About the author
Phil is a writer, musician, and radical environmentalist – the three things his pragmatic high school guidance counselor specifically told him not to pursue. Phil's writing, whether in a novel, a song, a poem, a children's book, an article, an opinion piece, or even a professional work product, includes varying degrees of his sense of humor, which he thinks is as important to his survival as coffee spiked with Irish Cream, John Prine songs, a good boat, and his vintage Martin D-28 Martin guitar.
At the age of three months, Phil flew to Japan (with some assistance from his mother), and that trip, according to his father, is when Phil caught the travel bug. This desire to see what was over the next hill led to stints as a student of marine biology in Florida, a Peace Corps volunteer in Central Africa, a fishery biologist in Alaska, a grad student in Vermont, a game park director for the World Wildlife Fund in the African rain forest, a ghost writer for Minnesota Public Radio, and more recently, a part-time bluegrass musician and full-time expert on aquatic invasive species (AIS) in Minnesota.
Phil and his wife, Denise, live on a quiet lake in Minnesota where he continues to write, play music with his band – Hans Blix and the Weapons Inspectors – and fight the good fight to preserve the natural world. And yes, he still enjoys doing what others tell him he shouldn't.