Jan Walker

There’s something about salt water, changing tides and the people who live there that speaks to my soul.

I grew up on Puget Sound and learned to swim in its chilly water. Low tide meant taking careful steps over broken shells, barnacles and slippery seaweed to ease into a swim. It also meant raking little neck clams and digging geoducks. High tide made it easier to slip in for a swim, but high tides that coincided with a full moon could bring storms, battered boats and docks, and shoreline erosion.

All my novels are set near salt water—the South Pacific, Hawaii, the Oregon coast, Puget Sound. All my characters are influenced by the sea.

My major nonfiction work, written as a paean to prison education and memoir of an unusual career, takes readers inside prisons. One of those was on an island prison in Puget Sound. Every offender housed there looked across the sea to the mainland and dreamed of the boat ride that would set him free. My commute included a ferry crossing, docks and floats, ramps and ropes.

I spent 18 years teaching women and men inside, and developing courses to meet their specific needs. My parenting book, PARENTING FROM A DISTANCE, has been used inside since the late 1980s. I remain an advocate for prison reform and for the rights of children of incarcerated parents. Two of my novels, AN INMATE'S DAUGHTER and ROMAR JONES TAKES A HIKE: RUNAWAY OR MISSING PERSON feature the struggles of children of incarcerated parents.

UNLOCKING MINDS IN LOCKUP is both my personal memoir and a guide for those training to work or volunteer inside prisons. TEACH INSIDE is a series of activities developed for those who are in jail or prison, and for their family members outside.

I believe in the power of story, strong character development, and bringing settings to life in both fiction and nonfiction. In addition to my own books, I have published the works of 12 other authors at Plicata Press LLC.