John Straley
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John Straley is a detective fiction and Shamus Award-winning author famous for his Cecil Younger series of novels. He currently resides in Sitka, Alaska.
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[edit] Biography
John Straley was born in Redwood City, California and attended Grinnell College before transferring to the University of Washington for a degree in writing. After college and a stint in Eastern Washington, he settled into his current hometown of Sitka, Alaska in 1977. After moving from jobs as wide-ranging as trail foreman for the Forest Service he soon settled as a private investigator and a staff investigator for the Alaska Public Defender. Through this, however, he continued to write and after being turned down by publishers numerous times, in 1991 he received a tip from friend and anthropologist Richard Nelson that New York City-based Soho Press was interested in detective fiction novels. Upon submitting his manuscript for The Woman Who Married a Bear, Soho Press expressed interest for his work. After a successful run of mysteries that have garnered critical acclaim, he is now looking outside of his trademark Cecil Younger series for future books.
In 2006, he was named writer laureate for the the State of Alaska until 2008[1].
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Cecil Younger series
- The Woman Who Married a Bear (1992) — winner of the Shamus Award
- The Curious Eat Themselves (1993)
- The Music of What Happens (1996) — winner of the Spotted Owl Award
- Death and the Language of Happiness (1997)
- The Angels Will not Care (1998)
- Cold Water Burning (2001)
[edit] Other writing
- Short stories:
- "Life Before the War" — published in Men from Boys
- "Finding Lou" — published in The Mysterious North
- Essays:
- Published in The Nation, Alaska magazine
- "Love, Crime and Joyriding on a Dead-End Road" — published in The Book of the Tongass (1999)
