The Gyre: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
The Gyre: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.Following find an interview with author Stacy Carlson:
1. What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Gyre is set to be published May 19, 2026.
2. What’s the book’s first line?
“Arkady Afanasyev opens his eyes to stinging rain.”
3. What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
An atmospheric journey into the far northern wilds, The Gyre spins one man’s search for meaning into an astonishing saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge. Arkady Afanasyev, a nineteenth-century Russian Orthodox monk, wants to be the northernmost holy man in the world. Equipped only with prayer books, Arkady sets off across the tundra, haunted by regret, a long-lost family, and a chorus of Orthodox saints and Slavic pagan tricksters. Amid this, in the great, turning, harsh natural world, Arkady is brutally and deeply transformed.
4. What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
As I was finishing my first novel, Among the Wonderful, I knew I wanted my next book to take place in a wilderness setting and utilize an archetypal “hero’s journey” quest structure. I love fairy tales and folklore, and started to explore those forms, which have been with humans since time immemorial. I’ve had the good fortune to hike, paddle, and explore far northern landscapes throughout my life, particularly Alaska, so I started thinking about an arctic setting. Svalbard (formerly known as Spitsbergen) fascinated me from the beginning, because even though it was a Terra nullius (“unclaimed” by any country) until 1920, it had a long, colorful history for centuries before that, drawing people from all over the world at several points in time. I decided to frame the book through a Russian character with ties to the Pomor culture of the White Sea. And when I dived into Russian folklore, I found one of the touchstones of the book: The story of Ivan the Fool. Ivan is the youngest and weakest of his three brothers, lazy and naïve. Despite making all the wrong choices, through stubborn labor and inexplicable luck, Ivan becomes the hero of the tale. Ivan influenced how I developed Arkady, The Gyre’s protagonist. With those components, the book was born!
5. What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Unlike other polar literature, The Gyre offers readers an immersive journey into a sublime, far northern landscape brimming with human stories, not devoid of them. As you follow the flawed but earnest main character up the rugged coast of Spitsbergen, you will encounter not only polar bears and arctic foxes, but also patron saints, Slavic tricksters, and vestiges of the many cultures that inhabited those shores over the centuries. The Gyre spins stories within stories alongside an epic tale of survival; at its heart the book serves as a love letter and homage to the far northern wilds.
6. When did you first decide to become an author?
I have been writing stories since elementary school, and I’ve firmly identified as a writer throughout my life, even during long periods when I didn’t publish anything. Working to improve my craft often is separate from any outside force, including publishers and readers! For me, writing primarily is a private, almost spiritual practice of chasing down ideas, solving questions of form and structure, while processing the world and my experience in it.
7. Is this the first book you’ve written?
No, my first novel, Among the Wonderful, was published by Steerforth Press.
8. What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I have worked for several interdisciplinary non-profit organizations with missions that include environmental conservation, education, and social change. I also maintain a book editing freelance practice in which I help first-time authors meet their writing goals.
9. How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
Between zero and four hours per day.
10. What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Keep going! Being published by an independent press helps ensure that a truly diverse body of literature perseveres through our current late-stage capitalist moment. We need strange, experimental, surprising works of literature in order to be a healthy culture. Regardless of the trends and the big bucks behind Big Five bestsellers, independent publishers (and filmmakers and music labels) are the true artistic heroes of our time. So keep writing from the heart.
11. Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
Almost the opposite of fame and fortune, actually. What motivates me are my inner visions and fundamental curiosity, which together lead me to book ideas I believe in and can commit to writing for years on end. My creative process lives entirely (or mostly) apart from worldly goals. For better or worse!
12. Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Ursula K. LeGuin
13. Which book do you wish you could have written?
Jane Smiley’s The Greenlanders or Robert MacFarlane’s Is a River Alive?