My One Square Inch of Alaska: A Novel - Softcover

Short, Sharon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452298768 ISBN 13: 9780452298767

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2013

Synopsis

A pair of siblings escapes—along with a Siberian Husky—the strictures of their 1950s industrial Ohio town on the adventure of a lifetime.

Talented high-school senior Donna Lane yearns to leave her Midwestern home in pursuit of a career in design, but she feels obligated to stay and care for her helpless father and her younger brother, Will. In fragile health and obsessed with the television show Sergeant Striker and the Alaskan Wild, Will’s dearest companion is a mute Siberian Husky named Trusty. The arrival of two outsiders inspires Donna to consider her dreams anew. Then Will falls sick, and Donna packs up their yellow convertible—with Will, Trusty, and a road atlas—and sets off for the Alaskan Territory. A portrait of a singular American moment, My One Square Inch of Alaska is a moving tale of exploration and love—human and canine—that dares to believe the impossible.

About this title

From the Author:

At a book club gathering, one of the women asked if anyone remembered the deeds to one square inch of Alaska that used to come in cereal boxes in the 1950s. (The question wasn't related to the book we were discussing.) The 1950s were before I was born, but I was immediately taken with this compelling concept... the desire for a deed to one tiny bit of land in a vast frontier, and what that could symbolize. Almost immediately, the shadowy image of a young woman and her little brother, standing together and holding hands, appeared in my imagination. I couldn't 'see' them yet in sharp detail, but I could 'feel' them saying, "tell our story."  I had no idea what their story would or should be, but by the time I returned home, I'd written in my head the scene where Donna and Will finally see his one square inch. The scene narrated itself in what would become Donna's first person voice. I went home, wrote down the scene in a journal, and then realized I had a lot of work to do to figure out who these characters were, how they got to that one square inch, and what living in the 1950s was like for them. I spent the next two years or so mining my own imagination, as well as doing a lot of research, to bring the story to life--and I loved every minute of the process.

I believe I felt so impassioned about writing Donna and Will's story because, at its heart, it's about embracing, believing in and following one's dreams.... even if the odds are long or everyone else is saying 'you can't do this!' I've always been a believer in following one's dreams and working hard to achieve them, balancing that belief with realism. My children were at the age of transitioning from being teenagers to being young adults, so this personal experience also informed my thinking about this theme.

Every character in the novel represents some aspect of how we can respond to dreams; Jimmy and Babs find themselves under pressure to ignore exploring their own dreams in order to follow others' expectations, while many of the adult characters have denied their dreams or followed a dream that's really an illusion, and become bitter as a result. Mr. Cahill and MayJune are the adult exceptions to this; they understand and embrace their dreams, and encourage Donna and Will in theirs.

Will represents the wonderfully innocent belief of the very young in chasing dreams simply for the joy of the chase. His illness, and his awareness of its severity, give him an urgency, fierceness, and stubbornness in pursuing his dream that he might otherwise not have. His one tiny bit of territory represents the life-affirming importance of embracing one's dreams.

I also very much relate to Donna. Although I grew up more than 25 years later than she, and had different life circumstances, at our core, our emotional experiences as we grew up are very similar, so there is a lot of a younger me in Donna.

About the Author:

Sharon Short's novel, My One Square Inch of Alaska, earned a 2012 Ohio Arts Council individual artist's grant and a 2011 Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District Literary Artist Fellowship. Sharon is the Literary Life columnist for the Dayton Daily News, directs the renowned Antioch Writers' Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and is an adjunct instructor of creative writing and composition at Antioch University Midwest. Sharon's other books include Sanity Check (100 reader-favorites of her weekly Dayton Daily News humor and lifestyle column) and titles in two mystery series, the comedic Josie Toadfern and "eGumshoe" Patricia Delaney as well as short stories and essays.  Sharon holds a B.A. in English from Wright State University and an M.A. in English from Bowling Green State University. She lives in Ohio with her husband and is the mother of two adult daughters.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0452298768
• ISBN 13: 9780452298767
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336