Creative Writing & Literary Arts Department

richchiappone@gci.net

Alaska Native Writers, Storytellers & Orators   
Book cover of Water of an Undetermined Depth     Control—losing it, grasping for it, longing for it, and, rarely, achieving it—is the axle on which these fourteen stories turn. In places as different as Buffalo’s industrial zone, an Alaskan salmon cannery, and the saltwater flats of Mexico’s Ascension Bay, with characters as various as an addicted gambler, a rich and supremely arrogant sportsman, and a part- time handyman fixing toilets to pay the bills, Richard Chiappone finds meanings and truths we can all recognize. He sees the spaces between people, the gaps that grow between husband and wife, parent and child. With a sharp eye for the telling detail and a keen ear for the rhythms of speech, Chiappone takes us into lives in which plans don’t work out and love often gives way to indifference, confusion, or frustration.  (inside cover).