This reading group will circumnavigate the northern polar region of the globe, exploring the Arctic in twenty-first century fiction and non-fiction.

Together we will travel around the Arctic Circle! We will join writers (two of whom are local Rhode Island writers) on their journeys through the oceans and icebergs that define the region. We will start at the Bering Sea, take a lyrical excursion into Alaska, and then move on to stories of the upper reaches of Siberia, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Canada. We will end on the shores of Delaware Bay, where birds headed for the Arctic have a brief stopover. Through these books, we will meet invented and real-life adventurers who carefully observe the Arctic’s plants, people, myths, and mysteries.

This reading group will meet on Zoom on the 4th Wednesday of the month (with one exception), from 5:30-7pm. Please note that there will be no meeting in December.

Wed, September 24
Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait by Bathsheba Demuth

Wed, October 22
The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife by Joan Naviyuk Kane

Wed, November 19 (note date change due to Thanksgiving)
Arctic Circle: Birth and Rebirth in the Land of the Caribou by Robert Leonard Reid

No December meeting

Wed, January 28
When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu

Wed, February 25
Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen

Wed, March 25
How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island by Egill Bjarnason

Wed, April 22
Narwhals: Arctic Whales in a Melting World by Todd McLeish

Wed, May 27
The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey by Deborah Cramer

Clare Jones is a writer, editor, and educator. She has received grants and fellowships from the New York State Council on the Arts, Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, the Fulbright Program, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.