explores life at the bottom of the world

Realizing her childhood dream of walking in the footsteps of Antarctic explorers, editor Rogers spent six weeks on the Ice learning the ways of the penguin researchers, ice diggers, atmospheric scientists, cooks, pilots, and others who are drawn, almost mystically, to the most foreboding climate one can imagine.

“I traveled to the Antarctic because I wanted to experience the challenge and awe of living in such an unfamiliar landscape,” said Rogers. “What I discovered was the beauty to be found in people at their best amidst nature at her most fascinating. The voices in this book speak wonderfully of the continuing human quest to understand our world from top to bottom.”

In an anthology that sparkles with drama, pathos, and wit, Rogers presents these first-person accounts, including her own, of adventure and labor, exhilaration and loneliness. For this, the International Polar Year, Antarctica: Life on the Icestands as a testament of the most enduring and enigmatic human experiment on Planet Earth.

These essays offer a world of colorful characters (human and otherwise) and breathtaking backdrops. The humor runs high here.

• Live through the odd afternoon when it “rained chickens” with Karen Joyce
• Take the dreaded “psych test” with Glenn Grant
• Experience a pithy tour through the remote base, McMurdo, with Bill Fox
• Find dinosaur bones when looking for krill on the Palmer Peninsula with Lucy Bledsoe
• Watch the sun rise at the South Pole after six months of winter with scientist Katy M. Jensen
• Go “toast” with Nicholas Johnson of bigdeadplace.com fame
• Live through a tragedy with first time writer and long-time ice woman Jules Uberuaga
• Ride a snowmobile on Mt. Erebus with GPS specialist Beth Bartel…and much more

About the Editor

In the 2004-2005 austral summer, Susan Fox Rogers spent six weeks in the Antarctic on an NSF artist and writers grant. Based in McMurdo, she also visited the South Pole, several camps in the Dry Valleys and Cape Royds on Ross Island. Susan is the editor of eleven anthologies, including Solo: On Her Own Adventure. Her writing has appeared most recently in Under the Sun, and in the anthology France: A Love Story. She teaches creative writing and First Year Seminar at Bard College.

About Travelers’ Tales

Travelers’ Tales publishes the best in travel, humor, and spiritual writing from world-famous authors and emerging writers. Celebrating 14 years in publishing, the series has won many awards for excellence, including three Lowell Thomas Awards for Best Travel Book, and multiple best book awards from the Independent Publishers Association, ForeWord Magazine, and the Benjamin Franklin Awards.

Travelers’ Tales…the Power of a Good Story