Dan Walker is a homesteader’s son who grew up to become a teacher and a writer. He has worked as a chef, innkeeper, merchant seaman, fisherman, and carpenter. Drawn from these varied experiences are blogs, essays, professional articles, and fiction published in magazines and literary journals such as the Journal of Geography, Alaska Magazine, and We Alaskans. Dan has more than thirty years in education and was named Teacher of the Year for Alaska in 1999. His consulting work has taken him throughout Alaska from Anchorage to Barrow and Perryville to Sitka where he worked with principals, teachers, and students and is rewarded by experiencing remote Alaska that few people get to know. Secondhand Summer, published in 2016, is his first book. The Sequel, Back Home, was released in April 2021. The third Sam Barger book, The One Man Iris Davis Fan Club, came out in 2023. A family memoir, Letters from Happy Valley, retells the rousing adventure of Alaska Homesteaders and includes letters the Walkers wrote in 1959 describing their life in Alaska. Look for Briar Hopper, now available for pre-order.