Books & Essays
Karsten has written award-winning books and essays for adults and children. They are available across Canada and the U.S. at fine bookstores and on-line sellers. Please consult (and support) your local bookstore whenever possible.
Books for Adults:
Being Caribou
- Grand Prize winner, Banff International Mountain Book Festival, 2005
- Nominated for Hubert-Evans Prize, BC Book Awards
- Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2006
- Best Outdoor Literature, U.S. National Outdoor Book of the Year, 2006
- Best Travel Book, Independent Publishers Awards, 2006
“Evocative and hard-hitting...”
- Farley Mowat, author Never Cry Wolf“Wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer plunges so deeply into the Arctic with the endangered porcupine caribou herd that he experiences a startling paradigm shift. For the sake of both the wildlife and our own children, we can only hope that this elegant dispatch from a grueling expedition isn't too late.”
- Jonathan Waterman, author of Where Mountains are Nameless
Canadian Edition published by McClelland and Stewart in Canada (2006)
U.S. Edition published by The Mountaineers Books in the U.S. (2005)
Walking the Big Wild
“Heuer’s journey is exciting, and his passionate vision of a network of protected pathways connecting two pristine wilderness areas is inspiring.”
- Publishers Weekly“Heuer [is] a man with a great imagination and an even greater dream.”
- Don Starkell, author of Paddle to the Amazon
Canadian Edition published by McClelland and Stewart (2000)
U.S. Edition published by The Mountaineers Books (2002)
Stay tuned for Karsten’s next adult book, Finding Farley, to be released Fall 2013
Books for Children:
Being Caribou
Voted an Outstanding Science Trade Book by the US Children’s Book Council and National Science Teachers Association (2007).
"... a visually beautiful and most compelling book... A story that needed to be told has been very well told indeed."
- The Globe and Mail"The writing is incredibly vivid as Heuer describes their encounters with wolves, grizzlies, and he makes real for readers the hallucinations toward theend of the journey when the caribou marched nearly nonstop. More mundane events--like the fact husband and wife smelled after six weeks with no showers--add a realistic humanity. ...[T]his is fascinating nonfiction that will be welcomed by students, report writers, animal lovers, and outdoor enthusiasts."
- Booklist, starred review, April 2007
(published by Walker and Company (New York), distributed by Raincoast Books in Canada (2007)).
Essays:
The Big Squeeze - National Magazine Award, 2010
Can wildlife and hyperdevelopment coexist in the Bow Valley?
Published in ALBERTA VIEWS July/August 2009
Read Essay >
Following Farley
Inspired as a child by Farley Mowat’s books about Canada’s wildlife and wilderness, a park warden, his filmmaker wife, two-year-old son and dog embark on a cross-country journey by canoe, train and sailboat, retracing the places and stories featured in those celebrated books.
Published in CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC July/August 2008
Read Essay >
Caribou Camp
Published as an Environmental Essay by Patagonia. Read Essay >
