Alaskan mushers are all part of a big family, and that community is based around a lifestyle. I never once was left with the impression or saw any evidence that any musher was in the sport purely for business. The first-place purse from winning the Iditarod barely covers the expenses of running a kennel for a year. These people live and breathe dog care, exercise, training, and hard work, including literally shoveling shit daily. They’re all hooked on that ghostly song of wailing desire the dogs let out when waiting to pull the sled. And, most importantly — where answering that call brings them.

If you’ve been wondering how and when to see the aurora, you’re in luck!

March is supposed to be the best time of the year for aurora viewing in Fairbanks. Solar activity is ramping up, and the skies are typically clearer here in March.

On Saturday, February 3rd, mushers and their teams braved the extreme weather to compete in the Yukon Quest, one of Alaska’s premier dog sledding competitions. The temperature in downtown Fairbanks was -43 degrees Fahrenheit when the race kicked off at eleven a.m.!

On a Friday in early February, I entered the Brooks Building and entered a large communal room where people gathered, did beadwork, and set out food and beverages. I found a comfy seat beside a young person playing a somber and beautiful song on the ukulele. We were all there for a screening of the classic ethnographic documentary Uksuum Cauyai: Drums of Winter, directed by Sarah Elder and Professor Emeritus Leonard Kamerling.

For many years, I’ve wanted to visit the Anchorage Museum. This desire was increased significantly several years ago when I heard an interview on Alaska News Nightly with the visiting ambassador from France in which he gave a rave review of the museum. If the French are experts in anything besides food, surely it’s museums and art, no? Well, over the winter break, I had a couple of days in Anchorage, so, on a gloomy and chilly Tuesday, I made my first visit.

On Saturday, February 10th, the UAF community celebrated the Chinese New Year and ushered in the Year of the Dragon.

On Friday, January 19th, the Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series hosted the first ever Solstice Poetry Cycle at the Schaible Auditorium. Twenty-nine poets from the Fairbanks area read one poem each.

On November 10th-19th, the UAF Theatre and Film Department presented Dance Nation, directed by Daniel Ponickly. Dance Nation is a play by Clare Barron that delves into the trials and tribulations of youth through the eyes of a competitive dance team.

Colin Warren writes about the November 19th classical music concert at Davis Concert Hall.

This article is about the Content Creation Occupational Endorsement (O.E.) offered at our UAF Interior Alaska Campus located in Fairbanks. This O.E. focuses on monetizing social media platforms both for thriving social media management careers or online entrepreneurship. It is a one-year program that offers practical, hands-on experiences in video storytelling, gaming, blogging, and social media marketing. This program has been tailored for diverse interests and is fully accessible online. The article aims to captivate student interest and showcase UAF's innovative strides in preparing students for the dynamic world of content creation and digital business!

On November 16th-18th, UAF hosted their annual PopCon, a festival that celebrates all manner of pop culture, from TV and film, to gaming, comics, and more.

On November 29th, in the early hours of the morning, a moose was spotted on the steps of the Stevens Dorm Hall on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

This was my first First Friday anywhere, ever. Although a popular phenomenon across the country, I have always avoided crowds and therefore usually go to museums or art galleries in the early weekday hours. But I’m new to Fairbanks and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to dive into the community.

Friday, October 13th, the UAF English Department hosted the First Year Reading, which celebrates the writing of incoming graduate students in English.

Bus 142, or the Magic Bus, sits in an undisclosed location, guarded and tended by its caretakers, waiting for its permanent home to be ready, waiting to be displayed and to be gazed on by the audience eagerly awaiting its unveiling after the thoughtful and methodical restoration undertaken here at UAF. The bus had a long journey to get here, but it is also true to state that, on its airlift to Fairbanks, it was finally coming home.

The greater portion of people living in Fairbanks do not have a trash or recycling service, which came as a surprise to me. I came from a city where we had a large bin that all of our trash went into and the bin would get picked up by a dump truck once a week. The convenience of trash service makes one not really think too much about where their trash goes, you would just put it at the end of your driveway and within a day it was gone.

“We are just twenty-year-old women sitting here together writing about our past, the future, and what it holds for us.”

Successful art transports you to a waking dream state (without the risks and hangovers of other hallucinogens). The Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra succeeds so well at this transportation that it would take an artist more talented than I to describe it, but I’ll try.

The October 2023 64th Parallel Juried Exhibition at the Bear Art Gallery features a wide variety of work by local Fairbanks artists.