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RIVERS IN TIME, RIVERS IN WORDS
with Dr. Bathsheba Demuth
18 - 25 JULY, 2026 | YUKON RIVER, ALASKA
An experiential deep dive into the history + evolving narrative of the Yukon
RIVERS IN TIME, RIVERS IN WORDS
$4,899.00
RIVERS IN TIME, RIVERS IN WORDS
This July, join a very special Freeflow cohort as we canoe 158 miles of the legendary Yukon River. You’ll float through the interior heart of Alaska from Eagle to Circle through the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, camping on gravel bars beneath the midnight sun. You’ll witness the ineffable magic of northern summer. And you’ll learn about this watershed from one of our country’s most distinguished and compelling environmental historians.
Dr. Bathsheba Demuth specializes in Arctic and Beringian histories – and she’s also a superlative writer of elegant, accessible prose. As such, the focus of our journey will be experience, practice, and craft. We’ll write and create in the field. We’ll consider the intricate histories of the Yukon, metabolizing the complicated legacy of the past – while wrestling with the question of how we can, as writers and artists and ancestors, tell stories that are germane to the future we want to create. In other words, we’ll play with the hopeful notion of history as a creative enterprise.
Dr. Demuth’s current book project is called The Long Water: A Biography of the Yukon River, in which she examines how law and ecology within this Arctic and Subarctic watershed have interacted and changed each other over the past two centuries. Dr. Demuth’s current research addresses “how laws shape our imaginative and material capacities, if ecologies shape law—and if lawsdeveloped through colonization and capitalist extraction are able to flex to the challenges of climate change and extinction.” She writes regularly for publications from The New York Review of Books and Granta to PLOS Water and The American Historical Review.
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Bathsheba Demuth is writer and environmental historian specializing in the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic. Her interest in northern places and cultures began when she was 18 and moved to the village of Old Crow in the Yukon, where she trained huskies for several years. From the archive to the dog sled, she is interested in how the histories of people, ideas, and ecologies intersect. In addition to her prize-winning book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait, her writing has appeared in publications from The American Historical Review to The New Yorker and The Best American Science and Nature Writing. She is currently writing a biography of the Yukon River watershed. Demuth is the Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Environment and Society at Brown University.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS EXPERIENCE
We’ll paddle every day, and we’ll also make time for the option to visit historical sites, to explore tributaries, and to write. Experience in backcountry travel, canoeing, history, or creative workshop is NOT required. People of all backgrounds and skill levels are welcome. We ask that you bring an enthusiasm for the subject matter and our shared creative endeavor, as well as curiosity for this particular landscape and openness to daily routines set by the river and the weather.
While our route and timing will be dictated by currents, winds, our degree of caffeination, and myriad other factors, you can plan to paddle (usually at a leisurely pace) in your tandem canoe for several hours every day. There'll be optional riverside wanders, nutritious meals, and world-class Alaskan river camping. Each day we'll enjoy discussions and class sessions with Dr. Demuth. There'll be space to be alone, space to create, and space to connect within an emerging community of historians, artists, and writers.
Our rough itinerary:
18 JULY | Welcome + orientation in Fairbanks
19 JULY | Travel from Fairbanks to Eagle
20 JULY | Launch on the Yukon River
21 - 24 JULY | On the river
25 JULY | Take out and travel back to Fairbanks
THE DETAILS
Your program fee covers:
- Lodging at the University of Alaska Fairbanks the night before travel
- Travel to and from the river
- Daily discussions, workshop sessions, and generative exercises with Dr. Demuth, our Yukon River guides, and Freeflow's founder Chandra Brown
- Pre-field logistical support + substantive reading media list
- Professional, licensed river guides
- Tandem canoes + all safety/ paddling gear
- Nutritious meals + snacks + really good coffee
- All permitting + fees
- The full, university-accredited curriculum, whether you pursue the credits or not
- Post-course community: this experience serves as an introduction to the Freeflow galaxy of writers, leaders, and thinkers
- Discounts on future Freeflow courses
Guide gratuities are not included in the program cost. We strongly suggest giving your canoe guides some love, and we are happy to discuss norms for tipping - just ask. Travel to Fairbanks is also not included. You have to find your way there; we'll then take care of the rest.
Because we believe teachers and students need regenerative outdoor experiences more than most, Freeflow always extends a small discount to contracted educators and enrolled students. We also offer a small discount to our alumni. Because we believe in paying our instructors, facilitators, support staff, and guides an equitable wage, we do not offer individual discounts that compromise the integrity of those wages. If you need financial support, please consider applying for our scholarships. We also encourage you to seek financial support from your organization or employer, as Freeflow courses may be taken for professional development or continuing education.
Space on this adventure is limited to 12 participants. We will close registration once the roster is full. Please apply early.
All deposits and payments are non-refundable. Payment plans are available. Payments can be made by mailing in a good old-fashioned check, or by credit card or bank transfer via our online payment system.
"The Freeflow experience was just what my mind and soul needed to breathe life into my writing practice. I spend time in the backcountry regularly, and I know that it nurtures me, but I had never taken a writing workshop of any kind, or blended nature activity with writing, or even written without the aid of a computer. I left the course a better listener, more patient with my practice, and equipped with mental pathways to give me access to deeper wells within me."
[ Mardi F. | 2023 Freeflow participant]
CLAIM YOUR SPACE
The price for this program is $4899.
Register early | We anticipate this offering will fill up quickly, so please register early. After we review your registration, we will send you a welcome email with an invitation to secure your spot with payment.
Pay in full or elect a payment plan | You may choose to pay in full with a 5% incentive discount. Alternatively, payment plans are available to everyone. We will ask for a non-refundable $500 deposit and remind you when subsequent payments are due. Full payment is due by June 1, 2026, after which date no refunds will be given.
Cancellation + refunds | While we would love to be able to issue refunds, we are a very small organization and our investment in each of our participants is full and significant. Please understand the following, and let us know if you have any questions.
- A non-refundable $500 deposit is required for both pay-in-full and payment plan options. This deposit is always non-refundable.
- Full payment is due no later than June 1, 2026, and no refunds are available after June 1, 2026.
- Please see our full cancellation policy here.