Antarctica: Life on the Ice, edited by Susan Fox Rogers, presents twenty first-hand essays by workers, scientists and travelers who describe what it's like to live and work on Earth's coldest continent. The essays detail life from all three U.S. bases—McMurdo, South Pole, and Palmer—as well as from remote camps, including the Taylor Valley, the polar plateau and Cape Royds where David Ainley sits on the stoop of his rac tent and contemplates the fate of the Adélie penguin.
Many of the essays, especially those by Karen Joyce and Glenn Grant (who describes the dreaded psych test) offer up a special dose of ice humor. Insider stories describe "Happy Camper School," what it's like to wash dishes at the South Pole or what it's like to fall in love in a place where the sun never goes down (or comes up but once a year).
Several of the contributors are award-winning writers, including Bill Fox, whose poetic essay takes us through McMurdo, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, who went in search of krill at Palmer and ended up finding dinosaur bones, and Nicholas Johnson of Bigdeadplace.com who describes going "toast." Others in the collection are first time authors who bring a sharp story-telling ability to these modern-day heroic tales filled with gale force winds, magnificent glaciers, and mummified seals.
Through a rich range of essays, this collection introduces readers to a colorful cast of characters whose words and stories capture the spirit of the planet's most fascinating, and forbidding, place.
In the 2004-2005 austral summer, Susan Fox Rogers spent six weeks in the Antarctic as part of the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Susan is the editor of eleven anthologies, including the acclaimed Solo: On Her Own Adventure. Susan’s writing has appeared most recently in Under the Sun, and in the anthology France: A Love Story. Susan received her MFA from the University of Arizona. She is a member of the faculty of Bard College where she teaches creative writing and is co-director of First Year Seminar.
Free resources to download
From this site
Book excerpts (pdf files): Introduction by Susan Fox Rogers (17 kb) / Leaving the Ice by Bill Fox (37 kb) / Sunrise at 90 South by Katy M. Jensen (42 kb)
From external site
In This Dream by Joe Mastoianni
Contributing Authors and Essays
• Joe Mastroianni, In This Dream
• Karen Joyce, The Day It Rained Chickens
• Jim Mastro, Lost in the Storm
• Katy M. Jensen, Sunrise at 90 South
• Jon Bowermaster, The Ultimate Risky Business
• Susan Fox Rogers, The Secret of Silence
• Jason Anthony, AGO 1
• Phil Jacobsen, The Big Chill
• Jules Uberuaga, True Point of Beginning
• Beth Bartel, Seeing Mount Erebus
• Mark Lehman, Food for Thought, Foods as Fuel
• Glenn Grant, Shrink Rap
• Lucy Jane Bledsoe, How to Find a Dinosaur
• Traci J. Macnamara, We Ate No Turkey: A Holiday on Ice
• Nicholas Johnson, Toast on Ice: Wintering in Antarctica
• David Ainley, A Letter from Cape Royds: Of Penguins and Men
• Christopher Cokinos, Massif: Notes from An Unmaking
• Kristan Hutchison, Antarctic Honeymoon
• William L. Fox, Leaving the Ice
• Guy Guthridge, Maverick Among Scientists
Websites
www.susanfoxrogers.com
http://www.travelerstales.com/catalog/ant/
Book Details
Published by Travelers' Tales (September 2007)
Paperback, colour, 299pp
ISBN: 1-932361-53-7