Meet the Team

Jeremy Pataky and Amy O’Neill Houck
Publishers and Editors, Edible Alaska

Jeremy Pataky is a writer. He lives in McCarthy, Alaska, mainly, and publishes the Kennecott-McCarthy Visitors Guide. His background in Alaska’s tourism industry began over twenty years ago with work as a driver-guide. He eventually traded his keys for crampons and went to work as a wilderness guide in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Jeremy is also the author of Overwinter, a book of poems published by University of Alaska Press in the Alaska Literary Series. His writing has appeared in numerous literary journals; papers like the Anchorage Press, Anchorage Daily News, and High Country News; and several anthologies, including Permanent Vacation: Twenty Writers on Work and Life in Our National Parks and Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds. Pataky earned a BA in creative writing at Western Washington University and an MFA in creative writing at University of Montana.  

He also holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Foraker Group, and has worked for several Alaska nonprofits and agencies in consultant, staff, and volunteer capacities. He is the former Executive Director of Wrangell Mountains Center in McCarthy. He led the expansion and development of the campus, including its gardens and kitchen, and curated community conversations and programing on subsistence and wildcrafting, among much else. He’s a co-founding former board member and former Executive Director of 49 Writers, a literary nonprofit founded to support and inspire a statewide community of Alaskan writers and readers. Jeremy is also the founding editor of Porphyry Press.

Prior to acquiring Edible Alaska, Jeremy:
… sailed up the Inside Passage on a 24-foot sloop. 
… worked for eight years as a barista in drive-through espresso huts.
… raised a three-legged fire-bellied newt.
… built a cabin on his land in McCarthy.

Amy O’Neill Houck is a writer and artist. She just returned to Cordova, Alaska after seven years living in the Juneau. Amy has an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Prior to taking on co-editing and publishing Edible Alaska, she contributed a column to the magazine called “Four Seasons Foraging,” about wild foods. Amy writes regularly for The Cordova Times, and has written for The Juneau Empire and The Capital City Weekly. She’s the former nutrition editor of Vegetarian Baby and Child magazine (acquired by Veg News). Amy has led wild food walks and cooking workshops for the Juneau branch of the UAF Cooperative Extension.

Amy is the former Director of Marketing and Engagement at Perseverance Theatre, Alaska’s statewide professional theatre. She is the Communications Director of 49 Writers, Alaska’s literary nonprofit. She also serves on KCHU Public Radio’s board of directors.

Amy is a fiber artist who teaches and designs with wool. She is the author of three books of knitting and crochet patterns. She is a teaching artist listed on the Alaska State Teaching Artist Roster (STAR) with the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council. Amy teaches fiber arts, creative writing, wild food culinary arts, and ukulele.

Prior to acquiring Edible Alaska, Amy:
... started a catering business in high school.
... lived in six cities in ten years.
... taught web development in the dark ages (1990s).
... ran a vegan ready-to-eat weekly meal service in rural North Carolina.
 

Mary Smith founded Edible Alaska in 2016. Her final issue as owner and publisher was No. 11 Spring 2019 before transfering ownership to Jeremy Pataky and Amy O'Neill Houck. Smith is a 1994 graduate of Northland College, with a BA in creative writing. She spent 15 years in a marketing career, 10 years as Marketing Director for a Chicago based seafood distribution company and five with another seafood distributor based in Southern California. During this time she helped introduce the concepts of environmental and social sustainability to the larger seafood industry.

Smith has travelled around the world speaking on issues of marketing and sustainability and is a 2008 recipient of the Seafood Choices Alliance’s Seafood Champion award for her efforts. Smith is also a 1998 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has experience working in a variety of professional kitchens and classrooms. She spent 6 seasons as commercial fisherman in Alaska and co-owns Springline Seafood with her husband, a direct marketing partnership featuring frozen-at-sea wild-caught Alaska salmon.

Prior to launching Edible Alaska, Mary:
...survived an "upclose and personal" thumb crushing meet & greet with a live Alaska king crab.
...completed two Ironman triathlons.  
...won all categories of a tilapia fishing competition on China's Hainan Island (first fish, biggest fish, most fish).