Donald Alan Straub III, born in Lakewood, California, was raised in Long Beach, California, where he still currently resides. He was introduced to a variety of arts at an early age and through grade school was involved in everything from writing, playing music, choir, musical theatre, drama (acting & directing), photography, and filmmaking. He carried that artistic enthusiasm of his youth with him while attending film school at California State University, Long Beach, where he graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film/Radio/Television.

While attending film school at California State University, Long Beach, and since graduation, he has directed, produced, written, and edited a number of films. Three of his short films have gone on to be selected for showings at several notable film festivals across the country, including his film “A Trip To Overcome” that went on to win several awards, including a Special Jury Award for Outstanding Cinematography in the CSU Summer Arts Media Arts Festival and was a recipient of a CINE Eagle Award for Outstanding Production.

With his diverse interests, Don has gone on to pursue many different avenues and has been working in Commercial Real Estate for over 20 Years now. Don’s parents instilled in him their love of travel. Though having traveled frequently, Don’s discovered a greater passion for it, having traveled more extensively abroad since 2001. With a busy schedule, Don still finds time for the arts, which has included poetry, photography, and creating photo book projects. He finds poetry to be a wonderful means of expressing himself and productive way of dealing with whatever unfolds in his life or the world around him. Don reconnected with a grade school friend back in 2009 and married her in 2011. Poetry took a backseat for a while as he started his new life with his beautiful wife Karrie and his immensely smart stepson Ryan. Both of which are talented in their own rights.

After a short stint at writing for about three years in his early teens, Don rediscovered his interest in poetry in 1997 and has spent the last two decades plus writing. He had an interest in publishing a book of poetry for some time and in 2003, with the encouragement of people around him, decided to make it happen by publishing his first book, Life, Death, & the Faces and Places Between. Now he has chosen to broaden his scope and attempt a trilogy of books entitled the Lake Parking Trilogy. The first two books are titled Outside the Inner Dialogue and Greater Than Sum. ENLIGHTENED CONTINUUM, the third and final book in the trilogy, is his fourth book published.

To Contact Author:
donstirmonstir@hotmail.com