About
Bruce Rettig is the author of literary short stories, essays, creative non-fiction, and flash fiction. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts and Fine Arts History. He continues to enjoy the creative process and is one of the founding members of Tahoe Writers Works, a local writing group and workshop, and served ten years as the publisher of EDGE, TWW’s award-winning literary publication. Bruce supports various regional arts and culture groups, and was on the board of directors for the Tahoe Tallac Association for over ten years, serving as both treasurer and vice president.
Rettig's memoir, “Refraction,” won first place awards in the 2018 San Francisco Writing Contest, 2017 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Awards, and 2017 International Chanticleer Book Awards. The piece is based on his years of working as a merchant marine in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. He has completed two novels, and his second, “Midnight Stone,” was a 2014 Chanticleer Book Review Awards Finalist. Some of the writing conferences Bruce has attended include the Squaw Valley Writers Conference, the Truckee Meadows Writers Conference, the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference. He is also a member of High Sierra Writers (HSW), Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA), Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) and Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).
Bruce lives at South Lake Tahoe, California, writes in the early hours of each morning, and works full time at his graphic design and marketing/advertising agency during the day. He enjoys living in the beauty of the high Sierra, and exploring the Nevada desert and Pacific Northwest.
More info about Bruce can be found at BruceRettig.com.
Featured Work
Refraction
“Prudhoe Bay might not be the end of the world, but you sure as hell can see it from there,” the personnel director declared as I walked out of the union office and onto the misty streets of Seattle. I was about to embark on a soul-searching quest to one of the most remote destinations in the world: Alaska’s North Slope. REFRACTION is the story of that adventure.
I had been studying Geology at the University of Colorado in 1982, and in search of a summer internship, called upon an uncle who held the position as vice president of Crowley Maritime Corporation, a shipping company contracting with oil giants ARCO, Exxon, and Sohio. These companies had nothing available, but Crowley had a seasonal job opening at one of their divisions, Arctic Marine Freighters, a rough-and-tumble tugboat and barge operation servicing the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field and the newly constructed Trans-Alaska Pipeline. My summer home for the next four years was as far north as one could travel on land.
REFRACTION takes the reader on a four-year Arctic adventure, and observations on world events of the early 80s. We each navigate our own youthful rite of passage—a precarious period when we are unsure which life path to take. This is the story of my journey, told in a series of reflections back on a time spent living in a frozen wasteland. Some of us justified this endeavor as a modern-day gold rush or a romantic odyssey; others saw its truth as a distorted image hovering above the horizon—another refraction. At the Community of Writers Squaw Valley workshop, my piece was described as a cross between Heart of Darkness and Into the Wild.
Other Works
Awards and Recognition
- SAN FRANCISCO WRITING CONTEST, 2018 First Place, Adult Non-Fiction
- 2017 INTERNATIONAL CHANTICLEER BOOK AWARDS First Place, Narrative Non-Fiction
- PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRITERS ASSOCIATION LITERARY AWARDS, 2017 First Place, Nonfiction/Memoir
- MONTHLY MUSE, 2017 Finalist, Nonfiction
- INAUGURAL SUNSHOT PROSE CONTEST, 2017 Finalist, Narrative Nonfiction
- GLIMMER TRAIN, 2016 Honorable Mention, Very Short Fiction Contest
- XXXXI CONSECUTIVE NEW MILLENNIUM AWARDS, 2016 Finalist, Flash Fiction
- CHANTICLEER BOOK REVIEW AWARDS, 2014 Finalist, Novel
- XXXIV CONSECUTIVE NEW MILLENNIUM AWARDS, 2013 Honorable Mention, Flash Fiction
- XVII CONSECUTIVE NEW MILLENNIUM AWARDS, 2004 Honorable Mention Winner, Short Story
- 2K3 WRITING AWARDS, 2003 Fiction Winner, Short Story
Press and Media Mentions
- THE REGIONAL REPORT: BRUCE RETTIG INTERVIEW June 18, 2018 Interviewed by Steve Teshara, host and producer of the Regional Report
- WRITING RECOGNITION: LOCAL AUTHORS WIN 1ST AT PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRITERS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE August 5, 2017, Tahoe Daily Tribune In his 20s, Bruce Rettig worked at least 12 hours each day of the week — on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. “We were trapped in a time warp, interactions almost exclusively limited to the confines of a camp consisting of seven barges and 10 tugboats anchored off a thin spit of land jutting into the Arctic Ocean,” he states in his new nonfiction novel “Refraction.”
