NANCY OWENS BARNES is an author and a freelance writer. Her first book, a biographical travel adventure titled South to Alaska, was published in 2007. She has also published a short anthology of nature essays and poetry titled Moose for Breakfast, as well as a brief guide for writers titled How to Swat the KILLER BE'S Out of Your Writing.

Her writing has appeared in a number of magazines such as We Alaskans, Idaho Magazine, Northern Reach Magazine, and in literary journals such as The Ledge, The Lyric, and Snowy Egret, the oldest independent journal of nature writing in the United States.

Barnes was featured in the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of Coeur d'Alene Magazine as one of nine North Idaho authors who have achieved acclaim for their work. In 2008 she received the Zola Award for Poetry from the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and in 2007 was selected as Writer of the Year by the Coeur d'Alene Chapter of the Idaho Writers League.

Barnes received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Vermont College of Norwich University where she studied creative writing. After spending her childhood and young adult years in Oklahoma and Arkansas, Barnes left for Alaska in 1973, where she lived more than 25 years, six of which she lived in an Inupiaq village on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. She currently resides in northern Idaho.