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McKay JenkinsCornelius A. Tigham Professor of English Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collison of Cultures in the Arctic, 1913 (Random House, 2005)My most recent book, Bloody Falls of the Copppermine, is a historical narrative about an incident in the winter of 1913, high in the Canadian Arctic, in which two Catholic priests set out on a mission to reach a group of Eskimos and convert them. Upon reaching their destination, the priests were murdered. Over the next three years, one of the Arctic’s most notorious crimes became one of the region’s strangest and most memorable police investigations and trials. A parable of late colonialism, the book is also an exploration of the differences between European Christianity and Eskimo mysticism.
Reviews “A haunting and thoughtful account . . . a fascinating slice of forgotten history.” –USA Today “Compelling . . . a page-turner of the highest quality . . .This true story, filled with interesting characters interacting in a hostile world, reads like an excellent, mysterious novel.” –Deseret Morning News “This is a tale of misunderstanding and cross purposes, and Jenkins tells it well.” –The Washington Post Book World “Spellbinding . . . Jenkins [has] the reporter skills of a journalist, the cultural insights of an anthropologist and a spare yet literary style. . . . An adventure of mind-blowing drama.” –The Vancouver Sun Current Research I teach courses in 20th Century American literature and American Studies, including Southern literature, African-American literature, environmental literature, and literary nonfiction. I recently published the "Nature Writing" essay for A Field Guide For Science Writers (Oxford University Press, 2005), and have completed a 5,000-word essay on Carson McCullers' novel and play The Member of the Wedding for the anthology Fiction: On Stage and On Film, to be published Fall, 2006 by Cambridge University Press. I am currently at work on Rough Music, a research-intensive novel that grapples with Appalachian religion, local politics, the convergence of Northern and Southern culture, and the transformative potential of bluegrass music. For more information, see the English Department's faculty profile for McKay Jenkins. |
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