Author Event: Arctic Saga, Adventure, and Folklore

Overview

Join at Subtext Books with Stacy Carlson, author of The Gyre, in conversation with author M.C. Hyland.

The Gyre is an atmospheric journey into the far northern wilds, The Gyre spins one man’s search for meaning into an astonishing saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge. Arkady Afanasyev, a nineteenth-century Russian Orthodox monk, wants to be the northernmost holy man in the world. Equipped only with prayer books, Arkady sets off across the tundra, haunted by regret, a long-lost family, and a chorus of Orthodox saints and Slavic pagan tricksters. Amid this, in the great, turning, harsh natural world, Arkady is brutally and deeply transformed.

Stacy’s essays and fiction have appeared in Tin House, Post Road, Inkwell, Sparkle+Blink, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from The Mesa Refuge, The Community of Writers, The Arctic Circle, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Signal Fire. She received the Dana Portfolio Award and was a contributing author for the collection In Pieces: An Anthology of Fragmentary Writing. Stacy holds an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College.

Her background also includes work as a historical ecologist, fish cannery worker, hot springs caretaker, field crew on a bird refuge in SE Alaska, and hiking guide in Big Sur. She was only 35 miles away from Mt. St. Helens when it erupted in 1980, and she credits that experience as the reason she became a writer. Stacy’s creative writing is deeply concerned with wild nature. Stacy grew up in Seattle, lived for many years in Oakland, California, and now calls Minneapolis home. In addition to writing fiction, her daily life includes maintaining an editorial freelance practice and serving as education program manager for the Women’s Environmental Institute.

M.C. Hyland is a poet, publisher, scholar, teacher, and public artist. Her poems and critical writing have been published in journals in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. I’ve published three full-length books of poetry—THE END (Sidebrow, 2019), NEVERAGAINLAND (Lowbrow/ H_NGM_N), andWalks & Weathers (forthcoming from Beauty School Editions) and a collection of short essays, The Dead the Living and the Bridge (Meekling Press, 2025). My hybrid book of poetry and lyric criticism, A Book of Borrowed Light, will be published by Thirdhand Books in 2027.

This event is free.