Dana Stabenow: Alaska’s great mystery author

East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

Dana Stabenow is one of the most prolific authors living and working in Alaska today. Born in Anchorage in 1952, she grew up in Cordova and Seldovia, and earned her Bachelors degree in Journalism at the University of Alaska in 1973. Unable to make a decent living as a new journalist she took a job with the oil industry in Prudhoe Bay just as construction on the Pipeline was taking off. She later earned her master’s degree in creative writing at UAA. Since then she has published over 35 books most of which are crime fiction. Her first Kate Shugak mystery, A Cold Day for Murder, won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 1993. In 2007 Stabenow was named Alaska Artist of the Year in the Governor's Awards for the Arts and Humanities. Her 17th Kate Shugak mystery, Though Not Dead, received the 2012 Nero Award. She is also the author of the popular Liam Campbell series about an Alaska State Trooper working in the bush. Ms. Stabenow just published Theft of an Idol, her third in the Eye of Isis series, which takes place in ancient Alexandria, Egypt, and shines a new light on Cleopatra.