Gordon Lee Johnson, Cahuilla/Cupeño, lives and writes on the Pala Indian Reservation. A former newspaperman, he was last a columnist and feature writer for the Press-Enterprise, covering Southern California's Inland Empire. Prior to journalism, he studied literature and philosophy at the Universities of California at Santa Cruz, San Diego, and Berkeley. He graduated with a degree in creative writing from Vermont College and went on to earn a master of fine arts from Antioch University, where he concentrated on Native fiction. He is currently enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts' MFA screenwriting program. Johnson has a book of newspaper columns called Rez Dogs Eat Beans that was translated and published in the Czech Republic. In 2007, Heyday published another compilation of his newspaper columns titled Fast Cars and Frybread. He is the former Indigenous Writer in Residence for the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe. He has four children, eleven grandchildren, and a feral tabby cat named Trouble who growls from the back porch when hungry.