Shaun Griffin is poet, writer, teacher and activist. He is the co-founder of Community Chest, a non-profit agency which has served children and families in northwestern Nevada since 1991, and has taught a poetry workshop at Northern Nevada Correctional Center for over two decades. Griffin has received numerous awards for his work, including the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1995, the Mike O'Callaghan Humanitarian Award in 2004, and the Rosemary McMillan Award for Lifetime Achievement in Art from Sierra Arts Foundation in 2006. In 2014, he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. He lives in Virginia City, Nevada.