About the Author

Matts and Jeanine Djos are lifelong sailors and boating enthusiasts. They have sailed much of the West, including the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Mexico, California, the Great Southwest, and the Rockies. Matts has written extensively on sailing and is a free-lance writer for SAIL, 48 North, SAILING magazine, SAIL, and CRUISING WORLD magazine. He and Jeanine are the authors of THE SACRAMENT OF SAIL: FINDING OUR WAY.

Matts was born in Seattle, Washington, the setting for much of his work. He married Jeanine Cooper in 1959 after a tumultuous courtship. Three years later, he graduated from the University of Washington with a secondary teaching certificate and a B.A. in English. He was awarded an M.A. in English from the University of Idaho in 1967 and a Ph.D. in English from Texas A&M University in 1975.

In the fall of 1975, after fourteen years as an English teacher in north Seattle, he accepted an invitation as an assistant professor of American Literature at what is now Colorado Mesa University in western Colorado. He was later promoted to a full professorship. In 2006, after forty-five years as a scholar, writer, and teacher, he retired with honors as a professor of English, emeritus. Later that year, he and Jeanine moved to an alpine paradise in the high country of western Colorado. They continue to ski, travel, and ski.

Jeanine and Matts have been blessed with three daughters and seven grandchildren.

Matts continues to teach classes on writing from time to time and has been a presenter at numerous literary and writing forums and workshops.