On Alaskan Fighting Bulls

Description

On Alaskan Fighting Bulls

by Derek Prall
ISBN: 978-1-963695-71-7 paperback $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-963695-72-4 ebook $9.99
October 20, 2026

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Directionless after college, Martin Lambert leaves home to work in an Alaskan salmon processing plant. He expects big paychecks and maybe some adventure, but finds brutal work, volatile coworkers, and an unshakeable feeling that something is wrong. Down at his core. When he sees a friend inexplicably murder a fishing boat captain, that feeling is confirmed. What Martin does with that knowledge, though, will be up to him. Will he continue to move aimlessly through his own life, or will this harrowing Alaskan ordeal force him to confront himself?

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Praise for On Alaskan Fighting Bulls by Derek Prall

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“Derek Prall has created a gritty, tough-minded, and brilliant first novel that calls to mind enduring classics—Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, television’s Deadliest Catch, and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. In coastal Alaska at the literal end of the world, Prall’s characters thrash fitfully in nets of loneliness as they work back-breaking seasonal jobs in a salmon-processing plant. Prall renders an industry in extraordinary detail and masterfully portrays its searchers, loners, and drifters. I’ve never read a book quite like this one—my highest praise for Derek Prall’s barbed, real, and original debut.”—Charles McNair, author of The Epicureans and other acclaimed novels

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“On Alaskan Fighting Bulls pulls you in by all your senses. This hard-hitting coming-of-age story is effortless to read, and the connection you feel with the characters is palpable. I already cannot wait to read Prall’s next book.”—Christy Warren, author of Flash Point

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“Prall writes prose with a razorblade’s edge, and he paints a gorgeous portrait of a fraught, otherworldly landscape that we all somehow relate to. This book grabs you by the throat—in the best possible way.”—Josh Green, author of Goodbye, Sweetberry Park (grand prize winner, 2025 Hollywood Book Festival)

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“If Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and Saunder’s Pastoralia had a bastard love child, it would be Derek Prall’s debut novel On Alaskan Fighting Bulls. Set in a company fishing town outside of Anchorage  during salmon season, it follows the down and out, ragtag group of workers who come to spend twelve hours a day, six days a week gutting fish while being ripped off by their bosses on the overpriced goods and supplies sold at the company store and food stand. The only thing more moving than the reader’s urge to vomit while floundering through the nasally rich descriptions of the slurry being processed out at the slime machine is the deep empathy Prall trains readers on for a cast of characters at the edge of the world dealing with both the most immediate and most remote grotesqueries of American capitalism. It is an urgent page-turner for this second Gilded Age we find ourselves in, one that will have readers laughing yelling, and crying all the same. Just don’t forget to keep a wastebasket nearby in case of emergency.”—Mike Hilbig, author of Judgment Day & Other White Lies

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Derek Prall spent most of his career as a journalist at newspapers and magazines, first writing for them then running them. His byline appears in numerous publications, with notable titles including Business Insider, Atlanta Civic Circle, Dark Reading, and American City & County, where he served as managing editor for many years. Today his primary focus is on fiction, but he still does freelance editing and writing work. When he’s not writing, he lies about working on his motorcycle and shoots sporting clays poorly. On Alaskan Fighting Bulls is his first novel.