I wrote the “At Home in Nome” column for the weekly newspaper The Nome Nugget when living in Nome, Alaska, 1994-1995. In May 1994 I nervously entered the Nugget’s office on Front Street with three columns I’d written. Editor Nancy McGuire was sitting at her office in the front room wearing a large straw hat with a sunflower stuck in the band. She looked over my writing and said, “Which one shall we run first?” I think “Shoes” was the first one published.
I had originally conceived of my column as letters to my mother about what life was like in Nome, since I was at home in Nome and thought of myself as an Arctic Erma Bombeck. I wrote about polar exploration, Alaskan history, and daily life in Nome. I was free to write about any aspect of Alaskan life that interested me. I walked to the library every day, read voraciously, and taught myself about our new state. You can read my columns at http://www.kathygrossman.com/writing/category/travel-writing/