iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 8h

I’m en route to Whitehorse for these two events, including reading with @evaholland.bsky.social! I’ve wanted to get to know the place & community better, rather than just briefly passing through, for so long, & I’m grateful to Yukon Words for helping make it happen. 🤍📚

YUKON WORDS

Readings and
Conversation
w/ Eva Holland &
Erica Watson
October 17, 7 PM
Well Read Books

YUKON WORDS
REGISTRATION REQUIRED
CRAFT WORKSHOP
Haunted by Futility or
Saving the World
Writing Climate Change w/ Erica Watson
October 18, 10 AM
Linda Rapp Landing Room
$15

280

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I accidentally made a small Denali out of ice. I should probably call it a day.

A ln abstractly mountain shaped piece of broken ice with aquatic vegetation on the left side, propped up on a just-frozen lake, real mountains made of mountains on the horizon

1100

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

<looks to my immediate right> Wait, am I the weirdo??! (lol if we were neighbors you could borrow a pencil. I can’t do math tho 😂)

A pencil on a desk. A container of colored pencils. A mug full of pens and pencils.

120

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Did anyone else read this anonymous op-ed from the Anchorage Press email yesterday, which is now not to be found on their website? Maybe this is a website issue and not a retraction? I was gonna share it and ask y’all for your thoughts. It seemed odd to me. Like the voice seemed contrived.

Opinion: How pro-business
Republicans see an impending 'calamity' in the November elections
By Anchorage Press • 8 Oct 2026
View in browser
The trans-Alaska pipeline runs across the North Slope.
(Nathaniel Herz/Anchorage Press) |
From the editor: Our general policy is to consider using anonymous sources when there's significant value in the information they have to share, and when they face significant risk if their identity is exposed.
In this case, we think that this piece, submitted by an anonymous natural resource industry

490

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Last time we were here my dog harassed a duck. Today we were alone.

Reflection of snow dusted spruce trees in a lake with a partial and very thin layer of ice, dulling the reflection around the edges of the lake. A bluebird sky

0161

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Morning fog hung around almost all day. Fog is my favorite

A foggy view of a river’s oxbow curve from above, in dense spruce forest

040

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#Fairbanks, the reading at the Noel Wien Library that was canceled in February due to snowpocalypse is rescheduled for Oct. 21! Come if you can! I think there will be snacks?

Flyer for a reading with Erica Watson, Noel Wien Library, October 21, 6pm, hosted by Fairbanks Library Foundation

0133

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Birthday weekend with my people and my dog and my little project basket

A black dog with white paws running toward the camera on tundra patchy with snow

A person and black dog on a small snowy hill, blue sky and mountains in the background

A basket with a knitting project and a copy of Phoenix Girl by Michelle Yang

270

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

First snow wiggles of the season! Had to climb into a windstorm to find it (tbh I thought we’d meet the snow lower and the wind later but he made the most of this little patch)

A black and white dog rolling on a tiny patch of snow protected by a spruce tree in the brown tundra. A snow covered ridge is visible in the near distance

080

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My book, Ghosts of Distant Trees, includes a short essay about getting an abortion in a Fbx clinic, & eating goldfish crackers in the recovery room, over 10 yrs ago. Yesterday I went to the same clinic for the 1st time since for routine care* & felt cozy seeing them in the waiting room snacks

A small bag of cheddar goldfish crackers held up in an empty waiting room, pink signs out of focus on the window

131

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My great harvest of one smol cabbage

A white person’s hand holding a baseball sized purple cabbage

150

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Worth a shot: I’d like to rehome some remnants of a past crafting era. These 3 collages are paper on wood & sealed w/ mod podge (so somewhat moisture resistant), w/ hooks on the back. Dimensions in alt text Asking postage $ (US only) & proof of donation to mutual aid funds or some other surprise

042

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SUMMER, nothing more needs to happen, I have seen this pika so so close I am ready to curl up in the darkness now

A pika, looking so so cute and camouflaged in the rocks

2142

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Women writers & trailworkers, submission deadline for an anthology of writing by women trailworkers is approaching (10/9) - pass this along to anyone who might be a good fit! (I'm just the messenger/a cheerleader of the project) (If jpg text is too small, same is copied in alt text!) #writesky

$*CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS* SWITCHBACK: Women Building Trails An anthology by women trailworkers (Mountaineers Books, 2028) Co-editors Chris�ne Byl (Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods; Lookout) and Dr. Hannah Sarvasy have a combined trails background of nearly four decades: with conservation corps, on agency crews (NPS, USFS) and at a private sector company. We are creating an anthology by women reflecting on their careers doing trailwork in the U.S. We seek submissions of prose, graphic narrative, and poetry from women who have spent at least three seasons in the field working on trails. This anthology will feature the myriad ways that women build themselves and their communities as they build trails, what trailwork oﬀers a woman early in her life, and what it means to age as a female trailworker. We want to read work that blends the specific details of trailwork with larger questions about what makes such work significant, both to ourselves as women and as laborers, and to the wider culture. Questions to Consider: How did you get into trailwork? How has working in the dirt, in the natural world, aﬀected you professionally, on the trail or in other jobs? How has trailwork refracted over your life and relationships more broadly? What scenes, places, tasks, terrain, creatures, and crewmates from the trail remain indelible in you? We look forward to reading your work. Submissions are due Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. Please send your prose or poetry of up to 2000 words as a Word doc to switchbackanthology@gmail.com. Graphic narratives should be submitted in .pdf format. With your submission, include your trailwork bio and any relevant publication history. Please email switchbackanthology@gmail.com with any questions!$

065

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This is 2 days’ worth of Sullivan mailers for a 2 voter household- one D and one U. I had to document before tossing them

2 copies each of Dan Sullivan shiny propaganda and one letter-style mailer

030

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

“Hey. 20 bucks and I’ll show you every rotting bunny carcass in this valley. 30 and I’ll toss in some human shit. Nah, you know what, you’re cute, I’ll show you that for free.”

The cutest black dog in the world having the grossest thoughts, in a tundra valley turning to fall colors to

070

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It was completed and eventually delivered to the birthday kid. Never again. Yarn is yak sock from Polychrome Fibers at Denali. #knitsky

A pink, gold, green, and blue VERY complicated knit scarf tied around a dead tree

0200

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

anyone looking into this part

Zoomed in screenshot of a blurred light skinned face in the background, hovering over the kraut, featureless yet menacing

100

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

New spam texts just dropped and tbh I’m kinda into it

Screenshot of texts reading:

17783445381
5m ago
Charge the day with boldness of a hamster on a rocket!
+16729986138
6m ago
Connect with hearts to ignite a stellar camaraderie!

120

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It’s a video: setting up my table at the Sandhill Crane Festival book fair this morning. I took no other photos but I had a very nice time

250

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Fairbanks folks, I’ll be hanging out at the Sandhill Crane Festival book fair Sunday - come say hi!

Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival
BOOK FAIR
Wildlife You May Sce
Sunday August 213d
11an-2pm
Featured Authons
Jessica Shepherd • Erica Watson • Mark Ross
Sara Lynn Cramb • Ellen Million • Pete Buist
Alissa Healy Perez • Solstice Books

2026 Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival Book Fain
ERICA WATSON
Denali-based author of Ghosts of Distant Trees, Watson's work explores ideas of communily, self, polilical action, and climate change at the intersection of human and nonhuman worlds.
GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES
ERICA WATSON

041

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

“for some future reader in some future almost- free almost-democracy while our nation bends to men who want & want & take & take, who banish ghosts because they know they’d never survive ghosts like ours.” -Mai-Linh Hong #sealeychallenge

Mai-Linh Hong’s poetry collection, Continental Drift, propped in a dead and rafting spruce tree

142

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

But then I had to bike back real quick to check something and brought my dog and he may have peed on the sign

A slant photo of a black dog who probably just peed on a polling place sign

131

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Omg, this tiny scarf start I’m making at the request of my nibling is the most difficult thing I’ve knit in YEARS. Giving myself an aneurysm tonight. Thanks kid 😭 (It’s Stephen West’s icelandscape scarflet. The kid is high fashion so I can’t f it up. But I am) #knitsky

The most tedious little knit triangle you’ve ever seen in your life. A messy brioche rainbow

1140

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

“Every empire promises a revolution against itself. The children are tasked with designing the future, growing walls of hydroponic greens, rebranding old protest anthems. Every empire denies the iceberg it crashes into, hires a chorus, funds the arts.” #sealeychallenge 🔥

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s Something About Living held up against a spruce forest at sunset

051

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Anyone from #AlaskaSky gonna be in McCarthy next week? Come hang out with me and @pataky.bsky.social!

LIFE ON THE BOUNDARIES
SHORT READINGS - ON-STAGE DISCUSSION - RECEPTION - SIGNING
GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES
ERICA WATSON
BETWEEN
LATITUDES
Poems
MICHELLE LATVALA
Drawing from their poetry, essays, and lived experiences, local authors Jeremy Pataky and Michelle Latvala, with Denali-area author Erica Watson, will reflect on how they understand and communicate place in their work while living in close proximity to National Park Service public lands.
How does the environment, seasonal rhythms and changing climate, and human history and policy interact to create both belonging and tension in communities?
Join us for an evening of short readings followed by conversation. A reception and signing will follow the program, with books available for sale.
PORPHYRY PLACE
DOWNTOWN MCCARTHY WMC CAMPUS
TUES, JULY 28, 2026, 7 PM

033

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Worst-timed fishing trip of my life but for a brief moment the sun came out and I took this nice photo (Cheers to anyone else who was on the Kenai these last few days muttering to strangers “not like last year, is it” whole shivering together in the water)

Taken from in the water, shallow waves rolling onto a beach. A group of dinette’s stand in a line near where the water seems to meet the sky. Nearer to the photographer, a group of silhouetted children. Gulls fly in a line overhead. No one is catching fish

1161

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

“(Biden’s restoration) was a victory for the outdoor recreation-industrial complex, cementing the idea that the tribes’ connection to Bears Ears & what they have to lose frm its reduction are = to those of the industry,just another stakeholder along a firmly colonial spectrum of public land mgmnt.”

Cover of Marketing the Wilderness by Joseph Whitson, sitting in a bed of dwarf dogwood flowers

111

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Got a new oven a couple months ago. It took us like 7 years to actually buy it and get it shipped and installed etc. It replaced an indestructible cheap yellow range from 1979 that will outlive us all but it won’t be pretty. This new one is nice. I’m enjoying it.

Sourdough bread and pizza with sausage, nectarines, greens, and cheese

0171

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

not suggesting it's worth a presidential pardon but for the sake of sharing new-to me knowledge about pollution mitigations & impacts: my partner is a diesel mechanic (mostly heavy equipment) for the NPS & I sent him this link this morning, & here's his reply.

There is a system that attempts to remove soot from the exhaust using a diesel particulate filter and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). The fluid freezes below 12 degrees requiring a heated tank in winter. The system has been a continual problem on our machines that use it - especially the dump trucks. It’s a pita. The fluid comes in 2.5 gal plastic containers that last for one tank of fuel on a pickup truck. For heavy engines in equipment we use a lot. The system is a complex assembly of hoses pumps wires actuators filters and special metals that can handle high heat. Repairs usually involve assemblies rather than small parts. All in all, considering the environmental cost and the energy use of mining, manufacturing, and transport, the fluid production, plus the plastic jug waste stream - I would be curious to see if we’re actually saving on anything

061

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I spent last week as a guest speaker and nostalgic wanderer at Camp Denali. It was nice.

The south peak of Denali in evening sun, clouds on each side, as viewed surrounded by spruce trees. The top of the mountain is reflected in a small pond in the foreground

Denali from a different angle, taken near Eielson Visitor Center, with a wide river bar and foothills visible. A few drifting clouds

A flagpole flying, in order from top to bottom, the earth glad, Alaska flag, and progressive pride flag

An alpine lake reflecting a dark colored mountain streaked with remaining snow

6314

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

nonstop moose parade over here…OR: a tour of the stupid number of cars we have right now

Moose mama butt and an uncertain calf, standing over an orange sled filled with water

The same moose walking away across a driveway

Same moose, this time mom’s head is visible. Yet another truck in the background

0162

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Doing a sort of maximalist book event at Denali on Saturday- if you’re in the area you should come! There’ll be tacos and music and a surprise poet and art for sale, information and more!

GHOSTS OF DISTANT TREES SUMMER RE-LAUNCH PARTY
ART &
JUNE 6:
ACTION!
6:30-9PM

053

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

There’s already cottongrass out Stampede Road what

Cottongrass tufts, like cottonballs on thin stems, bobbing in the brown tundra on a sunny day

0121

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

For those following along: yesterday I got 4 separate envelopes w 4 cards backdated to the month I applied (AUGUST 2022) & a 5th envelope saying it’s time to reapply. (Again, I’ve had coverage via other means for all but like the first 5 mos of these 4 yrs, but this is the 1st I’ve heard ANYTHING)

4 DenaliCare cards, each dated one year since August 2022

030

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I’m looking forward to meeting and writing with the writers of Bethel at the end of the month! Join us!

Community Writing Workshop with Erica Watson

Friday,
May 29 5:30 - 8 pm.
@ Cultural Center

In this session, we will spend time reading examples of short nonfiction, writing in community in response to prompts, sharing what comes of those prompts (always optional but encouraged), and talking about techniques for honing our skills.
Participants will leave with some drafts to keep working on, and/or tools for getting started on new projects. Writers of all levels welcome.
Please bring your writing materials of choice (pen and notebook, laptop, tablet), and a spirit of curiosity and openness!
No time commitment is required outside of the workshop.

162

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

when you realize the friend who lets you copy their homework might be wrong

screenshot of Forrest Dunbar looking at Rauscher's notes with a subtle "wtf" look on his face

081

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Alright nerds: I PAID for old software that would live on my computer & never touch the internet specifically to avoid this shit. Never updates, never makes suggestions, does its job. Yet here we are. Anyone successfully free yourselves from office? Word-compatibility is nonnegotiable for me.

Screenshot of an email:

We have an update about Office 2019 on your Mac.
Starting July 13, 2026, a security certificate update is required to keep Microsoft 365 and Office apps current. Since you have a device that cannot support this update, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote will switch to view-only mode. You can still open and read all your files, but editing and saving will not be available on this device. Your files are safe.
Office 2019 for Mac ended support in October 2023 and is no longer receiving updates. This means the certificate change cannot be resolved by updating or reinstalling your current software. Your files and documents are fully intact. Here are your options to keep working:
• Use Microsoft 365 on the web for free. Open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in any browser, no installation required. If your files are saved to OneDrive, your existing files open and work just as they always have.
• Purchase Office Home 2024. Check aka.ms/

3124

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

We visited the takeoff site in Ny Ålesund in 2024, as part of the Arctic Circle residency. I’m not particularly compelled by Exploration Narratives ™️ , but i like watching people look at plaques and sort of mill about imagining. One of my fellow travelers asked I’d been to Teller. I haven’t.

A tower where, as I recall, the airship launched from, on a tundra landscape with arctic mountains in the background. Artists milling around. Not a great photo if im honest

A plaque commemorating the transpolar flight, showing the airship Norge. In the background, the sea and snow capped peaks.

290

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I do not complain about subarctic snow I do not complain about subarctic snow I do not complain about subarctic snow

Subarctic snow.

Falling in a forest flooded with meltwater.

Wow.
It’s a lot.

0234

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Little morning update from #denalipasquealmanac I’ve heard they’re blooming elsewhere nearby, but on a hill that’s trickier for me to integrate into my days, so I’ll just show you these little snow covered nubbins for…the rest of our mortal lives, apparently

A single flower bud covered in light snow, growing from a mossy forest floor

060

Erica Watson @rickirobin.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Met Gala discourse got me thinking of this piece I saw at the National Museum in Oslo a couple years ago (actually I never really stopped thinking about it)

A triptych of images resembling mountains, drawn over graphs

MARIANNE HEIER
fedt / born 1969, Norge / Norway
Landscape Landskap
2007
Lysboks / Light box
Kjopt / Acquired 2012
NMK.2012.0131.001, NMK.2012.0131.002, NMK.2012.0131.003
Som mottaker av et statlig kunstnerstipend, fär Heier anledning til ả arbeide pà fuiltid som kunstner.
Engasjement i norsk kunstliv stár sentralt i hennes kunstneriske praksis, og hun pätar seg forskjellige oppdrag.
Inntektene fra arbeidet investeres i norske oljeaksjer.
Lysboksene viser bevegelsene i disse aksjene. Kurvene likner norske fjellandskap, og fargene er hentet fra nasjonalromantiske malerier. Heiers verk trekker linjer mellom oljenæering, kunstproduksjon og nasjonal identitet.

As recipient of a state artist's grant that covers her living expenses, Heier is able to work as a full-time artist. Since casual employment is central to her artistic practice, she spends her time odd-jobbing in the Norwegian art system instead of working in her studio. In this project she invests her earnings from such work in Norwegian oil shares. The light boxes show the development in the value of these shares. The curves resemble a mountainous Norwegian landscape and the colours are taken from national romantic paintings. Heier's work links the oil industry with art production and national identity.

030