A lifelong Alaskan, Steve Kahn moved at the age of nine from the “metropolis” of Anchorage to the foothills of the Chugach Mountains. A childhood of berry picking, fishing, and hunting led to a life as a big-game guide. When he wasn’t guiding in the spring and fall, he worked as a commercial fisherman and earned his pilot’s license, pursuits that took him to the far reaches of the Alaskan wilderness. He lived through some of the most important moments of the state’s history: the 1964 earthquake (the most powerful in U.S. history), the Farewell Burn wildfire, the last king crab season in Kodiak Island waters, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and cleanup, even the far-reaching effects of the 9/11 attacks.

 

The landscape of the essays in The Hard Way Home extends from the tip of Admiralty Island in the southeast to the Teocalli Mountains of the interior, from the windswept Alaska Peninsula to the author’s present home on Lake Clark. These essays offer a view of Alaska that is at once introspective and adventurous. Here we find the state’s plants, animals, people, geography, politics, and culture considered from an intimate perspective, leading to hard-earned lessons about conservation, sustainability, and living well. Ever the irrepressible guide, Kahn invites readers to share his experiences and discoveries and to consider questions about a place, and a life, that are disappearing.

Steve Kahn is a lifelong Alaskan and former hunting guide who lives a subsistence-based lifestyle on Lake Clark near Port Alsworth, Alaska. He is a contributor to the anthologies Wild Moments: Adventures with Animals of the North and Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment.

"Alaskan Kahn has written a series of heartfelt, yet understated, essays about life on the Last Frontier that will appeal to nature lovers and thoughtful outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen. . . . This is quiet Alaska, and much closer to the truth than most depictions."—Colleen Mondor, Booklist

"Steve Kahn's essays and stories cover a lifetime in the outdoors of Alaska, from early adventures as a young man, to his career as a big game guide, to reflections on the simple subsistence life he and his wife Anne now share on the shores of Lake Clark. There is much to admire here—in particular, good writing, and the classic Alaskan life of flying, fishing, hunting, and living off the land."—Tim Troll, Alaska History

"The Hard Way Home offers exceptionally well-crafted prose about life in the bush, and establishes Steve Kahn as one of Alaska's most gifted writers. We need to hear more from him."—David James, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

"A fine read for anyone who wants to understand Alaska better, The Hard Way Home is a solid addition to any memoir collection, highly recommended."—Midwest Book Review

“These stories are quietly powerful, adventure without braggadocio and with real insight—and they’re a powerful reminder of how lucky we are to have Alaska!”—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

“Interweaving action and introspection, epiphanies and ethics, adventure and homecoming, Kahn charts both the geography of Alaska’s outdoors and the interior landscape of a thoughtful man learning to live with appreciation and respect for all life.”—Gary Holthaus, author of Learning Native Wisdom