Awards and Bookseller Buzz Propel Alaskan Novel

It took four years for Milkweed Press to bring Ordinary Wolves, a debut novel by Seth Kantner, to press. But then again, Ordinary Wolves is no ordinary book for the Minnesota-based literary non-profit. Not only did the book win the 2004 Milkweed National Fiction Prize and become a finalist for the QPB New Voices Award, but it was also selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Program and as a June/July Book Sense pick.

Ordinary Wolves is the story of a boy growing up in a sod igloo in remote Alaska. Cutuk lives close to the land with his father and his siblings, connected to the outside world by a ski plane that delivers school lessons and mail to a nearby Eskimo village. But as Cutuk grows older, first his brother and then his sister abandon the tundra for the big city, and finally Cutuk himself feels the pull of the outside world, and wonders if he, too, must leave his home.

Kantner, who was born in a sod igloo in the tundra, is himself a trapper, fisherman and photographer in northwest Alaska. According to his publisher, he wore mukluks before they became fashionable, eats boiled caribou pelvis, and has hung out with his Eskimo neighbors all his life.

Media attention for his novel is building. It has already received starred reviews in PW and Booklist, and later this month, Kantner will be interviewed on NPR's "To the Best of Our Knowledge," and on Donna Seaman's "Open Books" program on WLUW in Chicago. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Anchorage Daily News are planning feature articles. Plus, the book will be reviewed in Outside and Orion magazines this summer. He will travel to Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Denver and Washington, D.C., for bookstore appearancesThough Milkweed's average initial printing for a first-time author is 5,000–7,000 copies, the press has ordered a run of 15,000 for Kantner's book—the largest in Milkweed's history, and there's a second printing on the way.

When the house initially received the manuscript from Kantner five years ago, the story was "not in publishable form," according to Milkweed managing director Hillary Reeves. However, the press immediately signed a contract with Kantner, which "was odd for us," she recalled. "But there were things about the story that were so unique—we thought, if this can work, wow, how amazing. So it was worth it to put money into it, in the hope of what it could be."

Emilie Buchwald, Milkweed's publisher emeritus and the book's editor, then began a four-year collaboration with Kantner. Each spring, he would send Buchwald a draft. Late each summer, Buchwald would send the draft back with editorial comments and suggestions. Kantner would then spend the winter writing and revising, sending another draft to Minnesota after the ice broke and he could travel to a post office.

Reeves is not at all surprised by the strong response to Ordinary Wolves from booksellers. "It speaks about a place and a way of life that you don't see very often. This basically is a good story about a boy trying to make his way in life."