Duane Niatum is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, playright and editor. He was born in Seattle in 1938 and has spent most of his life in the Pacific Northwest. He is an enrolled member of the S’Klallam Tribe (Jamestown Band). His early works were written under the name of Duane McGinnis before he changed his surname to reflect his Native American heritage. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in 1969, a masters from John Hopkins University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan. He has taught writing courses at a variety of institutions including John Hopkins University, University of Washington, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), The Evergreen State College, Northwest Indian College, and Western Washington University. His poems, essays, and short stories have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers. His published books of poetry include “After the Death of an Elder Klallam” (1970), “Ascending Red Cedar Moon” (1973), “Digging out the Roots” (1977), “Songs of the Harvester of Dreams” (1981), “Drawings of the Song Animals” (1991) and “Crooked Beak of Love”, (2000). He was the editor for two books of Native American poetry, “Carriers of the Dream Wheel: Contemporary Native American Poetry” (1975) and “Harper’s Anthology of Twentieth Century Native American Poetry” (1988).