REFRACTION: AN ARCTIC MEMOIR
Rettig’s debut book, Refraction: An Arctic Memoir, recounts the experience of working in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a remote Arctic outpost and home to the largest oilfield in North America. It provides an intimate insight into the power of Big Oil, the dangers of an industrial environment, and living with fellow laborers in an isolated work camp. Refraction has won several writing awards including first place in the San Francisco Writing Contest, first in the International Chanticleer Book Awards, first place in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s Literary Contest, a Nautilus Gold Award, Forward Reviews Silver and Bronze Awards, and an excerpt from the book was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Refraction: An Arctic Memoir is published by Wayfarer Books, and is available at large retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powells’s Books. Please consider purchasing directly at Wayfarer Books and continue to support independent publishers and bookstores. Wayfarer Books gives 1% of net profits directly to the Indigenous nations on whose lands they are based, in support of sovereignty, Indigenous futures, and wealth redistribution.
About the author
Bruce Rettig is the author of Refraction: An Arctic Memoir, drawn from his years as a merchant marine in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, the shipping hub of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, where industry, isolation, and Arctic light converge. He is currently at work on a novel set in 1950s Nevada during the era of atomic testing, a story shaped by the stark beauty and moral tension of the desert West. His short fiction has been recognized by the Peralta Press YK3 Contest for Best in Fiction and Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Award. A founding member of Tahoe Writers Works and longtime advocate for regional arts, he draws enduring inspiration from the high Sierra, Nevada’s mountain desert, and the wider West.
For Bruce Rettig’s full biography, click here.
Changing Tides Blog
Below are posts from the Changing Tides blog, written by Bruce Rettig.
Comments are welcome.
Remembering Daniel Ellsberg: “The Most Dangerous Man in America”
THE TERM “WHISTLEBLOWER” might seem overly used, but we are living in strange and turbulent times and an increasing number of individuals are mustering the courage to call things out that they see as wrong, unjust, or untrue. I had the honor of listening to Daniel...
A New Definition of Insanity: Alaska’s Willow Project
THE OVERY-USED DEFINITION of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Its origin, attributed to Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin, and Mark Twain among others, appeared in a 1981 document published by Narcotics Anonymous. A story...
Tracking Flying Objects at the “End of the World”
IN MY BOOK, REFRACTION: AN ARCTIC MEMOIR, I recount a comment by a union personnel director in Seattle the day before I traveled to the North Slope of Alaska: “Prudhoe Bay might not be the end of the world, but you sure as hell can see it from there.” On Saturday,...
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