Fifty Miles From Tomorrow featured in summer paperbacks article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Exciting news for First Alaskans Institute - a $10,000 donation to support education and cultural programs!

Indian Country Today published a review of Fifty Miles from Tomorrow.

The Washington Post has highlighted Fifty Miles From Tomorrow in their New in Paperback column.

Steward Udall, a great spirit
By Willie Iggiagruk Hensley
Posted at Alaska Dispatch, 3/22/10

This past weekend I learned that a great friend had passed away at the age of 90. After recovering from the sad but not unexpected news, I promptly remembered the last time I saw him in 2004 in Washington, D.C.suli...

The Friday, March 19 “Paperback Row” column in the New York Times lists Fifty Miles from Tomorrow in all its fresh, new, paperbackness. You have to scroll down just a bit to see.

Fifty Miles from Tomorrow is now available on Amazon’s Kindle electronic reader. Neat!

Today Willie spoke with attendees of the 3rd Annual Alaska Native Corporation Director Training Course, presenting a picture of how we got to where we are today. Alaska’s history, and the story of Alaska Native people is part of the greater historical tale, and is worth seeing in that context. How earlier European nations interacted with indigenous populations, and how the United States dealt with Native people since its inception, created the conditions, perceptions and legal precedents that guided practices and events. suli...

Oscar Avellaneda, who took the great photo on the new softcover edition of Fifty Miles From Tomorrow, posted about taking the photos. It seems he thought he was taking color photos, but instead used black and white film. What a great accident, as the picture came out beautifully!

It’s Softcover Day! This is the day Fifty Miles from Tomorrow comes out in softcover. (I’m not really sure why sometimes people say “paperback” and other times they say “softcover,” but either way, this is kind of cool.)

To celebrate this event, there’s a book signing at Hearthside Books in downtown Juneau, from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, and a reading at the Nugget Mall Hearthside Books at 7:00 PM.

Willie is the keynote speaker at the Northern Lights Conference, at Chico State University. Provided the airlines can get him there safely and on time...
suli...

The Juneau Empire has posted a story previewing Willie’s upcoming appearance at Hearthside Books.suli...

Fifty Miles from Tomorrow comes out in paperback on March 2.
Quyaana to Picador!

Available for purchase through the publisher, Amazon and other fine booksellers. :)

David James wrote this review - “Hensley’s optimistic memoir a touching and riveting book” for the Fairbanks Daily News Miner

Willie and youngest daughter, Elizabeth featured in piece by Alex DeMarban in First Alaskans Magazine - Search for Spirit

An excerpt of Willie’s comments on spirit:
“The theme of the convention is both looking back to our historical development and also looking forward, and so it's going to be a real challenge to come up with some commentary that's going to be meaningful to Native people.

At the same time I have every word that I from the most memorable speech that I gave 29 years ago. I had hoped to spend six months thinking about that particular speech. As it turned I was scribbling my notes up until the last moment.

I called it the "Spirit Speech," and as I was talking to Lizzie earlier, there are only a couple of ideas of any consequence (that I've had). There are many subsidiary things I've done, but the fi rst notion was of land and who owns it and its relevance and the challenge of what it was going to take to try to secure some control over our space. That was in the mid-60s.
And in the '80s I had the notion of a more ethereal aspect of that issue, which we maybe didn't fully recognize in '66.

That was the question of cultural spirit, and the survival of our culture and our identity and various aspects of our culture that made us unique. In my mind, those were the two main ideas that I built my energies around. So there's the question of what are these going to look like 50 years from now.”

On July 24, 2009, the New York Times published Willie’s Op-Ed piece “In Alaska, Qiviters Never Win.”

It begins:
“Ten thousand summers have come and gone here in Alaska and the village people are already preparing for another cold winter by drying and smoking salmon, rendering seal oil and drying the meat and hoping for a bountiful berry season. In the meantime, our governor has called it quits 18 months before the end of her four-year term. She leaves tomorrow, to be replaced by her lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell.

The Inuit have a word, “qivit,” that you do not want to have applied to you. It means to quit or give up when the going gets rough. In traditional times, and that was very recent, if you gave up as a leader you were jeopardizing yourself and everyone around you. It takes a lot of effort to maintain life in the bitter cold of the Arctic.”
Suli (more)...

Willie reads an excerpt from Fifty Miles from Tomorrow on this terrific short radio program

Willie’s appearance on First Voices Indigenous Radio, with Tiokasin Ghosthorse, on WBAI 99.5

Pearl Chen at Barnes & Noble has written a review of Fifty Miles from Tomorrow

Vick Mickunas review in the Dayton Daily News - “Author recounts Inuit way of life”

“Alaska Native leader William Hensley presents his memoir” is the title of Katie Spielberger’s article published in Capital City Weekly.

“Growing Up and Getting by in the Land of the Nine-Month Winter” is the title of the Dwight Garner’s review in the New York Times

Coming of Age in Alaska is the title of Timothy Egan’s review of Fifty Miles from Tomorrow

Willie’s address given at today’s Alaska State Society event in Washington, DC

Willie’s appearance on The Afternoon Magazine with Celeste Quinn, Illinois Public Media

John R. Coyne Jr. has posted a review at the Washington Times

Susan Gilmore’s Seattle Times book review, “Native Alaskan Willie Hensley recalls life before snow machines and Gore-Tex”

A review of Fifty Miles from Tomorrow is posted in “Bookmarks,” the literary blog at The Oregonian

Willie’s appearance on National Public Radio’s “On Point with Tom Ashbrook”

This link is direct to a short piece on Alaska Public Radio Network

Willie’s appearance on Talk of Alaska, with host Steve Heimel.

From the APRN website:
“The Alaska statehood push of 50 years ago bypassed the state’s Native population. But that changed when the Prudhoe Bay oil discovery forced Congress to settle Native land claims. This week we talk with Willie Hensley about the part he played in that story, a story told in his new book, Fifty Miles from Tomorrow.”

“Reclaiming the Culture of Alaska” is the title of Dennis Drabelle’s review in the Washington Post

Bookforum has posted a review by Deb Vanasse (of 49 Writers)

One of Willie’s high school classmates, Lois Reagan Thomas has written as special article about Willie for the Knoxville Sentinel. It’s called Harrison Chilhowee grad’s book recalls crusade for Alaskan Natives’ rights.

Here’s a photo of Willie in his final year of high school in Tennessee

Brendan Joel Kelly’s story about Willie - Fifty years and Fifty Miles - is up at the Anchorage Press.

The cover is pretty cool. :)

Review by Debra Ginsberg for Shelf Awareness (“daily enlightenment for the book trade”)

Final word: “An engrossing and vividly detailed memoir of the real Alaska from a fine storyteller and tireless advocate for the rights of Alaska's native people.”

Deb Vanasse interview at 49 Writers - from just before Fifty Miles from Tomorrow was released.

The Tundra Drums’ Matt Nevala covers release of Fifty Miles from Tomorrow

Fifty Miles from Tomorrow reviewed by Publishers Weekly - A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week!