The Gyre Book and Author Feature

Posted May 17, 2026 by Julie S. in Blog Tours / 0 Comments

The Gyre

by Stacy Carlson

Release Date: May 19, 2026, Alternating Current Press

Blurb: ***Winner of the 2025 Electric Book Award***

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 is a nineteenth-century Russian monk who aims to be the northernmost holy man in the world when he hitches a ride to Spitsbergen, a remote island considered by most to be a no man’s land. As he struggles across the tundra, he’s haunted by regret, a long-lost family, and a chorus of Orthodox saints and Slavic pagan tricksters including hearth spirits, sea demons, and the Twelve Sisters of Scurvy. Amid their uncanny influence and the great, turning, harsh natural world, Arkady is brutally and deeply transformed.

Content Warning: language (mild), loss of faith, alcohol consumption (mild), cannibalism (mild), violence, gore, starvation, animal death, animal attacks, death, amputation, complications in childbirth, kidnapping (mild).

Book Links: https://altcurrentpress.com/2026/03/13/the-gyre/

The Gyre

Price Disclaimer

Author Interview

At what point did you decide to be an author, and what was your path to publication?

I was a curious kid, and that curiosity led me to write stories. When I was ten years old, my family took a trip to England. Visiting the British Museum, I encountered a commemorative plaque dedicated to the museum cats, who roam the exhibits each night to track down mice. My first “novel” (a stapled booklet, if I recall) was about one of those museum cats, named Selsdon. I felt a lot of satisfaction exploring a topic imaginatively through creative writing as a child, so I stuck with it.

Like many writers, my path to publication was long, circuitous, and involved years of rejection from literary agents and publishers! The trick is to be patient and tenacious, and to keep developing your craft through it all. In a sea of rejection, it just takes one person or publisher to love and believe in your work. That’s what happened in my case. Nothing glamorous!

What do you do when a new idea jumps out at you while you’re still working on a book? Do you chase the squirrel (aka “UP syndrome”) or do you finish your current project first?

Great question. A little bit of both, in my case. I allow the new idea to take hold and grow in my informal journaling practice. I do “morning pages” a’ la Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird method (also part of The Artist’s Way). In this unstructured creative time/space, I let my imagination roam freely, and many new characters, plot ideas, or whole imaginative worlds arise in that morning journaling time. There is a kind of psychic space between my journals, which are handwritten, and my official work-in-progress, which lives in my laptop. They coexist, as do book ideas.

Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in your jobs/education in your writing?

Oh yes! My life experience certainly percolates through my fictional characters and situations. The Gyre is the story of one person’s journey from worldly cares and ego-driven motivation into something more stripped-down and perhaps more spiritually aware. The process is not straightforward, and the protagonist, Arkady, often gets trapped in repeating loops of self-pity, anger, and frustration. To chart this character’s path, I leaned heavily on my experience practicing vipassana meditation. In a vipassana meditation retreat, you spend 10 days in silence while living at a rustic meditation center and practicing sitting meditation for 11+ hours a day. Needless to say, there’s plenty of time to observe what happens in the mind and heart! In the novel, Arkady embarks on a long walk across an arctic landscape – a long way from a meditation center! – but his inner journey draws heavily from my experience with vipassana.

Describe the book or series in 10 words or less for people just learning about it.

An atmospheric saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge.

Is there anything you would like people to take away from your book?

I would never try to dictate what people take away from a book or any artwork, but when I think about why I wrote The Gyre, one thing is very clear: The book sprang from a lifelong love and reverence for wild nature. Starting when I was a child, I wandered freely in the woods and along the shores of the Pacific Northwest. I felt truly at home outdoors, and I experienced solace and spiritual awareness there. The Gyre holds this aspect of my being, so I hope readers experience that in a meaningful way.

About the Author

STACY CARLSON is a novelist, naturalist, and educator. Publishers Weekly called her debut novel, Among the Wonderful, “Intelligent, engrossing, and utterly unique.” Stacy’s essays and fiction have appeared in Tin House, Post Road, Inkwell, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships and residencies from the Mesa Refuge, The Arctic Circle, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Signal Fire. Her background includes work as a historical ecologist, fish cannery worker, hot springs caretaker, and hiking guide in Big Sur. She grew up between mountains and sea in the Pacific Northwest and has lived in New England, New York, Northern California, and the Upper Midwest.

Her website: https://stacycarlson.com/

Note: Some posts may contain affiliate links. Should you choose to purchase a product, we will receive a small commission for the sale at no additional cost to you. Chapter Break is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.