Great Regulars: [Carol Sklenicka] found a close friend

and hunting buddy of [Raymond] Carver's who was delighted to talk to her, and she had a similar reception at the mill where he worked. People in Yakima, where Carver grew up, were seeing him lionized as a great American writer and wanted to describe the man they knew.

Carver was a Pacific Northwesterner from birth (in Clatskanie in 1938) to death (in Port Angeles, Wash., in 1988). He lived much of his adult life in California and taught in Iowa, Texas and New York, but a Northwest setting and sensibility is buried deep in his stories and poems.

from Jeff Baker: The Oregonian: Carol Sklenicka, Raymond Carver's biographer, inspired by visit to Yakima

~~~~~~~~~~~