49 Writers | Roundup for Literary Alaska

Dan O’Neill has written three books of literary non-fiction. A Land Gone Lonesome is literary travel writing centered on a canoe trip along the Yukon River. The Alaska Library Association selected it as 2006’s best book on Alaska, published anywhere, and The New York Times Book Review awarded it an “Editor’s Choice.” His first book, a political history called The Firecracker Boys, also won the Library Association’s best book award, and for it Dan was named Alaska Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society. In between, he wrote The Last Giant of Beringia, which blends the biography of a unique scholar with an explication of his scientific work on the Bering Land Bridge. The Times (London) called it “a beautiful and engrossing book…a wonderful integration of science and history.” The University of Alaska Press has just released his first children’s book: Stubborn Gal: The True Story of an Undefeated Sled Dog Racer. Dan was born in San Francisco, educated at U.C. Berkeley, and moved to Alaska 40 years ago. There, he studied creative writing, worked construction jobs, built log cabins, hunted, fished, trapped, and ran dogs. He and his wife once ran their teams 800 miles to Nome. As research associate at the University of Alaska’s Oral History Program, he produced radio and television documentaries for public broadcasting. For several years he wrote a column of political opinion for the Fairbanks daily newspaper.