Caskey Russell

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-19

Caskey Russell is an enrolled member of the Tlingit tribe of Alaska. He earned both his BA and MA in English from Western Washington University, where he also took undergraduate courses in audio recording through Fairhaven College, and he completed a PhD in English from the University of Oregon in 2001, with dissertation research focused on Tlingit intellectual traditions. Russell holds the rank of Professor at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, where his teaching portfolio includes courses in poetry, songwriting, and literature, reflecting a career built as much in academia as in fiction writing. Drawing on his heritage and scholarly background in Indigenous intellectual traditions, Russell authored The Door on the Sea, the first novel in a fantasy series titled The Raven and Eagle Series, which was recognized as an NPR Books We Love pick in 2025. The novel and its planned sequels draw on Pacific Northwest Indigenous storytelling traditions and cosmology, bringing an academically grounded, culturally specific perspective to contemporary fantasy fiction. As both a tribal member and an English professor specializing in Indigenous literature, Russell brings a distinctive combination of lived heritage and scholarly expertise to his fiction, situating his fantasy work within a broader effort to expand representation of Native American and First Nations storytelling traditions in the genre.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Door on the Sea (2025) · The Raven and Eagle Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 1 book
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

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