him one of the nation's top ten emerging writers. Since that time, he incorporates national book tours and other publicity into a life previously focused on the land, sea, and daily weather conditions and movements of animals.

 

Seth was nominated in 2006 for the position of Alaska State Writer Laureate, which he turned down to pursue work on Shopping for Porcupine, an autobiographical account of his life. Released in 2009, Shopping for Porcupine reflects on wilderness, global warming and human encroachment and the changes that slowly make their way to Northwest Alaska. Booklist said, "Crafted with the precision and nerve acquired by living off the land, this is a powerful and important book of remembrance, protest, and warning."

 

Pup and Pokey, released in 2014, is Seth's first children's book. It tells the story of a boisterous wolf pup and an awkward young porcupine, unlikely allies in this tale of friendship set on the Alaska tundra.

 

Recently released, Swallowed by the Great Land, features slice-of-life essays that further reveal the duality in Seth's own life today, and also in the village and community that he inhabits.

 

© 2019 Seth Kantner