Indiana-born Jeff serving as a park ranger in Bandelier National Monument. Los Alamos, New Mexico. October 2022. Photo: Jeff Darren Muse
Bio
Raised amid cornfields, I’m a fatherless, childless Hoosier who wouldn’t and couldn’t stay put. With master’s degrees in science and creative writing, I’ve worked throughout the United States as an environmental educator, historical interpreter, and park ranger, occasionally publishing essays—and now an award-winning book, Dear Park Ranger. Exploring nature, culture, family life, and my own highs and lows, my writing has appeared in Ascent, The Common, High Country News, and River Teeth, among others.
Recently, I returned to Indiana with my wife, also a park ranger, where I now battle cancer—my own. What happened? While serving in New Mexico’s backcountry in the summer of 2023, shortly after my book’s publication, I experienced a cluster of confusing symptoms. An MRI revealed a brain tumor. Healthcare laid out a map.
Don’t fret—I’m still hiking! In addition to decades-long interests, my current writing unpacks experiences in 2023 with a craniotomy, radiation, and chemotherapy, and more recently tumor-treating headgear, a second surgery, and my participation in a Phoenix-based clinical drug trial. Feel free to inquire about any of this along with my book. I’m a “hiker, writer, cancer fighter.”
And since I’m re-Hoosiering along with traveling for healthcare, let’s collaborate. Please contact me about a book reading or conversation that can be held in person or online. An image-rich presentation is possible too, drawing on my wandering and wondering. Onward!
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Dear Park Ranger is now available through independent booksellers! Check out Bookshop.org to purchase it online through your favorite store or to locate one close to you.
Likewise, visit Wayfarer Books, Dear Park Ranger’s independent publisher, which explores “the intersection of the natural landscape and the interior landscape.”
And don’t forget Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads, which offer numerous ratings and written reviews in addition to what appears on Kirkus Reviews and River Teeth.