My World Is Melting: Living with Climate Change in Svalbard - Paperback

by Line Nagell Ylvisåker (Author), Kelsey Camacho (Translator)

In 2015, in a tragic natural disaster, a massive avalanche descended on the small Arctic Norwegian city of Longyearbyen, Svalbard, leveling eleven houses and killing a child and a young father. In this arresting book, journalist Line Nagell Ylvisåker explores the effects of a warming planet up close and personal, from inside a remote community intimately attuned to its environment.

Ylvisåker introduces readers to her friends and neighbors, including dedicated meteorologists racing to anticipate future disasters and a veteran trapper who harbors doubts about climate change even as he bears witness to a constantly shifting landscape. Blending memoir, long-form journalism, and scientific reportage, she provides an intimate picture of life in a place where the effects of climate change can be seen in all their startling reality--and a compelling and hopeful argument for collective and cooperative action across the globe.

Author Biography

Line Nagell Ylvisåker is an editor, journalist, and nonfiction writer living in the high Arctic. From 2006 to 2018, she worked for the newspaper Svalbardposten, where she received several awards for her writing about Svalbard; since 2023, she has served as Svalbardposten's editor in chief. She holds a master's degree from the University of Oslo and lectures on climate change throughout Norway.

Kelsey Camacho is a writer and translator who guides expeditions in the polar regions, cares for sled dogs, and leads local writing workshops. Her work can be found in Nowhere Magazine, Bitch Media, Entropy, Portland Review, and elsewhere. Originally from North Carolina, she's based in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.