Duane Niatum

In the preface to his 2000 book The Crooked Beak of Love, Niatum described the impact of his mixed ancestry on his life and work: "My aesthetic position has always been to learn and grow from whatever sources of knowledge are available...Art continues to offer the opportunity of surviving in both worlds no matter how challenging that may become at times." He also explained his grandfather's influence on his writing: "My grandfather's life and stories became the touchstones of my life and art. The center of my artistic self starts from his home and his parents' home which was almost on the beach."

Niatum established himself as one of the most influential promoters of Native American poetry when he served as editor of a Native American author series at Harper & Row Publishers, where he edited two influential anthologies: Carriers of the Dream Wheel: Contemporary Native American Poetry (1975) and Harper's Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry (1988). He has published numerous essays on Native American literature, and his own poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Born in 1938 in Seattle, Washington to a Klallam (Salish) mother and Italian-American father, Niatum struggled with his mixed Indigenous and Italian heritage which would trouble him for years. After his parents' divorce when Niatum was four years old, Niatum's Klallam grandfather became his surrogate father, which would leave a lasting impression as he would pass on the Klallam tribe's oral tradition which would later become intertwined into his writing.