Books, articles, and essays
Other Books written by Shannon Huffman Polson
North of Hope
A Daughter’s Arctic Journey
When her parents arekilled by a grizzly bear in Alaska’s remote Arctic, author Shannon Huffman Polson is forced into a wilderness of grief. Her quest for healing is recounted with heartbreaking candor in North of Hope.
Polson travels from her home in Seattle to the wilderness of Alaska, where she retraces her father and stepmother’s final days along an Arctic river, effortlessly weaving together the internal landscape of grief with the exterior landscape of the Arctic, elegantly entwining natural history, adventure and sacred pilgrimage while she wrestles with and draws strength from her faith and memories.
The Way the Wild Gets Inside
Field Notes from Alaska
Author and native Alaskan Shannon Huffman Polson brings you essays about wild Alaska and the beautiful and charged relationship between humans and the wild.
She considers an encounter with a grizzly bear in Alaska’sfar northern Arctic, taking care of a log cabin in Denali, an encounter with an Arctic wolf, and other experiences of her home state, with the same lyric beauty and probing intensity offered in her memoir North of Hope: A Daughter’s Arctic Journey.
The Little Book of Grit
Quotes from leaders across the military branches on leadership and grit guaranteed to inspire and encourage your own journey of grit!
A synthesis of these lessons learned and stories was published by Harvard Business Review Press as The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience and Leadership in the Most Male Dominated Profession in the World. It is my hope that this small book will inspire you and others in your pursuits before, during and after The Grit Factor is published.
The Road Ahead
Fiction from the Forever War
This collection of stories from veterans who have served as part of "The Forever War" includes Polson's "Brown Bird," her first published fiction.
These masterfully crafted stories from writers who have served reflect the entire breadth of human emotion–loss, anger, joy, love, fear, and courage—and the evolving nature of what has become America's "Forever War."
This exceptional collection promises to be the definitive fictional look at the aftereffects of the Iraq and Afghan Wars and will resonate with the reader long after the final page.
FAMILY DINNERS:
100 Conversations About the Good Life: Classic Texts and Socratic Questions for Families with Tweens and Teens
What if the dinner table became the most interesting place in your family's week?
Family Dinners gives parents and children a reason to linger — one hundred carefully curated conversations drawn from the greatest minds in human history, made accessible for families with tweens and teens aged 11 to 18.
Each "Family Dinner" follows the same simple structure: two short passages quoted verbatim from classic texts, fully attributed, followed by three Socratic questions designed to spark genuine discussion. No lectures. No worksheets. Just great ideas and good questions.
Other Writing
Business and Leadership
"Sky Island Journal", Podcast conversation about After the Bombs Fell
The Most Important Trait for 2021, Psychology Today
“I was one of the first female fighter helicopter pilots in the US Army. Here's the technique I used to stay motivated while waiting for an assignment.”, Business Insider
“Opinion: What you can learn from two prisoners of war about coping with the coronavirus pandemic’s challenges”, Market Watch
“This Military Mom’s ‘Grit’ Exercise Is Key to Surviving the Pandemic”, Working Mother
“Celebrate Service, Not a Uniform, This Veterans Day | Opinion”, Newsweek
“Grit: Going Back to the Foundation”, Psychology Today
“Exercising Grit in Challenging Times”, Wiley Online Library
“New Rules for Old Opinions?”, Proceedings, U.S. Naval Institute
“Three Things You Must Do To Get Diversity Right”, Forbes
“Nine Things New Leaders Need to Know”, Huffington Post
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