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Crysta Esther Casey was born on May 27, 1952 in Pasadena, California to parents Buford Abner Casey and Vera Esther Casey. She lived and worked as a poet in the Bay Area, at Stony Brook University in New York, and finally in Seattle, where she lived from the 1980s until her death in 2008. Prior to moving to Seattle, Casey served in the Marines before being honorably discharged on September 12, 1980. Her years as a Marine were extremely difficult. She appeared to have suffered a mental breakdown, was incarcerated, referred to herself as a resident poet, and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Even with schizophrenia, Casey maintained a writerly lifestyle and developed friendships in a variety of communities, including the Veterans' Administration, Women of Wheel, her apartment building, and, most of all, Seattle's literary community. She developed friendships and professional contacts with Bellowing Ark, Richard Hugo House, Floating Bridge Press, Red Sky, Open Books: A Poem Emporium, and the It's About Time Writer's Reading Series (1990-present), where she helped to maintain a vibrant newsletter. Casey developed relationships wherever she went. Casey died of cancer on June 24, 2008.