Elizabeth C. McNie
Scholar, Professor, Seafarer, and Author of:
Greenhorn: Becoming a Woman in the
Alaskan Fishing Industry
-A memoir
(Available for agent representation)
Synopsis:
Nice girls from Piedmont don’t slink off to Alaska to work in the commercial fishing industry doing god knows what. But that’s exactly what I did.
GREENHORN: BECOMING A WOMAN IN THE ALASKAN FISHING INDUSTRY (119,000 words, complete), is a memoir and coming-of-age story of hardship, resilience, and self-discovery that explores what it means to succeed as a woman in a man’s world where the rules from home no longer apply.
After dropping out of my second university at the age of 20, I left my dysfunctional family in an upper-middle class suburb of San Francisco, and drove to Alaska to discover where they ended and my life began. I needed to build my life from the ground up. For 3 years I worked in the commercial fishing industry, learning how to manage overt sexism and harassment, and how to navigate love, sex, and relationships for the first time. I set my sights on becoming a fisherman to test my abilities and as a way to prove my self-worth. Working as a fisherman was my way to gain strength and courage—like men have—that I so desperately wanted for myself. Sea-sickness, a harrowing Alaskan winter, captains who preferred that I ‘work on my back,’ and an abusive boyfriend stood in my way. Returning home before I completed my journey was unacceptable: failure was not an option.
With a few unlikely role models to guide me, I tried, failed, but persevered, until I learned that life is more than just two binary realities of success or failure. Slowly, I learned that true strength isn’t solely male, and that while I’d never be one of the guys, I had a strength all my own that guided my life. I gained confidence, and found success as a crew on a supply boat, and began to dream of a new life that I’d build for myself, one outside of Alaska. Then, one night, tragedy struck, shattering my sense of identity, strength, and confidence, nearly bringing my life crashing down around me.
Photo credit: Getty Images JNE Photos