clue (n.): “anything that guides or directs in an intricate case,” 1590s, a special use of a revised spelling of clew “a ball of thread or yarn.”
In Greek myth, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of red thread to help find his way out of the labyrinth. And like Ariadne’s thread, there are many clues in the marginal and obscure that speak to the world we find ourselves in. If we seek out these stories, we can find more of the thread out of the canon.
I’m an Anchorage-based writer, and former curator and archaeologist. I’m fascinated by history—and the obscure, the hidden, and the arcane. A particular area of my research is in recovering the many women writers and artists who have been deliberately ignored and hidden from history, and how their stories speak to the same issues of today. I love to help bring these stories into the light.
Every week I send a newsletter with archival research, images, and ideas about how these hidden histories still echo in our lives today. Recent examples include Sinead O’Connor and the history of keening and lament, Louisa May Alcott’s radical feminist mother, and the most well-known woman writer of Shakespeare’s day.
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About me:
I’m a writer and former curator and archaeologist, with a passion for archives and hidden histories. I have an MFA in Creative Writing and an M.Phil. in Archaeology. My poetry and essays have been published in several places, including Electric Literature, The Catamaran Literary Reader, Colorado Review, and Bellingham Review, where my work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
I’ve lived in many northern places, including Scotland, Norway, and Anchorage, Alaska, the homeland of the Dena’ina. I’ve learned to love the cold, and the dynamic twilights of high latitudes—it’s a place where the landscape is unignorable, and it often also plays a role in my writing.
You can find links to my other published work at www.freyarohn.com
