John Straley is the author of six novels featuring the Alaskan private investigator Cecil Younger. The first book in that series, The Woman Who Married A Bear, won the 1993 Shamus award for best first novel.
Straley is a criminal investigator, a poet, and is currently the twelfth Writer Laureate of Alaska. His work has been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives on the beach in Sitka, Alaska, with his wife and their son.