John E. Smelcer was born in 1963, and is of Ahtna Athabaskan Indian
descent. Currently the Executive Director of the Ahtna Tribe's Heritage
Foundation, he has held visiting professorships at universities around
the world. He earned a doctorate in comparative literature in 1993 and
a masters degree in literature and humanities in 1991. He is faculty at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
His work appears in
numerous international anthologies by the likes of Random House, Dover,
and American Indian Press. In 1994 he edited Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry (Salmon Run & American Indian Press). His poems have appeared in
such periodicals as The Atlantic Monthly, and he is poetry editor at
Rosebud, among the nation's most prestigious quarterlies of poetry and
fiction.
