Vanasse was born in
St. Paul, Minnesota. Her maiden name is Debra Lynn Lehmann; her brother is the writer Chris Lehmann. She lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Galesburg, Illinois; and Madison, Wisconsin before moving to Iowa, where she graduated from Davenport West High School. She attended
Washington University in St. Louis and graduated with a Bachelor in Science from
Bemidji State University in Minnesota and a Masters in the Humanities from
California State University Dominguez Hills. Vanasse's debut novel for young adults,
A Distant Enemy, was a
Junior Literary Guild selection and is featured in Best Books for Young Teen Readers, Grades 7 to 10, as was her second novel
Out of the Wilderness. Her picture book titles include ''Under Alaska's Midnight Sun
(illustrated by Jeremiah Tramell); Alaska Animal Babies
(photographs by Gavriel Jecan); Totem Tale
(illustrated by Erik Brooks); and Amazing Alaska'' (illustrated by Karen E. Lewis). Set in a
Yup'ik village, there is also a Yup'ik language edition of ''Lucy's Dance'', illustrated by Nancy Slagle.
Black Wolf of the Glacier, also illustrated by Nancy Slagle, is based on the true story of
Romeo, a well-known wolf that lived near
Mendenhall Glacier in
Juneau, Alaska.
No Returns, Book One of the Battleband Saga, is Vanasse’s first co-authored novel with Gail Giles.
Cold Spell, her first work of literary fiction for adults, is part of the University of Alaska Press Alaska Literary Series. Vanasse and another writer, Andromeda Romano-Lax, founded the 49 Alaska Writing Center. She lives in Oregon, with her husband and dog. == Bibliography ==