Mason Brigster-Contreras is piecing his life back together. After his wife's unexpected death, he attempts to find purpose and atonement with a team of scientists assessing Nunavut's pristine Kivalliq tundra ahead of massive mining developments. Mason survives the summer, but the day before they are set to leave, he is pushed into uncharted territory by caribou and wildfire. He stumbles into an unusual refuge with others who have been stranded for decades. They have a community. They seem to thrive in their baffling high arctic oasis. As Mason settles into this new world, his haunted past catches up. Now the sanctuary which gave him a new chance at life threatens his freedom, his sanity, and his will to live.

Andy Whitman's profile page

Andy Whitman is originally from Mississauga, Ontario, and moved west to work and study. He works as an environmental scientist, currently living on Treaty 4 Territory in Regina, Saskatchewan. He has published creative writing since 2011 under the pseudonym Jack Caseros, in honour of the Argentine city where his mother grew up, and he completed Stanford University’s Online Writing Course for Novel Writing in 2019. His short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Syntax & Salt Magazine, and Acentos Review, among other great venues. He has served as an Associate Fiction Editor for the literary magazine, Pithead Chapel, and his flash fiction was awarded as a runner-up in the 2018 True North Writing Contest. When Andy is not writing or dealing with environmental messes, he is usually a very tired horsey for his three children.