Blair Braverman is a nonfiction writer and dogsledder.

 

BETHEL – Writer Blair Braverman visits Gould Academy on Tuesday, September 25, to give a reading from her first book, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube. The reading will take place in Bingham Auditorium at 7 p.m., followed by a book signing and reception at 8 p.m. in the Marlon Family IDEAS Center in Hanscom Hall.

By the time Braverman was 18, she had left her home in California, moved to arctic Norway to learn to drive sled dogs, and found work as a tour guide on a glacier in Alaska. Determined to carve out a life as a “tough girl”—a young woman who confronts danger without apology—she slowly developed the strength and resilience the landscape demanded.

“As both a storyteller and a stylist, Braverman is remarkably skilled, with a keen sense of visceral detail that borders on sublime,” says the New York Times. “But her ability to draw readers into heart-pounding action sequences is what makes the book so courageous and original.”

Blair Braverman is a nonfiction writer and dogsledder whose work has appeared on This American Life, in Outside, VQR, The Guardian and elsewhere. She is training for the Iditarod, a 1,000-mile dog sled race across Alaska.

An Iowa Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, a Blue Mountain Center Fellow, she was also named to Outdoors 30 Under 30.

The Richard Blanco Visiting Writers Program and Retreat—a collaboration between Richard Blanco and Gould Academy—celebrates living writers and builds appreciation for contemporary work.

While on campus, visiting writers work with Gould students and faculty through classroom visits and workshops, giving them the opportunity to connect with and learn from a living artist. Writers are provided an honorarium and a two-week stay in Blanco’s private Bethel, Maine, guest house.

“Part of what I learned over the process of being the inaugural poet was that we as a country need to continue to create new generations of readers and appreciators of poetry,” Blanco says. “Through contact with contemporary work and contemporary authors, my hope is that students at Gould Academy can develop that appreciation and understand that poetry, just like any art, is still vibrant and alive today — one that can teach us about ourselves and about the world.”

For more information on Blair Braverman’s reading on September 25, or The Richard Blanco Visiting Writers Program and Retreat, gouldacademy.org/academics/visiting-writers-program/ or contact Julie Reiff at reiffj@gouldacademy.org or 207-824-7781.