"Cleverly framed, these stories capture a rich island community that is steeped in oral traditions. . . . a collection that rewards rereading and rumination."--Foreword Reviews"In Prescott's debut collection, a young Native American woman confronts colonialism, homophobia, and a history of erasure by reclaiming the stories of her people. . . . [an] ambitious collection that boldly explores the intersection of magic, queerness, and indigenous history."--Kirkus Reviews "An enthralling, engaging, mind-bending, time-bending story collection that tells the old new and the new old and pulls everything apart and brings everything back together again . . . You will not find your cruise ship tour stop here; this is the way Alaska is passed down from generation to generation: unexpected, brave, lovely, unsettling. As one character says, "You might even get stuck here in our stories." Indeed. Start reading The Dead Go to Seattle and I promise: you will get stuck in these stories until you've turned the last page. Vivian Faith Prescott has given us an important, essential work that should be required reading for all thoughtful, imaginative people."--Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, A Sudden Light, and How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets
“Cleverly framed, these stories capture a rich island community that is steeped in oral traditions. . . . a collection that rewards rereading and rumination.”―Foreword Reviews“In Prescott’s debut collection, a young Native American woman confronts colonialism, homophobia, and a history of erasure by reclaiming the stories of her people. . . . [an] ambitious collection that boldly explores the intersection of magic, queerness, and indigenous history.”―Kirkus Reviews “An enthralling, engaging, mind-bending, time-bending story collection that tells the old new and the new old and pulls everything apart and brings everything back together again . . . You will not find your cruise ship tour stop here; this is the way Alaska is passed down from generation to generation: unexpected, brave, lovely, unsettling. As one character says, “You might even get stuck here in our stories.” Indeed. Start reading The Dead Go to Seattle and I promise: you will get stuck in these stories until you’ve turned the last page. Vivian Faith Prescott has given us an important, essential work that should be required reading for all thoughtful, imaginative people.”―Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, A Sudden Light, and How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets
About the Author
Vivian Faith Prescott is a fifth generation Alaskan, born and raised on the small island of Wrangell in Southeastern Alaska. A writer of Sámi, Suomalainen, and Irish descent (among others), and adopted into the T'akdeintaan clan, she is the founding member of Blue Canoe Writers in Sitka and Flying Island Writers and Artists in Wrangell, with an emphasis on mentoring Indigenous writers. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska and a PhD in Cross Cultural Studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her stories and poems have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, and she is the recipient of a Rasmuson Fellowship and the Jason Wenger Award for Literary Excellence from the University of Alaska. Her Tlingit name is "Mother of Cute Little Raven."
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A Blanket on the SeaTova felt herself drowning as she fell into the bedcovers beside her best friend, Fern. Fern leaned over and kissed her. They explored each otherʼs mouths with their tongues. Thirteen-year-old Tova closed her eyes, afraid if she opened them, the blanket separating the world beneath the ocean and the people on land, would be broken. It was like in the story her elders told about the creation of the killer whales where the young man, Naatsilanéi, lifted a blanket on the sea and went down to the land of the Sea Lion people. There, the Sea Lion tribe gave Naatsilanéi instructions on how to carve a monster from yellow cedar in order to kill his own brothers whoʼd left him for dead.
Tova had always been fascinated with the old stories, especially the creation stories. What did the yellow cedar log feel like being transformed? It must have thought it would live out its life as a tree, then possibly a log. The yellow cedar log had no idea it would change. Its long shaggy bark and pungent oiled wood was going to be carved with teeth and a blowhole.
She pressed her eyes tightly together until Fern said, “Open your eyes and look at me, okay?”
Her heart thumped. Was this what it felt like to be in love? The adults she knew didnʼt talk about love. Fern and the other girls from school gossiped about sweaty junior high boys. No one talked about if they loved girls. Well, they did, sort of. They drew glyphs on one anotherʼs backs in the dark during slumber parties, whispering against one anotherʼs cheeks. She had felt it first when Fern had touched her back with her fingertip, making the spiral petroglyph on her back, swirling it round and round, until the tide came over her like it did on the rocks on Petroglyph Beach.
