Stacy Carlson presents The Gyre in conversation with Kathryn Nuernberger

An atmospheric journey into the far northern wilds, The Gyre spins one man’s search for meaning into an astonishing saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge. Arkady Afanasyev is a nineteenth-century Russian monk who aims to be the northernmost holy man in the world. Disgusted by “three-day pilgrims” flooding his White Sea monastery and diluting its sacred isolation, Arkady leaves it all behind and hitches a ride north to Spitsbergen, a remote island considered by most to be a no man’s land.

Equipped only with prayer books, Arkady sets off on foot away from the ills of the world to become the next in a long line of northern ascetics. As he struggles across the tundra, he’s haunted by regret, a long-lost family, and a chorus of Orthodox saints and Slavic pagan tricksters including hearth spirits, sea demons, and the Twelve Sisters of Scurvy. Amid their uncanny influence and the great, turning, harsh natural world, Arkady is brutally and deeply transformed.

The Gyre is a novel of spiritual aspiration, doomed ambition, and the unexpectedly rich layers of folklore present even in the most remote landscapes. Think The Revenant meets Angela Carter among the icebergs.

Stacy Carlson is a novelist, naturalist, and educator. Publishers Weekly called her debut novel, Among the Wonderful, “Intelligent, engrossing, and utterly unique.” Her essays and fiction have appeared in Tin House, Post Road, Inkwell, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships and residencies from the Mesa Refuge, The Arctic Circle, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Signal Fire. Stacy’s background includes work as a historical ecologist, fish cannery worker, hot springs caretaker, and hiking guide in Big Sur.

Kathryn Nuernberger’s latest book is Held: Essays in Belonging (Sarabande, 2025). Her poetry collections include RUE (BOA, 2020) and The End of Pink (BOA, 2016). Her other essay collections are The Witch of Eye (Sarabande, 2021) and Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past (Mad Creek Books, 2017). A recipient of fellowships from the NEA, American Antiquarian Society, Bakken Museum of Electricity in Life, H. J. Andrews Research Forest, she is a professor of creative writing at University of Minnesota.

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