Ronald Spatz

Since 2016 we have edged closer and closer to an unprecedented post-truth era in the governance of our country. Driven by greed and a confluence of cynical ideologies, politicians and their media enablers have been unrelenting in spreading falsehoods. They have attacked the institutions of our republic along with long-accepted norms of democratic society. At […]

In the twenty-five years since Alaska Quarterly Review (AQR) published its first issue in fall of 1982, the average human heart beat 875 million times, the Earth wobbled on its axis, and glaciers in Alaska and around the globe retreated. In 1982 we were not using laptop computers, deleting spam, or making movies with our […]

This year marks Alaska Quarterly Review’s 30th anniversary of publication. Since 1982, it has served as a bridge between Alaska and the national and international literary community. It has established itself as distinctly Alaskan – strongly influenced by the place, people and cultural traditions – without being provincial. Alaska Quarterly Review has discovered and nurtured […]

When the King of Sweden awarded Karl Landsteiner the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1930, a number of things were known about human blood. It appears to be red and is pumped by the engine of the heart. It’s a physiological necessity to sustain human life. It takes about five liters of it to run […]

Alaska is rich in Native culture and heritage as illustrated by the fact that there are about twenty distinct Native languages spoken here. Sadly, however, many of the languages are in danger of dying out. Eyak, for example, has only one Native speaker left; Haida has about ten. This compelling reality reinforces our strong belief […]

In terms of geologic time, it doesn’t mean much that the Comet Hale-Bopp won’t be lighting up our skies again for nearly 3,000 years. And scientists say it’s not much more than a big, dirty iceball anyway, with a tail of gases millions of miles long. A remnant from the time when the solar system […]