Stephen D. Orsini

Stephen D. Orsini was born in Fairbanks, Alaska. As a young boy, he lived with his mother and three siblings in a small house on Guemes Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. Stephen attended the first three grades in the island's two-room schoolhouse, then traveled daily by ferry to school in nearby Anacortes. His attraction to adventure, writing and the sea fused during his high school years, when he discovered the complete works of Joseph Conrad in the Anacortes Carnegie Public Library. He has a BA in Literature from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. Commercial salmon fishing in Alaska in the summers helped pay for his education. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, he worked in a fisheries development program. With his marine background, he was hired by the Swedish firm of ASEA Stal-Laval for the sales of marine steam turbines. He attended Wisconsin University studying co-generation engineering. During his 30 years in the power generation industry with ASEA, ABB and Alstom, he kept writing with freelance articles published in National Fisherman, Oceans, The Compass, Sailing, Sailing World, Private Pilot and 48 North. He saved the true account of his delivery voyage of the ill-fated king crabber Scottie for his first book, published by Washington State University Press under their trade imprint, Basalt Books.