Nonfiction author and dogsledder Blair Braverman visited Dickinson College on Monday, Oct. 24,  to discuss her new book and share her experience as a female musher trainer for dogsled racing.

The book, entitled Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube discusses the Iditorad, an 1100-mile dogsled race in Alaska. Braverman presented her book at a book reading at the Waidner-Spahr Library, and later presented a lecture in Althouse.

Braverman’s lecture recounted her journey training for the Iditarod, which began at a school in Norway at the age of 17. The following year, she set out to Alaska to live on an isolated glacier with a pack of dogs. During her time in Alaska, Braverman was raped and sexually assaulted, which led her to leave the sport for four years. She eventually reentered the field but encountered other gender related setbacks, such as being fired from handling after finishing ahead of the male musher she was working for at the time in a race. Braverman then decided to buy her own dogs and become a musher on her own, when she experienced conditions she described as “terrifying” and “a constant negotiation of dangers,” including hypothermia and severe injuries.

Along with recounting the hardships of dog-sledding as a sport, Braverman’s primary focus was on the difficulty of navigating its male dominated culture. Though dog-sledding is one of only three sports in which men and women compete together, she pointed to frequent instances of sexist commentary, the prevalence of female handlers but lack of female mushers and widespread but often covered up sexual assault. She described dog-sledding as “a race among equal athletes with totally different resources.”

Braverman works to expose young girls to the field of dogsledding, which, according to her, teaches many valuable lessons, especially the value of assertiveness, as “girls learn very quickly that they can’t do the cute little girl question voice,” when commanding a pack of dogs.

Despite her current focus on training for the Iditarod, Braverman described herself as “a writer who dogsleds,” rather than “a dogsledder who writes.” When asked what message she hoped Dickinson students could receive from her presentation and from Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, Braverman stated that this depended on the gender of the reader. For females, she emphasized the necessity of “trusting your instincts,” reflecting that in adverse situations in her life, her instincts were almost always correct. For the male reader, Braverman stated “the world is very different depending on whose eyes you’re viewing it through. So don’t assume you know everything.”

The event, which had about fifteen students and faculty in attendance, was co-sponsored by the Women and Gender Resource Center, Department of English, Waidner-Spahr Library, and Department of Experiential and Outdoor Education.