“In the final weeks of writing Nothing More of This Land, I made a last minute decision to book a trip to Bethel, Alaska. I had been talking to Yup’ik folks from the area and decided that I needed to experience their community and land for myself. One of the hardest parts of writing the book was weaving the personal parts with reported ones. I had never been to Alaska before and thought the trip would help me find ways to blend the two. A few days before I was set to leave, the door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland blew out. In the aftermath, the airline grounded many planes that might have the same issue. My flight was canceled. I scrambled, spending hours on the phone with the airline trying to rebook my flights (I had two layovers on my way to Bethel). Eventually, I managed to get on another flight and I’m so glad I made it.
It was the middle of winter and I appreciated the frozen river and cold weather. But the best part was the people I met, who shared their food (if you get the chance to try muktuk, take it!) with me, and showed me the land and water they call home. In some ways, it couldn’t have been more different from the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard, but so much of it reminded me of home. Those similarities helped me see that I wasn't writing about disparate people and places, but the things we shared. It was one thing to talk about Indigenous identity over the phone, and another entirely to experience it in person, on Indigenous land. That was the story I wanted to tell.”
Joseph Lee is the author of Nothing More of This Land, out July 15, 2025. Joseph is an Aquinnah Wampanoag writer based in New York City. He has an MFA from Columbia University and teaches creative writing at Mercy University. His writing has been published in The Guardian, BuzzFeed, Vox, High Country News, and more. He was a Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop and a Senior Indigenous Affairs Fellow at Grist. Read more at www.josephvlee.com.