| John Straley (writer) (Sitka) moved to Sitka, Alaska in 1977 after receiving a degree in writing from the University of Washington, and began writing a book of oral histories of Alaskan pioneers. Based on his experience conducting interviews, he was hired in 1983 as an investigator responsible for tracking down and interviewing witnesses, and in 1994 began working on criminal defense investigations, as well as for the Department of Environmental Conservation. Straley took up writing seriously again in 1984, and his mystery novels have received numerous awards, beginning his first book, The Woman Who Married a Bear, which won the Shamus Award for the Best First Mystery in 1993. His latest mystery Cold Water, Burning was shortlisted for the best novel of 2001 by the Private I. Writers of America, and a Straley essay is to be published in Nation Magazine's collection of fifty writers from the fifty states. Straley recently finished a stint on the Alaska State Council on the Arts and now works from his floating office on Sitka's waterfront. |
| Brett Dillingham (storyteller/writer) (Juneau) was born in the Midwest but spent his summers living in a small village in rural Mexico, and began his career in reader’s theater for children at the local library. Dillingham now lives in Alaska and performs and teaches storytelling, writing and drama in Alaska, Canada, Ireland, Africa and the Lower 48 states. His work has been performed at the Kennedy Center, and he has performed live on National Public Radio, at the Calgary International Children’s Festival, the National American Reads conference, the National Migrant Education conference and the International Reading Association. Currently teaching at the University of Alaska, Dillingham also writes children’s stories, poetry, and plays. |
Keith Smith (poet/actor) (Ketchikan) worked with 13 students, grades one through six, from the Tongass School of Arts & Sciences in April, 2004. Collectively they created the plot and most of the text for the trickster melodrama, "Raven Goes to School." Their goal was to write a narrative in the style of trickster folktales, staying true to character of the northwest coastal native trickster, the Raven, while placing raven in a contemporary setting.
Keith Smith received a B.A. from Oberlin College (1982) and an M.F.A in poetry from the University of Virginia (1988). He has extensive experience teaching creative writing workshops, and since moving to Ketchikan in 1996 after four years in Pernambuco, Brasil and Tarija, Bolivia, he has worked as an actor and director of productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Music Man, House of Blue Leaves, Fish Pirate's Daughter, Chicago, etc. Keith has edited a number of literary magazines and journals, including the S.E. Alaska publication Inside Passages, and he co-hosts “The Poetry Lounge,” a weekly radio show on KRBD. He is a founding member of The Writer’s Forum, a group that promotes the literary arts in Ketchikan, and has additionally organized and worked as a panelist for The Humanities Conference in Ketchikan, now in its sixth year. Mr. Smith was the full time Executive Director of the Ketchikan Area Arts & Humanities Council from 1998 – 2002, and the project coordinator for the new Ketchikan Art Center building project from 2002 -2004. His most recent publications include poems in the American Anthropologist and the Journal for Anthropology and the Humanities.
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