Richard Dauenhauer was born in Syracuse, New York. He received a B.A. in Russian and Slavic Languages from Syracuse University, an M.A. in German from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin. He studied in Finland under a Fullbright Fellowship in 1966 and 1967. He came to Alaska in the late 1960's to teach at Alaska Methodist University (now Alaska Pacific University), and also became involved in studies of the Tlingit language and oral tradition. He is an author and poet and has published several volumes of poetry, as well as a number of translations of poetry from German, Russian, Finnish, Classical Greek, and other languages. His published works include: Glacier Bay Concerto, a long poem about Southeast Alaska; Phenologies, a collection of original poems; and Snow in May: an Anthology of Post War Finnish Writing 1945-1972, which he co-edited with Phillip Binham. In 1981 Richard Dauenhauer was named to a four-year term as Poet Laureate of Alaska.