Volume 24 - No. 1 & 2
HIDDEN ALASKA: Poetry & Prose
EDITOR'S NOTE
Two cents an acre is what it cost to buy Alaska from Russia in 1867. It was a hard sell for those 365,000,000 acres. The purchase was ridiculed, as was Secretary of State William Seward who negotiated the deal. History is unequivocal, however. Seward got a bargain, and today Alaska honors Seward with a town, a highway, and a paid holiday named after him. But that doesn’t tell you much about the 49th State and its human dimensions.
In our pages year after year one finds a national and international literary focus, and yet Alaska is an important part of that perspective. Indeed, Alaska Quarterly Review is a product of our unique state and the rich diversity of Alaska’s people, some of whom trace roots back generations before the concept of “purchasing” or “owning” land.
Now on the cusp of Alaska Quarterly Review’s 25th anniversary, contributing editor Peggy Shumaker and I thought we’d invite you into our home to give you a glimpse of Alaska as we know it: a vista beyond the vast, wild, spectacularly beautiful place of brochures, beyond the images of cold natural scenes, or oil reserves, to the hidden Alaska of history, of the heart and imagination.
We cast our net among writers who know Alaska because they have lived and breathed it. We asked for their two cents worth. The result is a collection of poetry and prose we call Hidden Alaska.
Welcome to our home.
Ronald Spatz
Editor
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