“Below deck is suffocating, smelling of sweaty, spermy, unwashed armpits, unwashed groins, moldy wood, bilge water, and the green smell of algae, all congealed in thick streams. I’ve learned to sleep by breathing out of my mouth. On deck, we escape the bed bugs biting away at our skin, clicking cockroaches hiding in the shadows, and the rats gnawing away at every cask. I look forward to the cold sea air.” Historical FictionIndigenousAlaskaArcticNative American LiteratureInupiaqAlaska Native LiteratureYankee WhalersNew Bedford Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor Source: Sivulliq: Ancestor
“We’re splicing rope today. Yesterday we cleaned out the trypots, the pots for boiling whale blubber, dry as an old maid in heat, Remigio says.” Historical FictionIndigenousAlaskaArcticNative American LiteratureInupiaqAlaska Native LiteratureYankee WhalersCommercial Whaling Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor Source: Sivulliq: Ancestor