Jon Lurie is the author of the memoir Canoeing with José and coauthor, with Clyde Bellecourt, of The Thunder Before the Storm, a Minnesota Book Award finalist. Lurie has worked as a wilderness guide, a teen mentor at a Native American journalism program, and an editor at the Anchorage Press and The Rake. A graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Minnesota, Lurie has taught creative writing at Macalester College and the University of Minnesota, where he currently teaches experiential learning. He is director of the Mother of Waters Project, a cultural outreach program that combines experiential learning with arts education, focusing on the health of Minnesota’s fresh water resources. He lives on an island in the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.