Contributors’ Bios
Bios of our contributing adventurers, writers, photographers and artists
Monica Devine
Monica Devine
Monica Devine was born and raised in Michigan, and received a Master of Arts Degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Northern Michigan University. She has traveled extensively to over 50 Indian and Eskimo villages of Alaska in her work as a speech pathologist, finding it a perfect opportunity to take photographs and notes about the Alaska Native people and their lands. Monica is the author of four children’s books, among them Iditarod: The Greatest Win Ever, a former nominee for the celebrated Golden Kite Award. Her fifth children’s book, titled Kayak Girl is forthcoming from the University of Alaska Press.
On The Edge of Ice, about her experience traveling on the ice during whaling season, won First Place in the Dorothy Churchill Cappon Award for Creative Nonfiction with the literary journal New Letters. She currently writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry from her home of 30-plus years in Eagle River, Alaska, and pens a weekly blog on writing, art, photography and her nature-based spirituality at: monicadevine.blogspot.com
Jeff Fair
Jeff Fair
Independent author and freelance field biologist Jeff Fair has studied loons (and other wild spirits) across the North from Maine to Alaska for 33 years. A wildlife biologist by formal training, he began his loon studies in NH in 1978, and directed the NH loon recovery program for 11 years. He moved to Alaska in 1995; in 2005 he spent a month working with biologists on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in order to write his chapter in Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Fair’s writings ponder the connections between the human spirit and the wild, natural world. He has published four books and is currently writing a biography of Larry Aumiller’s 30 years as manager of Alaska’s McNeil River State Game Sanctuary. He is a regular contributor to Audubon and Alaska Magazines and Appalachia, where he is a contributing editor. His essays have appeared in numerous other national periodicals and several anthologies, including the forthcoming Arctic Voices, by Subhankar Banerjee, and On Arctic Ground, due out from Braided River in spring 2012. Fair has received awards from the National Wildlife Federation and the National Press Club.
Though he returns to Maine briefly each year for loon project oversight, his heart now resides in the High North, where he makes regular trips into Arctic Alaska and Canada’s northern reaches to study the rare Yellow-billed Loon and other creatures and landscapes and write about them. He lives in a small cabin on the toe of Lazy Mountain, just across the river from Palmer, Alaska. Jeff’s website is www.yukonjeff.com.
Josh Ferris
Josh Ferris
Richard Kahn
Richard Kahn
An award-winning filmmaker and photographer, Richard documented a 70-day journey on the Utukok and Colville Rivers in northern Alaska during the summer of 2008. He returned to the region in the summer of 2009 and spent forty five days paddling on the western edge of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
While Richard has usually let his photos and films speak for themselves, the pressure of oil and coal development in one of this country’s last unspoiled frontiers has prompted him to tell the story of this remarkable land, its people and its challenge. Richard has spent the past ten summers north of the Arctic Circle and has developed a deep appreciation for this remote part of Alaska. Richard will combine still photographs, entries from his journal and a short film to illustrate how much is at risk in this wild and beautiful land.
Cedric Ley
Cedric Ley
Cedric Ley is an inspirational wildlife photographer and filmmaker. Born and raised in the French countryside, he gained a huge affection and respect for Mother Nature and all she has to offer. Cedric spent 60 days in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2005 and more recently traveled the Utukok Uplands in 2008 for a similar timeframe. He engaged on each journey with meager possessions, completely alone and unsupported, hiking into the immensely large and harsh wilderness, filming the incredible life where seldom does human existence pass.
Cedric is planning a third adventure in the near future to yet another one of nature’s less traveled places to bring awareness through photography to those who would learn and help to protect these sensitive areas in the future for the next generations to enjoy.
Peter and Shannon Huffman Polson
Peter and Shannon Huffman Polson
Shannon is a native Alaskan and a writer, currently placing a manuscript of her first full-length book, a personal narrative about a trip through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was a contributing writer to More Than 85 Broads
Shannon graduated with a B.A. from Duke University in English Literature, an M.B.A. from the Tuck School at Dartmouth and now is an M.F.A. candidate at Seattle Pacific University. She served eight years as an attack helicopter pilot in the Army and worked five years in corporate marketing before beginning to write full time. Shannon is active with the Alaska Wilderness League and Seattle Pro Musica. In September 2009, Shannon was awarded the Trailblazer Woman of Valor award from Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell.
Peter grew up in Seattle, where he runs a technology company. He is heavily involved with education issues through trustee work at Lakeside School and, previously, a chapter of Inner City Outings he started at Franklin High School. An avid photographer, Peter has published his work through a number of publications since beginning his avocation many years ago. His photos were most recently published in Travel Off the Radar and Seattle Magazine. Peter won first and second place in the 2009 photography contest sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Wilderness. His work was featured alongside photographer Andy Moderow in the First Friday exhibit at Crush in Anchorage, Alaska in November and December 2009.
Peter received his B.S. in Environmental Studies from Middlebury, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude and including a semester studying wildlife management in Tanzania. He received his M.B.A. from the Tuck School at Dartmouth with High Honors as a Tuck Scholar. Peter worked in investment banking in New York City for two years and for two technology start-ups before co-founding Junxion, Inc. in 2003. He is now C.E.O of Dashwire in Seattle.
Shannon and Peter live in Seattle with their son, Alaskan husky and cat. They are avid backpackers, backcountry skiers and cyclists. Shannon sings with Seattle Pro Musica as a first alto, and has served on the board as well. Shannon and Peter are active at their church, Epiphany Parish in Seattle. They are co-founders of The Ultima Thule and share their material with the Alaska Wilderness League, the National Parks Conservation Association, Facing the Future, and Kids for Saving Earth, as well as through speaking engagements as speakers-board members of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia’s Committee on the Environment.
Bill Sherwonit
Bill Sherwonit
Nature writer Bill Sherwonit was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but has called Alaska home since 1982. After switching from geology to journalism in the late 1970s, he worked a dozen years at newspapers, including a decade at the Anchorage Times. A fulltime freelancer since 1992, Sherwonit has in recent years become ever more interested in literary journalism and creative non-fiction writing, especially the personal essay/narrative form. He has contributed essays and articles to a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, journals, and anthologies; his essay “In the Company of Bears” was selected for the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007. Sherwonit is also the author of 12 books about Alaska; his most recent, excerpted here, is Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska’s Arctic Wilderness
Its always good to read of the journeys of Peter and Shannon Polson. Peter’s photography and Shannon’s writings writings are among the best there is. Keep up the good work!
Michael Burke
Anchorage, Alaska