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Tessa will be speaking in Fairbanks but join us to see it on the big screen, ask questions, and pick up your free copy of Tessa's 15 page graphic "zine" "One River Many Braids: Paddling the Complexity and connection of the Marsh Fork of the Canning River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."A unique artist experienced a unique residency when Tessa Hulls spent 8 days in a packraft paddling the Marsh Fork of the Canning River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with two refuge staff. Tessa describes this talk as “The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has a long history of making people go unexpectedly rogue in order to protect it. In this presentation, I’ll give an overview of the history of the Refuge and talk about my own experience of being humbled into action by the scale of land.“ Tessa said that after this experience she has “a sense of grateful duty to this place.”
Pulitzer Prize winner Tessa created One River – Many Braids: Paddling the Complexity and Connection of the Marsh Fork of the Canning River, a graphic, 15 page “zine” as her take on this experience.
She described One River – Many Braids as a “Travelogue turned history deep dive”. Her awe of the land expanded the scope of her project in ways she didn’t anticipate. She dug into Arctic refuge history and politics through 10 books, multiple documentaries, a stack of interviews and a few podcasts. One River – Many Braids will be available for free at the meeting and donations to cover Friends’ printing costs would be welcome.
Biography
“Hulls is a writer/artist/performer/extreme biker with the most intense case of wanderlust I have ever seen.” Rich Smith, The Stranger. She writes, she draws, she bikes, she advocates, she adventures and she cooks. Tessa Hulls was cooking at the Alaska State Legislature Lounge when she got the call that she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2025 for her first and only book, a graphic memoir about her immigrant family Feeding Ghosts. She is the only Alaskan author to win a Pulitzer for a book. She did the Alaskan portion of her book tour from Haines to Fairbanks to Homer and places in between via bike. Tessa writes that she intends to fuse her wilderness and creative lives by becoming an embedded comics journalist working with field scientists, Indigenous groups, and nonprofits doing work around ecological resilience and climate change in remote environments just as she did for this project.
Tessa attributes her multidisciplinary creative practice of fusing solitude, research, and forward motion to her unique childhood. She grew up as a mixed-race daughter of immigrants in a very small California town with no models of how she fit within American culture. She spent much of her time hanging out in libraries and roaming alone through the hills with a backpack of books. She graduated from Reed College and travelled 7 continents before landing in Juneau Alaska. Learn more at her website https://tessahulls.com.
Tessa not only biked to Fairbanks to start her residency with the refuge but she also biked all over Alaska for her book tour for her Pulitzer Prize winning memoir Feeding Ghosts.
Voices of the Wilderness Artist in Residence Program
The job of artists selected for this program is to be inspired. They are charged to experience the wilderness and use their creative energies to bring its voice back to the community. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has hosted several artists over the years until the recent staff shortages made it impossible. One River – Many Braids: Paddling the Complexity and Connection of the Marsh Fork of the Canning River is Tessa Hulls’ submission in fulfillment of her 2023 residency on the Arctic Refuge. We are grateful to Tessa for her wisdom, talent and hard work in telling the story of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Fairbanks – Tessa Hulls in person at UAF Schaible Auditorium, access through Usibelli Building on the plaza, University of Alaska Fairbanks campus map www.uaf.edu/campusmap/
Soldotna – Watch Party at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, 33398-A Ski Hill Road.
Anchorage– Watch Party at REI’s Community Room, 500 E. Northern Lights.
Homer– Watch Party at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, 95 Sterling Highway.
Zoom– Zoom link to be posted here closer to the time: https://alaskarefugefriends.org/tessa-hulls/
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Event venue
REI (500 E Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK), United States
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