Author Michael Engelhard lives in a cabin on the outskirts of Fairbanks, Alaska, among porcupines, moose, and lynxes. This freelance writer used to be a wilderness guide and outdoor instructor in Alaska and the canyon country for 25 years. He has been writing for publication since the late 1990s; his first book was published in 2000. Michael Engelhard is the recipient of several Alaska Press Club Awards, the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and a Foreword INDIES, but holds it with Groucho Marx on author groups: “I wouldn’t want to be a member of a club that would have someone like me as a member.” When Michael isn’t writing, the outdoors and reading books are his passion; his hobbies are photography and history.
Which genres do you cover?
Michael Engelhard: Narrative nonfiction, especially essay and memoir; some more “straightlaced” journalism; book reviews.
Which is the latest book you had published, and what is about?
Michael Engelhard: This year marks the centennial of the first officially designated wilderness area (in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico); it also marks the publication of three new books by me, all of which are centered on the themes of “wildness” and “wilderness.” Arctic Traverse is the account of my solo trek from Canada’s Yukon border to the Bering Strait; What the River Knows is a collection of Alaska essays; No Walk in the Park is a collection of canyon country essays, with the Grand Canyon as their gravitational center.
At which book events can readers find you?
Michael Engelhard: This summer only in Alaska. I have a big book tour to the Anchorage area planned for June. I’m not much of a conference goer. But I’m recording podcasts for Alaska Book Week and the Utah Humanities Book Festival and other fall fairs.
Which book event connecting you with readers is your favorite and why?
Michael Engelhard: I like readings with signings at indie bookstores or unusual locations: museums, nature centers, wilderness lodges… The one-on-one with readers is the best at these venues, and they’re a pre-selected audience, already interested in what I have to say.
Do(es) your book(s) have any specific messages to your readers and, if so, which are they?
Michael Engelhard: Pay attention to the small things in nature (and in your life); and take care of nature – it’s the basis for everything.
Which writer(s) keep(s) inspiring you and why?
I don’t read much fiction anymore, but the novelist and short story writer T. C. Boyle is a longtime favorite for his mordant wit, dexterity with language – he doesn’t mind sending readers to a dictionary once in a while – and his frequent subject matter: the human folly of trying to control, or ignoring, nature.
Do you have any specific writing habits?
Michael Engelhard: I am a binge writer. I don’t journal on a regular basis, only when on a magazine assignment or a wilderness trip that I think I’ll write about. I do collect snippets from the news that I think could enrich or inspire an essay. I wrote Arctic Traverse in one mad dash, two summers ago, after Mountaineers Books had expressed interest. Before then, I had not even transcribed my notes, which I’d scribbled into the margins of my topographic maps during the journey.
What are you currently working on?
Michael Engelhard: Promoting three books, and some articles for Alaska magazine, including one about the small Native-built and run museum in Anaktuvuk Pass, in the heart of Gates of the Arctic National Park.
Which book are you currently reading simply for entertainment?
Michael Engelhard: I just finished Steel on Stone, an essay collection by a former member of trail crews in the Grand Canyon. I hardly ever read just for entertainment, though. The author-editor always sits on my shoulder.
What advice would you give any aspiring author?
Michael Engelhard: Keep writing, regardless of success or rejection. Do it now, don’t put it off. Clearly define for yourself what it is you want to get out of writing. It will help you with finding a suitable venue for sharing your creations. (Or not sharing, if you only write for yourself.)
You can find Michael Engelhard’s books at your closest indie bookstores, or order directly from the publishers, Mountaineers Books and Hancock House Publishing, and at Amazon.
Susanne, I just never know what I am going to get when I see something of yours published. You bring interest, fun, knowledge, joy, and inspiration to my life each time I read what you have written.
I hope you will not take me to court for any kind of copy-right, spelt by Joe Boyle as a “copy-write” violation. But if you do, may I buy you coffee at Coffee Cabin?
Quote from Susanne Bacon’s published article.
Michael Engelhard: “I don’t read much fiction anymore, but the novelist and short story writer T. C. Boyle is a longtime favorite for his mordant wit, dexterity with language – he doesn’t mind sending readers to a dictionary once in a while…”
Does T. C. Boyle remind you at all of J. G. Boyle? Just asking.
Joseph Boyle
OMG, Joe, you are something else!!! Thank you for your incredibly kind words and the laugh you just caused. I guess I should read T.C. now in order to figure how similar he is to J.G. 😉