Sunday, 18March18 at the Environmental Cottage: Author Brian Castner

In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie traveled 1200 miles on the immense river in Canada that now bears his name, in search of the fabled Northwest Passage that had eluded mariners for hundreds of years. In 2016, the acclaimed memoirist Brian Castner retraced Mackenzie’s route by canoe in a grueling journey — and discovered the Passage he could not find.

Disappointment River, Castner’s latest book, has just been released.

Castner is a former Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer who received a Bronze Star for his service in the Iraq War. He is the author of two books, The Long Walk (2012) and All the Ways We Kill and Die (2016), and the co-editor of the anthology The Road Ahead (2017). His journalism and essays have appeared in Esquire, Wired, Vice, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and other publications.

Brian has just become the new military ordnance and weapons expert for Amnesty International.

Note from Brian re Sunday’s talk: I’ll be sure to highlight more environmental and human rights themes. I spent some time among the indigenous First Nations, and have some good stories there, and I wrote a whole series of climate changes dispatches for VICE: https://briancastner.com/2016/09/16/climate-change-in-arctic-canada/ https://briancastner.com/bio/