As a lifelong Alaskan, place has always helped define me. Born in a log cabin on Lake Clark (first named by the Dena’ina Athabaskans Qizhjeh Vena) I spent my first two years in a true wilderness setting. Later, my husband and I would settle on the same family property, in a different cabin that we built together. For 17 years we lived there year-round; now we reside six months of the year at the Lake and the other six months in Homer.

The ways in which the Lake, and Alaska in general, have influenced my writing are tremendous. Whether my subject is love or death or an environmental lament, often the Alaskan landscape serves as a backdrop. This intimate view of the natural world sometimes evolves to encompass historical events or meditations on climate change. Whatever my topic though, my duty is to language: sound and rhythm, metaphor and imagery, the making of music on the page.

Anne Coray’s poetry collections include A Measure’s Hush, Violet Transparent, and Bone Strings. She is coauthor of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve and coeditor of Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines including the Southern Review, Poetry, and North American Review. A finalist with White Pine Press, Carnegie Mellon, Rooster Hill Press, Water Press & Media, and Bright Hill Press, she has several Pushcart nominations and had received fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation.