Seth Slater, M.F.A., is a former dolphin trainer for the U.S. Navy and teaches creative writing at Cuyamaca College. For more than a decade, he has used principles of behavioral psychology to assist himself and others in overcoming addiction. He is a former newspaper reporter and editor who has been most recently published in the anthology Permanent Vacation, which features his essay "An Admirable Hard Start" describing events that took place during a season he spent working as a wrangler and trail guide for a pack outfit in the Eastern Sierras. He has appeared as an invited reader at the West Hollywood Book Fair and been anthologized by DimeStories Live Showcase in the CD Five & Dime. Slater has, at various times, worked as a deckhand aboard a commercial fishing boat in Alaska, a volunteer for the California State Parks System, and a SCUBA instructor in Southern California. He was a night-shift taxi cab driver on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, and has twice camped his way across the southern states in a pick-up truck accompanied by a Siberian husky and a kayak. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Erin.