TWO OLD WOMEN

A Legend from Alaska

Velma Wallis

'Beautiful and moving. Her writing is as lean and muscular, as full of unexpected bounties, as the far north'

Washington Post

In a harsh, desolate Alaskan winter, two old women are abandoned by their tribe. unable to fend for themselves, it seems inevitable that they will perish.

But adversity coaxes new resillience from the pair. Stirring each other to survive, they rediscover their trapping skills and see out the winter. Eventually their tribe decides to look for them - and what they find is two surprisingly strong and wise elders.

Velma Wallis, who learned the art of storytelling from her mother in a Yukon tent, tells this Athabaskan legend with deceptive simplicity. Two Old Women is a classic myth of female courage and strength.

'Velma Wallis writes with a simple beauty'

She

Velma Wallis

is a member of the Atha baskan tribe of Alaska. She was born in Fort Yukon, a remote community with a population of about 650 in northwest Alaska. Accessible only by plane, dog sledge, snow machine or riverboat, it is the largest village in the Yukon Flarts - a vast fur-trapping region covering some ten million acres that experiences temperature swings from minus severnty-one degrees Farenheit to ninety-seven degrees Farenheit.