Jan TenBruggencate

Jan TenBruggencate is the author of several Hawai`i and Pacific non-fiction books, among them Pirates and Palm Trees, Menehune Mystery, Dutch Pacific Voyages of Discovery, and Hawai`i: Land of Volcanoes. He also wrote the western Rafferty, under the pen name Pete Bridger.

As a newspaper writer, TenBruggencate won The Nature Conservancy’s Kako`o `Aina Award, the Chaplin Excellence in Journalism Award, the Hawaiian Academy of Science’s Science Media Award, and the Conservation Council for Hawai'i's Koa Award for outstanding achievement.

When he’s not writing, he coaches Hawaiian outrigger canoe paddling. He serves as president of the conservation non-profit Malama Hule`ia, which is restoring the 600-year-old Alakoko Fishpond. He is an elected board member of the Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative. TenBruggencate was raised on the Hawaiian island of Molokai and lives on the island of Kaua`i.