Don Rearden grew up on the tundra of Southwestern Alaska. His experiences with the Yup'ik Eskimo culture shaped both his writing and to a larger extent his worldview. While he is a produced screenwriter and published poet, his heart often draws his writing back to characters and stories that originate on the tundra. In his fiction he hopes to shed light on the struggles of everyday life in rural Alaska, a place outsiders often view as a mystical and mysterious land.

Rearden lives in the mountain community of Bear Valley, Alaska, and teaches as an Assistant Professor of Developmental Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage where he shows young writers how to develop their creative voices. Much of his writing and thought is influenced from learning experiences in the Alaskan wilderness, as well as from the teachings and writings of his mentor and friend, Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael and The Story of B.