Richard Nelson has a Ph.D. in anthropology and has pursued a career as a writer. He lives in Sitka, Alaska. His early books were based on his time living with Inupiaq people (Hunters of the Northern Ice, 1969), the Gwich'in Athabaskans (Hunters of the Northern Forest, 1973), and the Koyukon Athabaskans (Make Prayers to the Raven, 1983, the basis for a PBS series narrated by Barry Lopez). More recently, he won the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding natural history writing for The Island Within (1989), a book based on his experiences on an island in the Pacific Northwest.

During his visit to Ann Arbor, he will be reading from his new book, Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America.