Meet Tyler Bieber—Author Biography and Creative Journey

From Higher Education to Creative Authorship

My name is Tyler Bieber, and I am a queer higher education professional in Portland, OR. I am a  lifelong Pacific Northwesterner, born and raised in neighboring Clark County, Washington. 

I  graduated from The Evergreen State College in 2016 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences and from University of Portland in 2018 with an M.A. in Higher Education & Student Affairs.  My graduate capstone analyzed the Purdue University acquisition of Kaplan University and the growing trend of public universities purchasing private/for-profit operators. 

I have held multiple roles in higher education, including at Clark College, National University of Natural Medicine, Linfield University School of Nursing, and Oregon School of Massage. I am currently the Assistant Registrar of Willamette University’s Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Though I have been writing since childhood, I began producing works for publisher consideration about five years ago. After the death of my high school best friend, Calvin, in 2019, writing became a place of solace and an outlet for my grief.

Under the pen name Jay Nuwald, I wrote and published over 120 poems online and self-published a poetry anthology, a short story collection, three chapbooks, and the gothic horror novel Emmeline. In that time, two  poems—“Columbidae” and “Columbidae II”—were selected for the independent chapbook The  Art of Learning to Fly. Two more poems, “Trekking Through Eden” and “Atmospheric River,” have been featured on The Poet Heroic podcast. Other creative credits include Episodes 14 and 18 of the Instagram series “Social Distancing” produced by BLCKSMTH, and an unpublished  manuscript, The Wizards of Oz: College Presidents Behind the Curtain.  

My partner Charley and I moved to Portland in 2018. In our spare time we love to travel, see  movies, and spend time with our Himalayan/ragdoll cat Daisy, who we adopted in August 2020.  I discovered Fr. Tom Oddo’s story while researching for The Wizards of Oz in April 2023 and have been working on the manuscript for for the Tom Oddo biography ever since. Creating this book has required  extensive dives into online and physical archives, multiple federal records requests, and over a dozen interviews with Tom’s family, friends, and colleagues. This is my first professional publication and my first time working with Unencumbered Press.