Alaska Dispatch

According to Inside Binghamton University (N.Y.), John Smelcer, the prolific Alaskan author perhaps best known for his work to catalog Native myths and languages, as well as for being the last speaker of the Ahtna language, has decided to set his latest work of fiction in Alaska during the 1918 flu pandemic. The pandemic's devastation on Alaska's Native people is not widely known, but Smelcer hopes his novel will make a larger group of readers aware of the wrenching tragedy that struck many rural communities. Smelcer's grandmother and her sister left their own village after it was hit hard by the disease. Although Smelcer's book, "The Great Death," is being marketed toward young adults, he maintains that it is a universal story appealing to more mature readers as well. Read more, including a brief plot teaser, here.