ASP Podcast #23: Bruce Rettig, author of "Refraction, An Arctic Memoir"
Bruce Rettig
Refraction book cover
Offshore Oil Platform, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
Oil Platform and a resident
Kaktovik and part of the Prudhoe Bay Crowley fleet near Barter Island
Listen to Bruce and Dan with your favorite podcast player, or via Apple Podcasts
Bruce Rettig recently published Refraction, An Arctic Memoir. Refraction is a Pushcart prize nominee, and has received recognition and multiple awards including an award for non-fiction with the San Francisco Writing Contest, an International Chanticleer Book Award and a Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Award. Bruce also writes literary short stories, creative non-fiction, essays and flash fiction/nonfiction. He continues to be at the helm of his advertising and graphic design agency with the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association as an important client.
Refraction recounts his experiences as a young man working in Prudhoe Bay. His writing includes both the human intensity of heavy industry as well as the vastness of the non-human world.
Bruce defines "Refraction" and why he chose it as the title for his memoir
Early experiences as a new hire on the North Slope
The complexities of a major industrial push in a harsh, demanding environment
Remembering a couple of notable characters as co-workers, Lee and Swan
Reads an excerpt from Refraction, "The Dynamics of Steel and Ice"
Relates some of the properties of arctic ice, reading an excerpt from the chapter "The Properties of Ice"
Barter Island and the Iñupiat village of Kaktovik: Helping to recover the Crowley Prudhoe Bay fleet and getting to know some of the Kaktovik villagers
Complexity and paradox: decisions, choices and divergent paths: thoughts on the fossil fuel era
The importance of conversation and listening: "We all share the same home”
Special thanks to Christian Arthur for original music