Laurel Downing Bill

Alaska historian/speaker Laurel Downing Bill wrote and published the entertaining five-book Aunt Phil's Trunk Alaska history series, which won the 2016 Literary Classics International award for Best Nonfiction Series worldwide. She also wrote and published Sourdough Cookery, which features 100 sourdough recipes and a sourdough starter that began in 1896 Hope, Alaska. She writes Alaska history stories for Alaska newspapers and magazines, as well. She has won several awards for her work from the...See more

Alaska historian/speaker Laurel Downing Bill wrote and published the entertaining five-book Aunt Phil's Trunk Alaska history series, which won the 2016 Literary Classics International award for Best Nonfiction Series worldwide. She also wrote and published Sourdough Cookery, which features 100 sourdough recipes and a sourdough starter that began in 1896 Hope, Alaska. She writes Alaska history stories for Alaska newspapers and magazines, as well. She has won several awards for her work from the Alaska Professional Communicators, Eric Hoffer Excellence in Independent Publishing, Best Books, Shelf Unbound and Readers' Favorite. Laurel is a lifelong Alaskan, born in Fairbanks in 1951. After marrying her biologist husband, Don, the couple moved to the remote village of King Salmon in Bristol Bay where Don worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Laurel landed a job with the local telephone cooperative and eventually became its assistant general manager. When their two children, Kimberly and Ryan, graduated from high school, the couple retired in 1997 and moved into Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. That is when Laurel was handed her late aunt's body of work. Phyllis Downing Carlson, one of Alaska's most respected historians, had written about Alaska's colorful past for many years and had won national awards for her stories. When Laurel saw the quality of her aunt's work, she knew she had to share it with the world. Laurel returned to college to get the tools needed for the project and earned a degree in journalism, with a minor in history, from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2003. She then set to work creating a series of books that would educate readers and entertain them at the same time. During the next two years she organized her aunt's notes and wrote stories from her own research. She then hunted through thousands of historical photographs from the state's museums, libraries and universities for photos to go with the stories. Aunt Phil's Trunk Volume One, which features the arrival of Alaska's Native people thousands of years ago up to the Klondike Gold Rush era of 1898, debuted in May 2006. The other three volumes followed in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2016. Each volume is filled with easy-to-read nonfiction short stories and close to 350 historical photographs. They are suitable for ages 9 to 99. For more information, go to http: //... or email Laurel@AuntPhilsTrunk.com. See less