ABOUT THE FEATURED AUTHOR:
From the author’s website
Beth Mathews is a marine biologist and a mother of one son. She grew up in a large family in the Midwest and earned a degree in Animal Science at Purdue University. After three years as a zookeeper in the bird department at the Tulsa Zoo, she was granted a leave-of-absence to volunteer with a team of biologists on an ambitious study of breeding humpback whales in Hawaii. That experience inspired her to pursue a master’s degree in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studied under Dr. Kenneth S. Norris.
As a professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, Beth taught courses in biology, behavioral ecology, and marine mammalogy and led research on harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and harbor porpoises with her students, mainly in Glacier Bay National Park. She has also studied humpback, gray, and sperm whales and—briefly—sleeper sharks, and led undergraduate research programs on board tall ships in the Gulf of Maine and from field camps in Hawaii and Alaska.
After twenty years in Alaska, Beth and her husband sold their home to begin an expedition with their young son on the family’s 42-foot sailboat from Alaska to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Feedback from her blog during the three-year journey inspired her to write stories about their sailing adventures as well as Deep Waters, a memoir about her family’s struggle to survive, and move beyond, her husband’s unusual stroke in 2008.
She has published numerous scientific papers. Deep Waters is Mathews’ first book. It won the Memoirs (personal struggle /health issues) category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and a bronze award in the Independent Publishers Book Awards, for Best Regional Non-Fiction, West-Pacific region. She lives with her husband and their boat-loving Schipperke on an island in Washington.
ABOUT BETH’S BOOK: Deep Waters
A marine biologist’s fulfilling life as a professor, wife, and mother in Alaska is upended when her healthy husband is slammed by a rare type of stroke. His radical approach to recovery clashes with her instinct to keep him safe at home and sets them on a collision course as he insists on ambitious sailing expeditions with Beth and their young son in Alaska’s magnificent yet unforgiving waters. Deep Waters is a gripping story of relationship resilience set against the backdrop of Alaska’s dramatic marine wilderness.
2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
WINNER Memoirs: Personal Struggle/Health Issues
2023 Independent Publishers Book Awards, IPPY
Bronze Award West-Pacific: Best Regional Non-Fiction
2024 Eric Hoffer Award
Short-List GRAND PRIZE
2024 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award
FINALIST Superior Work by Debut Authors
2024 Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Nancy Pearl Award
FINALIST Best Book: Memoir (award decision 09/21/24)
AUTHOR VISITS:
Author visits with Beth are available via Adventures by the Book.