Welcome to the World of Award Winning Author
Debby Dahl Edwardson
Photo copyright Bill Hess
On the snow-covered shores of the Arctic Ocean
If you haven't seen me, it's because I live far, far away. at the top of the world. the northernmost community in the US: Utqiaġvik, Alaska, which used to be called Barrow. Are you wondering how this name change came about and how is pronounced? Listen here.
I've lived in Utqiaġvik pretty much all of my adult life and this place and its people have shaped who I am as a writer and as a human being. My husband is Iñupiaq and most of the stories I write are set within this cultural context. Like many other writers, I straddle the distinct and sometimes divergent cultural traditions that make me who I am, but I live in Iñupiaq country and have been here for 40 years so the Iñupiaq culture is the one I belong to, the one that has become home to me as a human being and as an artist.
I write what I know, and through knowing it in my own way, I make it my own—something both very old and very new.
I acknowledge the Iñupiaq people of Arctic Alaska whose land I live on and work from. I pay my respects to the Iñupiaq Elders past and present, the Traditional and sovereign owners of this land.
At a the whaling festival, Nalukataq,
with kids and grandkids
“When I have something to say that I think will be too difficult for adults, I write it in a book for children. Children are excited by new ideas; they have not yet closed the doors and windows of their imaginations. Provided the story is good... nothing is too difficult for children.
—Madeline L'Engle