Dundurn Press is excited to congratulate historian and author Debra Komar whose 2019 book The Court of Better Fiction is shortlisted for the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book!

We had a couple questions for the author of Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame. Here's what Joanna Kafarowski had to say.

What inspired you to become a writer?

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Contest open March 1, 2016 - March 7, 2016

In the Arctic aviation plays a crucial  role in the everyday lives of people.  The railroads and highways do not connect the communities as they do along the 49th parallel and the annual summer sea lift is the only access possible for bulk freight.  Aircraft are thus the local bus, taxi, ambulance and grocery truck. Air service in these areas is not discretionary or solely for vacationers and businessmen.  Simply put, it is a daily necessity and lifeline to goods and services that Canadians who live down south take for granted.

If I asked you what was the first word that popped into your head when I said “Arctic”, what would it be?  I asked friends and family members this question.

When we refer to the Canadian Arctic, we’re talking about a space so vast, so wild, and so undeveloped, you may as well be trekking into the cosmos.   Case in point:  Nunavut alone is bigger than the three largest continental US states – California, Texas and Montana – combined! 

Standing in front of the giant map, I’m struck by the reach of the Mackenzie Delta. Flying overhead a few days earlier in an Air North Hawker Siddeley 748, I’d certainly noticed the expanse of water and earth. The tributaries and lakes, the dead ends where the water is trying to push into new territory; they had all caught my attention as I tried to memorize the topography of a foreign land. On the ground in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, though, it’s easy to forget this place is more water than terra firma.