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 mysterious land.