Securing the Shadows

Trade Paper Original | ISBN: 9798890920508 | Nonfiction | $17.95 | 160 pp | Trim: 5.25 x 8” | March 2027

A fearless quest to understand what we risk when we heed the call of the wild. Mountaineer David Stevenson considers the dangers of a life spent climbing in his lyrical, deeply felt memoir-in-essays, shaped by the mysterious drowning of his adventurous twenty-two-year-old son in the Alaskan backcountry. Moving across an eclectic range of styles, Stevenson recounts adventures throughout the American West and examines photographs, literature, and memory as he searches for meaning in the relentless pursuit of adrenaline and the devastation of loss. This indelible chronicle grapples with mortality, remembrance, and the enduring questions of what makes us human.

DAVID STEVENSON is the award-winning author of five books, including Points of Astonishment and Letters from Chamonix, which won the Banff Mountain Book Award. His nonfiction has been featured in The Best American Essays series. Stevenson holds a PhD from the University of Utah, taught at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and is the book reviews editor for the American Alpine Journal. He lives on the central coast of Oregon with his wife.