Patrick Dixon is a retired educator and commercial fisherman living in Olympia, Washington. Published in Cirque, Panoplyzine, Raven Chronicles, National Fisherman magazine, The Smithsonian and the anthologies FISH 2015, WA129 (2017), and I Sing the Salmon Home (2022). He was also included in the Washington State Book Award anthology, Take a Stand: Art Against Hate (2020). Dixon is on the Board of Directors of the Olympia Poetry Network. He is a past poetry editor of National Fisherman magazine’s quarterly, North Pacific Focus (2010-2019). He received an Artist Trust Grant for Artists to edit Anchored in Deep Water: The FisherPoets Anthology (2014). His poetry chapbook Arc of Visibility won the 2015 Alabama State Poetry Morris Memorial Award. In June of 2023 he won the Cirque Poetry of Place competition. His memoir, Waiting to Deliver, about his 20 years gillnetting for salmon on Cook Inlet, Alaska, was published in 2022. Mending Holes, his collection of poetry about commercial fishing in Alaska was released in June of 2025 from MoonPath Press.
Mr. Dixon taught high school and college photography, video production, English, Drama and Special Education for 33 years. His love of teaching was inspired by his good fortune to teach the creative arts. In retirement he has shifted his focus from photography to writing about his commercial fishing experiences. He drift-gillnetted for salmon in Cook Inlet, Alaska for 20 years, and has written three chapbooks, a memoir and a full-length collection of poetry about his work.
He attended Indiana University from 1969-1973, and graduated with a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Special Education. After teaching at a school for trainable mentally handicapped students for a year in the inner city of Louisville, Kentucky he moved to Kenai, Alaska. After four years of teaching Sped. classes, he moved into teaching photography and other subjects, but didn't pursued a Masters degree because his summers were spent commercial fishing. Once he retired, he moved out of Alaska to Olympia, Washington because he was hired by The Evergreen State College to teach photography as an interim instructor for six months. In the meantime, he sold his boat and permit and went to Cambridge College in Massachusetts to complete a Masters program in Education. His thesis project was to write a history of commercial drift gillnetting in Cook Inlet. To do that, he returned to Alaska and interviewed some of the so-called "old-timers" who had fished the inlet in the early days, recording them on videotape and with audio recorders. He used to have professional licenses for teaching high school and vocational subjects in both Alaska and Washington, but they have lapsed since he retired 15 years ago. He belonged to the National Education Association, but that too has expired.
Mr. Dixon loves to write, especially poetry, and spends a lot of his time writing. He also enjoys spending time with family (two sons, their wives and three grandchildren). He plays video games, occasionally golfs, hikes, and still plays with night photography when he can persuade a family member or friend to go out with him.
