Northwest Authors

Stephanie Coontz, Sociologist

Stephanie Coontz teaches Stephanie Coontzhistory and family studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She was awarded the Dale Richmond Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for the first edition of The Way We Never Were.

LLyn De Danaan

LLyn De Danaan, emerita faculty and first woman academic dean, The Evergreen State College, writes fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent book, Katie Gale: A Coast Salish Woman's Life on Oyster Bay (University of Nebraska Press, 2013) has received excellent reviews. She is also known for her books Conversations with the Inner Dog and Koans with the Inner Dog. She has been a research consultant for Native American tribes since 1991. Her non-fiction publications include social studies curricula, produced in collaboration with Indian educators and the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction's office. She was a recipient of the Washington State Historical Society's Peace and Friendship award in recognition of her role in fostering an understanding of Washington's cultural diversity. Her field work experience includes ethnographic work with farm laborers in Yakima Valley, long term projects in Sarawak and Kelantan, Malaysia, and short term work in Thailand and Rajasthan, India. She collaborated in the documentation of Transylvanian winter ceremonials during a Fulbright fellowship in Romania 2006-2007. Her recent Mountain of Shell project focuses on the life and work of the Japanese and Japanese American community on Oyster Bay, Washington. An article based on this work appeared in the Winter 2012 Columbia Magazine. De Danaan, aka Lynn Patterson, grew up in Ohio. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sarawak, Malaysia, 1962-64. She worked for the Xenia Daily Gazette before attending Ohio State University where she graduated cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She sings and plays guitar and lives on Oyster Bay, Washington State.

Donald Finkel

Donald Finkel lived with his family in Olympia, Teaching With Your Mouth ShutWashington, and taught at The Evergreen State College beginning in 1976. He was the co-author, with William Ray Arney, of Educating for Freedom: The Paradox of Pedagogy. Mr.
Finkel died in 1999.

Burton S. Guttman, Professor Emeritus of Biology,The Evergreen State College.

We carry three of this author's books. (Evolution, (A Beginner's Guide), Genetics, (A Beginner's Guide) and his latest, Finding Your Wings, A Workbook for Beginning Bird-Watchers

Thom Jones, Novelist

Thom JonesThom Jones has been a Marine, a boxer with over 150 fights, an advertising copy editor and a janitor. He is a graduate of the University of Washington and the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop. His book The Pugilist at Rest was a National Book Award Finalist and his short fiction has appeared in many magazines, including The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, GQ, and Harper’s. Thom Jones lives with his family in Olympia,
Washington.

Timothy Kelly, Poet

Timothy Kelly was born and educated in northern Ohio. He received his MFA from Boston University, and his MPT (Physical Therapy) degree from the University of Washington. His first book, Articulation, was published by Lynx House Press in 1993; his second, Stronger, won the FIELD Poetry Prize and was published by Oberlin College Press in 2000. His poems, which reflect an abiding interest in the movement, structure, and beauty of the human body, have appeared in The Iowa Review, Crab Creek Review, and other journals. He works in Olympia, Washington, as a physical therapist, teaches periodically at the Evergreen State College, and is married and the father of two teenage boys. He spends his spare time swimming, gardening, doing yoga and the laundry, and arguing about whose turn it is to mow the lawn.

Ruth Kirk, Natural Historian

Ruth KirkRuth Kirk has won many awards for her numerous books focusing on natural science and regional history, including Snow and Exploring Washington’s Past. With her husband, a National Park service Ranger and naturalist, she lived for five years in Mount Rainier National Park. She has climbed the Mountain five times and hiked the park’s Wonderland Trail. She now lives in Lacey, Washington.

Sissy Lommel Kluh, Autobiographer

Sissy Kluh graduated from the University of Washington in 2000. She had her husband of fifty-five years reside in Olympia, Washington. She has four children and ten grandchildren. Sissy spends her time writing, enjoying her family and boating in the San Juan Islands, Canada and Alaska.

Gar Lipow

Gar Lipow, a long time environmental activist and journalist with a strong technical background, has spent years immersed in the subject of efficiency and renewable energy.  His latest book is Solving the Climate Crisis through Social Change.

Jeanne Lohmann, Poet

Jeanne Lohmann, whose writings have appeared in many literary reviews and anthologies throughout the United States, is a graduate of the creative writing program at San Francisco State University. She is the author of Granite Under Water, Gathering a Life, and Between Silence and Answer. Her most recent book is Flying Horses. She lives and writes in Olympia, Washington.

JENS LUND, Folklorist

Jens Lund is a freelance historian with a doctorate in folklore from Indiana State University. He was born in Denmark and now lives with his family in Olympia, Washington. His series of Audio Tape/Book Tour Guides that introduce travellers to the roads and attractions of Washington are available at Orca Books by Special Order. They include Tour Tapes with traditional music and narratives from local residents. Olympic Penninsula Loop, Heritage Corridor Tour Central Washington Heritage Corridor: Leavenworth to Maryhill
Southeastern Washington Heritage Corridor: RIchland to Clarkston.

Jim Lynch, Novelist

Jim Lynch has won national journalism awards and published short fiction in literary magazines. A Washngton State native, Lynch currently writes and sails from his home in Olympia, where he lives with his wife and daughter. The Highest Tide is his first novel.

S. R. “Rudy” Martin, Jr

S. R. “Rudy” Martin, Jr. was a founding faculty member of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He taught American/African American Studies and was an administrator there until he retired in 1997. His major publications are the family memoir On the Move: A Black Family’s Western Saga (2009), the novel Natural-Born Proud: A Reverie (2010), and Seaside Stories (2011), a collection of short fiction.

Nikki McClure

Nikki McClure needs no introduction to the people of Olympia.  Her work adorns walls and book shelves all over Olympia and beyond.  Armed with an X-acto knife, she cuts out her images from a single sheet of paper and creates a bold language that translates the complex poetry of motherhood, nature, and activism into a simple and endearing picture.

Wendy Parciak, novelist

Wendy Parciak grew up in Western Washington and went to college at the University of Washington. She studied for a Ph.D. in ecology at the University of Montana in Missoula. Wendy loved the town so much, she ended up staying. 

She wrote Requiem for Locusts, her first novel, to explore how people react when confronted by a psychotic individual whose life is more out of control than their own. She based much of her knowledge on her own mentally-ill sister, who was diagnosed after years of visual and auditory hallucinations with a genetic disorder called velocardiofacial syndrome.The novel was named a Montana Book Award Honor Book for 2008.

Lucia Perillo, Poet

Lucia PerilloLucia Perillo won the PEN/Revson Foundation Poetry Fellowship and several other awards for her collection The Body Mutinies and received the Norma Farber Award from the Poetry Society of America for her collection Dangerous Life. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the Kenyon Review, and they have been included in the Pushcart and Best
American Poetry Anthologies. She recently won the McArthur Award. A former park ranger, she lives with her husband in Olympia, Washington.

Dave Pratt

Dave Pratt is a native of most of the United States west coast and Dave Pratthas freelanced as a writer since 1977. He is a retired Army officer with twenty years of experience in hopital administration. After decades of experience, he understands the healthcare industry, with all its wonder, personalities, and hidden dangers.

David Price, Anthropologist

David PriceDavid H. Price is an anthropologist at St. Martin’s College in Olympia, WA, who works in the Middle East and studies interactions between anthropologists and the intelligence community.

Bill Ransom, Educator, Novelist, Poet

Bill Ransom has published six novels, six collections of poetry, and numerous articles and short stories. His latest novel, Jaguar, has been an online bestseller, and his potery collection Finding True North was nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He is also the author of the “creative autobiography”, Learning the Ropes, and co-wrote the Pandora series with Frank Herbert. Bill Ransom currently teaches at The Evergreen State College.

Weldon Willis Rau, Geologist

Weldon Rau of Olympia, Washington, is a retired research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and the State of Washington. He is a great grandson of Puyallup pioneers Mary Ann and Willis Boatman, the principal figures in Surviving the Oregon Trail, 1852 Rau’s book is the culmination of 15 years of extensive field investigations and archival/library study.

Theresa Scott

Theresa Scott’s 13 historical romance novels, originally published in print, sold over 600,000 copies in the markets of the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Britain. Her foreign sales have been to Germany, Holland and Taiwan.

 

Theresa is now writing contemporary romances. Her ebook, "Love Rehab," was a summer release in 2011, and is her first new book published in 10 years.  To find the latest news on her books, please visit Theresa Scott's website.
Many of Theresa's ebooks are available in the Kobo marketplace on our website.  You can also find various editions on these sites:

Kindle

Smashwords

Red Rose Publishing

The Wild Rose Press

Laura Swan

Laura Swan, O.S.B., holds graduate degrees in theology and spirituality. She is currently prioress of Saint Placid Priory, a Benedictine abbey in the Pacific Northwest.

Gail Tremblay, Poet

Gail Tremblay is of Onondaga/Micmac and French Canadian ancestry. Her work is anthologized in Returning the Gift, Harper’s Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry, Dancing on the Rim of the World and New Voices from the Longhouse, among others. Her work has also been translated and published in anthologies in Japan, France, Germany and Argentina. She is a widely exhibited visual artist, and writes articles about contemporary art and literature. She is a member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA). where she
grows a wonderful garden. Gail works hard, loves her work and her students, and is never bored. – from the cover of Indian Singing

John R. Van Eenwyk, Psychologist

John R. Van Eenwyk, Ph.D., is a graduate of the C.G.Jung Institute in Zurich. He has a private practice in Olympia, WA, where he is a clinical supervisor at the Medical School of the University of Washington. He is the author of Archetypes & Strange Attractors: The Chaotic World of Symbols (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts). He has lecture internationally on the subject of this book and on the treatment of torture survivors.