About the Author

“Quick, come look at the sky,” Dean’s wife might exclaim on any given morning. A great attitude for a good life; maintaining a sense of wonder and curiosity. The natural world is full of beauty. Karen and Dean Hurliman live on an isolated 11 acres near Wildcat Canyon in rural Des Moines County, Iowa. The area is filled with deer, turkey, hawks, eagles, owls, songbirds, geese, coyotes and bobcat, oak trees, mushrooms, and redbud. It has been their privilege to live among these for over forty years. Some of this poetry reflects what has been experienced in the woods and fields surrounding their home.

Writing verse began for Dean many years ago when he filled in the blank bottom of ducks he had carved with poetry. This soon advanced to many other subjects written for the printed page. His first book is titled And Nobody Sees Them But Me: Poems of Hunting, Nature, Aldo Leopold, and Extinction (Ames: Zanzara Press, 2021). This is his second.