AHS Blog
James Mackovjak Wins Again
AHS Award Winning Member Wins Again
James Mackovjak who won the Alaska Historical Society Award in 2013 for his book Aleutian Freighter: A History of Shipping in the Aleutian Islands wins again. The book tied for 2nd place in the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards. This marks the first time Alaska maritime history appears on the national stage in a publishing award competition.
Unique among U.S. maritime cargo operations, the Aleutian trade is and has always been carried on by small break-bulk cargo vessels, through severe weather, and a grueling schedule; not an industry for the weak, timid, or foolhardy. Contained in these pages is a history of the Aleutian trade, from the sailing vessels of the 19th century that transported salted cod, to the mail boats that for decades provided the region’s only scheduled communication with the outside world, to the make-do, rough-and-tumble, seafood-driven fleet expansion of the 1980s, to the small but capable fleet of today. It is a history of small ships and the people who owned and operated them, set in a severe and unforgiving environment, and framed by an evolving marine resource-based economy.
The Independent Publishers competition reviewed nearly 1,400 entries in several regional categories of both fiction and non-fiction. Mackovjak’s book tied for 2nd place in the West-Pacific Best Regional Non-Fiction, a large category. Dayton Duncan of the Yosemite Conservancy shared the placing with Seed of the Future: Yosemite and the Evolution of the National Park Idea. In first place, a Getty Research Institute book, Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future 1940-1990.
Congratulations, Jim!
Submitted by Pennelope Goforth.
