About the Author

Kathy Kysar is an Alaska writer, educator, and advocate whose work explores off-grid living, rural communities, the natural world, and the meaning of home. She is an Assistant Professor of English with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she teaches online writing and humanities courses to students across Alaska.

Her articles and essays have appeared in Mother Earth News, Last Frontier Magazine, Alaska Trapper, and Trapper's World. Drawing on years of experience living off the grid along the Unalakleet River with her husband, Gregg, Kathy writes about self-reliance, subsistence living, community, and the deep connections between people and place.

Today, Kathy and Gregg live in a log cabin nestled between Alaska's Talkeetna and Chugach mountain ranges in the community of Sutton. There they continue to fish, hunt, garden, and enjoy the rhythms of rural life while sharing their home with two dogs, Daisy and Buster Brown, and a small flock of chickens.

In addition to her teaching and writing, Kathy is a passionate supporter of libraries and intellectual freedom. Whether she is teaching, advocating for libraries, or writing about life in Alaska, her work reflects a deep belief in the power of stories to connect people, preserve communities, and help us understand our place in the world.