2 authors to talk climate change, glaciers and polar bears at Juneau library
Published 5:30 am Friday, March 6, 2026
Writers Marybeth Holleman and Naomi Klouda will present a slideshow titled “Touchstones of Glaciers and Bears: Navigating a Changing Climate” from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on March 8 at Juneau’s Valley Library.
The talk explores personal and communal “touchstones” — familiar places, experiences or symbols that show how climate change is altering our planet. Holleman and Klouda point to examples such as the Mendenhall Glacier and a polar bear Holleman once saw in Kaktovik.
“There’s the physical, actual touchstone that they use to sharpen. Then there’s the idea of a touchstone as a baseline thing you gauge everything against,” Holleman said in an interview with the Empire.
The Mendenhall Glacier, visible from the valley along Glacier Highway, may serve as a touchstone for all Juneauites. The glacier has been retreating nearly 160 feet a year, revealing the roots and stumps of ancient trees in its wake. The melt water, along with rain water and snow melt, fills the basin of the extinct Suicide Glacier, contributing to annual flooding along the Mendenhall River.
Klouda’s reference book The Alaska Glacier Dictionary covers 700 named glaciers across Alaska, including Suicide, Mendenhall, Taku and Herbert glaciers. The book highlights the stories behind many of Alaska’s glaciers.
One example is Herron Glacier in Denali National Park, named for a lieutenant who was lost and rescued by Chief Sesui.
“Chief Sesui cut open a bear and found a bunch of bacon in the stomach, and realized the bear raided the cash of some new people in the country,” Klouda recounts the naming story in an interview with the Empire. “They started tracing the tracks back and found the men who were lost.”
“So they named the glacier after Lieutenant Herron rather than the chief who rescued him,” Klouda noted.
Holleman said the presentation will encourage people to pay attention to their own touchstones and the changes happening around them.
“On a personal level, we can attend to our touchstones, attend to the change, attend to how it feels and how we respond in a very real way,” she said.
One of Holleman’s own touchstones — a polar bear she saw in Kaktovik — inspired her newly released novel Bloom Again.
The novel follows the lives of an East Coast scientist and an Anchorage visual artist whose relationships reflect the tension between logic and emotion.
In discussing the importance of the presentation, Holleman emphasized the role of shared experience in building community.
“In Anchorage, there is a very prominent peak called flattop that almost everyone has climbed,” she said. “When I live here and know that a lot of the people I talk with or see in the grocery store know Flattop, it makes me feel more at home.”
“We want to feel comfortable and in community,” she said. “Just the idea of having that shared experience heightens the experience for the individual.”