As of 2026 some 742,000 people of diverse backgrounds and talents call Alaska home, but thousands of other beings also help make this state the special place it is.
“Alaska Literary Field Guide,” edited by Mary Beth Holleman, Nancy Lord and Shaelene Grace Moler, captures the plethora of art, ecology, and poetry of Alaska’s people and wildlife. The book celebrates it all, from the feisty little Rufous Hummingbird to Steller sea lions and humpback whales and from the vast wilderness of land, rivers and ocean, with a combination of the editors’ talents and many literary, scientific and artistic Alaskans.
In gratitude to the several dozen artists, writers and resources employed in making this book happen, the editors offer a brief introduction to them all, along with an index making it easy to find all such beings in the book: Every bird, fish, amphibian, invertebrate and mammal. Yes, they are all there.
Mosquitos alone, often jokingly referred to as the real state bird, come in 35 species and according to some calculations weigh in annually at 48,000 tons, enough to keep residents and visitors alike remembering to always bring bug spray when heading outdoors.
We learn that mosquitoes, as well as many other Alaska insects, survive severe winter cold because of two biochemical processes.
Their body water is replaced by glycerol, which acts as an antifreeze and keeps their cells from freezing and rupturing. Second, their body temperature regulates downward in what is known as supercooling. And don’t blame the guys, as only female mosquitos bite people and other animals.
But the good news about mosquitoes is that in their aquatic stages they are prey for fish and other species and as adults they are pollinators and food for birds and bats.
The round little marine snail known as the Sitka Periwinkle has its own place in the book, as well as the fireweed, which bloom by the millions in summer, and the Alpine Forget-Me-Not, with its five sky-blue petals.
Poetry included ranges from Carol Hult’s “Ode to eelgrass” to Tiffany Rosamond Creed’s “Moonlet Children,” about the choir of the biome, and Leslie Leland Fields’ “Tideline,” about all that is found along the vast shoreline of Alaska.
Artists whose work appear in the book range from watercolor artist Karl Becker of Cordova to author and painter Ry Troll of Ketchikan.
The Beings Index in the back of the book will guide readers to the pages where any critter or plant is located.
The book was published by Skipstone, an imprint of Mountaineers Books – an independent nonprofit publisher.
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