Richard Walker is a journalist of Mexican/Yaqui ancestry living in Kitsap County, Washington. He is editor of the North Kitsap Herald in Poulsbo and is a regular correspondent for Indian Country Today Media Network.
He is the author of the book, Roche Harbor, and the text for a set of 15 historic Roche Harbor images published as postcards (Arcadia Publishing, 2009). He is the author of the poetry chapbook, The Journey Home (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2012); and is co-author of the Indian Country Stylebook / For Editors, Reporters and Writers (Kindle, 2014).
Much of his poetry is about the struggles of people of multicultural background to hold onto their indigenous identity and traditional lifeways. In addition to his chapbook The Journey Home, his poetry has been published in Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought (Southwest Minnesota State University) summer 2011 and fall 2013; and on IndianCountryTodayMediaNetwork.com.
He and his wife, Molly, a citizen of the Samish Nation, enjoy cultural events, outdoor activities and exploring the great Pacific Northwest.
perhaps a little of both.
but I am proud of them.
and my relatives have come home.
"These poems are loving portraits of a strong people. Not only powerful, but they speak the beauty of truth." - Anita Endrezze, poet and artist (Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon, University of Arizona Press).
"I haven't used literature to teach before, but, after reading Mexican/Yaqui poet Richard Walker's work, I'm seriously considering it. In addition to containing many beautiful poems, Walker's chapbook, 'The Journey Home,' seems like it is uniquely designed to help non-Indian students understand aspects of indigenous culture that some find difficult." -- Ann Tweedy, assistant professor at Hamline University School of Law and poet.
"Tying together the strands of family, history, and identity, it reaches back across generations and geographic boundaries to illuminate not only the author's struggle to understand himself but also his family's journey and place in the world ... 'The Journey Home' [is] an enjoyable collection."
YouTube video from reading for Poems for Las Vegas (Kitsap Publishing) published in the wake of the Las Vegas shootings.