Saturday, August 3, 7pm
in the Bear Gallery

In August, we become passengers in Rob McCue’s cab as he takes us on a ride through his many years of driving locals and out-of-town visitors around the community. In his book One Water, Rob collects and describes the little snapshots he gets of the people in this town and adds to them to create stories that will remind you of your life in our Alaskan hometown.

Here is what Rob shared with Fairbanks Arts already:
“Fairbanks and the wilderness that surrounds it have inspired much of my writing. I like to take trips in the backcountry, stay out there for a week or two, chronicle the experience in a journal. These entries form the backbone of a lot of my stories. I feel like there’s a special quality to content that is generated beyond the flow of our everyday existence, a quality it can be hard to duplicate in town, at a desk, with a clock ticking down to the next appointment.
Next I like to research some of the geological, biological, ecological phenomena I wrote about and layer that science into the narrative at appropriate times. There’s also political stuff and philosophical stuff that can be fit in to make it a more well rounded experience. I want the reader to be able to learn something if they’re so inclined. I want it dense, like they could take a bite of it if they wanted to. Nevertheless it all starts with those journal entries and few things I know inspire these like this endless wilderness around us.
But the people of this town are quite a fascinating lot as well. My job as a cab driver provides me with these intimate little 5-30 minute long exposure snapshots of a lot of the folks who live and pass through here. I try to record the most interesting of these in journals, as well. I mean I could take the mayor home then on the next trip pick up the biggest drunk in Fairbanks and take him to detox, and then take an Inupiaq whaler to the airport. Every shift is a bizarre journey. If not a lucrative one. But Fairbanksans inspire me. As does the wilderness around us.
That’s why I live here.
I’m 52 years old. I was raised in a small town in Kansas. I moved to AK in 1988. I’ve worked as a carpenter, commercial fisherman, and cab driver among other things. My wife and son and I live in Goldstream and we probably will for the foreseeable future.”

Come and listen to Rob tell his entertaining stories in the Bear Gallery!

 

For more information on this event, email literary@fairbanksarts.org or call (907) 456 – 6485 ext. 224.

 

Fairbanks Arts programs are made possible by individual and corporate contributions, the City of Fairbanks Hotel/Motel Bed Tax, Fairbanks North Star Borough and Alaska State Council on the Arts.