Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories

171 Pages·2011·0.68 MB·English

by  Melinda Moustakis

bear
down
>
bear
north

Melinda
Moustakis
b e a r
d o w n
>
b e a r
n o r t h
Alaska Stories
The University of Georgia Press
Athens and London
© 2011 by Melinda Moustakis
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Designed by Mindy Basinger Hill
Set in 12 /15 pt Vendetta Medium
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.

Printed in the United States of America

11 12 13 14 15 C 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moustakis, Melinda, 1982 –
Bear down, bear north : Alaska stories / by Melinda Moustakis.
p. cm. — (The Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-3893-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8203-3893-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Wilderness areas—Alaska—Fiction.
2. Frontier and pioneer life—Alaska—Fiction.
3. Families—Fiction. 4. Survival—Fiction. 5. Short stories.
6. Alaska—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3613.O88B43 2011
813'.6—dc22 2011010451

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
For my mother and father,
Constance and Michael, for their
love and support and guidance.
>
For Sonny, my uncle who takes
me fishing and tells me stories.
>
For Mike, Melaina,
Sam, and Kamal.
>
For my uncle Sam and
aunt Kamal, and my cousins,
Sophia and Olivia.
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contents
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Acknowledgments ix
Trigger 1
The Mannequin in Soldotna 3
The Weight of You 17
Us Kids 33
This One Isn’t Going to Be Afraid 43
Point MacKenzie 53
Miners and Trappers 65
Bite 81
Some Other Animal 89
Mr. Fur Face Needs a Girlfriend 107
They Find the Drowned 125
What You Can Endure 137
The Last Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show 147
Resources 157
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acknowledgments
>
I would like to thank all the literary journals that published previous
versions of the following stories: “Trigger” was originally published as
“MooseBlind” in Kenyon Review Online 3, no. 3 (Summer 2010); “The
Mannequin in Soldotna” appeared in Conjunctions 54: Shadow Selves;
“The Weight of You” in Cimarron Review, no. 166 (Winter 2009); “Us
Kids” in Alaska Quarterly Review 26, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring and Sum-
mer 2009); “This One Isn’t Going to Be Afraid” in The Massachusetts
Review (Winter 2009); “Point MacKenzie” in The Tusculum Review 6
(2010); “Miners and Trappers” in Kenyon Review 33, no. 4 (Fall 2011);
“Bite” in Storyglossia, no. 39; “Some Other Animal” in American Short
Fiction; “Mr. Fur Face Needs a Girlfriend” in Alaska Quarterly Review
29, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring and Summer 2011); “They Find the Drowned”
in Hobart (no. 12); “What You Can Endure” in New England Review
32, no. 1; “The Last Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show” in Beloit Fiction
Journal 24 (Spring 2011).
I would like to thank my parents for their support and senses of
humor and for everything they have done for me over the years. And
my Uncle Sonny for his generosity and his big bear of a heart, for shar-
ing his stories and fishing expertise and for allowing me to summer
on the river. An immense thank you to Nancy Zafris and University
of Georgia Press for giving this book a chance.
I would like to thank all of my teachers over the years, but especially
Jaimy Gordon, Stuart Dybek, Kellie Wells, and my literature professors
at Western Michigan University; Pam Houston, Lucy Corin, and Lynn
Freed, who I worked with while at uc Davis; Susann Cokal, Kevin