Carolyn Dunn is Cherokee/Muskogee/Seminole and Choctaw (freedman) on her fathers side and Cajun and French Creole on her mother's. Born in Los Angeles, a second generation urban mixed blood Indian, her focus in her poetry, plays and fiction, as well as her academic work is on landscape, both urban and rural, and the relationship of Native peoples to their ancestral and adopted places of residence. She is the author of the award winning book of poetry, Outfoxing Coyote (2001) and the forthcoming Echo Location (2004), and of the play Ghost Dance.  She is also the coeditor of Through the Eye of the Deer (with Carol Comfort) and Hozho: Walking In Beauty with her mentor, Paula Gunn Allen. Her work has appeared in many anthologies including Green Man:Tales From the Mythic Forest, Reinventing the Enemy's Language and Kenneth Lincoln's Song With the Heart of A Bear: Fusions of Native and American Poetry. She is currently working on a children's book of Native stories with Ari Berk, as well as a series of children's books on contemporary mythology.

An accomplished musician and performer, she is a member of the Mankillers, the all woman Native northern drum group whose three cd's were all top sellers in Indian Country. She has performed with Joanne Shendoah, Arigon Starr, RedHawk, Keith Secola and Joy Harjo. A former radio producer and host in Northern California, she can be heard as co-host of American Indian Airwaves/Coyote Radio on KPFK-FM, Pacifica Radio.

Currently pursuing a doctorate in American Studies and Ethnicity at USC where she is an Irvine Fellow, Carolyn lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children, where she is Executive Director of the Nita Ishki Foundation/Mother Bear's Books & Gallery, a non-profit American Indian Community Arts Organization. For more information, visit her website at www.carolyndunn.com.