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“Glittering with historical detail and full of psychological intrigue, Stacy Carlson’s The Gyre offers meditations on the mysteries of the High Arctic. It conjures an exceptionally realized tale of piety, madness, and a search for some kind of belonging.” —IndieReader
“Carlson writes sensitively, often beautifully, of the desire to be free of the gaze of others, of the misery of serving as a mirror in which others may see themselves.” —The New York Times
Stacy Carlson is a novelist and naturalist. Her books are The Gyre and Among the Wonderful.
Winner of the Electric Book Award and the IndieReader Discovery Award for historical fiction, The Gyre is where The Revenant meets Angela Carter among the icebergs. It is a novel of spiritual aspiration, doomed ambition, and the unexpectedly rich layers of folklore present in Spitsbergen, a remote arctic archipelago often thought of as a Terra nullius.
An atmospheric journey into the far northern wilds, The Gyre is a spellbinding saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge. Purchase The Gyre
“Stacy Carlson has written an enthralling story of flawed, fragile humanity and the uncanny redemptive power of nature at its most brutal. The Gyre is a journey through a stark, glittering wilderness, an unforgettable landscape both terrible and holy in equal measure.”
–Lynn Coady, Giller Prize-winning author of Hellgoing
In the autumn of 1840, PT Barnum purchased an outdated museum on the corner of Broadway and Ann Street in Manhattan. He was a newcomer to the city and still unknown to the world, but with uncanny confidence and impeccable timing he transformed the dusty natural history collection into a great ark for public imagination.
Among the Wonderful is a fictional account of this museum’s short, extraordinary reign as America’s most popular attraction.
Purchase Among the Wonderful (Kindle edition here)
Explore…
MN Reads brings you engaging interviews with Minnesota authors, exploring their works, inspirations, and the stories behind their stories. With equal parts fantasy, historical fiction, and adventure, the new book The Gyre by Stacy Carlson is a journey into distant realms of the Earth, and the far reaches of the imagination.
On this episode of Write On! Radio, Emma chats with author Stacy Carlson about her recently released book, The Gyre, including writing about nature, why to set books in the 19th century, and what kind of artists inspired her to write about arctic tundra.
Stacy Carlson speaks with us about her novel The Gyre and its ill-prepared protagonist, an inspiring artist’s residency in Svalbard, and her research into meals made of moose lips.
Crow Games and Storm Petrel Dreams: How Working as an Ecologist Made Me a Better Fiction Writer
Author Stacy Carlson shares how working as an ecologist on an island loaded with birds made her a better fiction writer. Essay for Writer’s Digest, May 17, 2026.
Stacy Carlson’s favorite books written by women that capture the magic of the Far North.
Hybrid creative nonfiction/fabulist piece, “Amos and I Unmake the World,” published by Novus Literary Arts Journal, Spring 2026.
This piece includes real-life letters written by Amos Clift between 1853 and 1865, and my contemporary replies. Accompanied by visual art from GJ Gillespie.
