SPECIAL FEATURE The Lonely Islands Attu and Kiska, Alaska Essay by Nancy Lord Photographs by Irene Owsley
Nancy Lord
Nancy Lord is the author of three collections of short stories; a novel, pH (WestWinds Press/Alaska Northwest Books); a memoir, Fishcamp (Island Press/Shearwater Books and Counterpoint Press paperback edition); and four nonfiction books: Beluga Days: Tracking the Endangered White Whale (Counterpoint Press and The Mountaineers Books paperback edition), Early Warming (Counterpoint Press), Green Alaska: Dreams from the Far Coast (Counterpoint Press), and Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life (University of Nebraska Press). She has published seven essays in Alaska Quarterly Review, one of which was cited as Notable essay of the year in The Best American Essays. Other essays have appeared in Sierra Magazine, Hunger Mountain, Ploughshares, Center for Humans and Nature, Catamaran, and Utne Reader. Her awards include fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation, a Pushcart Prize, and residencies including Denali Park, Wrangell Mountains Center, and Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Lord served as Alaska Writer Laureate from 2008–2010.
Irene Owsley
Irene Owsley, a freelance photographer, specializes in the outdoors and travel, particularly in northern regions. Her work has appeared in such magazines as Canoe & Kayak, Sierra, National Parks, Earthwatch, and Natural History and in the publications of several conservation organizations. Since 2011, she has been selected for five artist-in-residence programs: Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico, and four through Voices of the Wilderness in Alaska (Nellie Juan-College Fjord Wilderness Study Area, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and two in Tracy Arm-Ford’s Terror Wilderness). A panorama from the latter residency was included in an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Wilderness Act. She has exhibited her work in venues including the Anchorage Museum, Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, and the National Institutes of Health. She has also been profiled in Rangefinder, Photographer’s Forum, and Nikon World magazine. A long-time resident of Washington DC until 2014, Owsley found the “wild” in this metropolitan area by creating a body of work called “Wild Washington,” with images from the riparian areas along the Potomac River. She is now a resident of New Mexico. This photographic essay collaboration was made possible by the Voices of the Wilderness artist residency program, sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Nancy Lord and Irene Owsley were selected by the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge to travel to the islands of Kiska and Attu in the summer of 2017.