David Poyer
David Poyer (born 1949) is an American author and retired naval officer. He has written over 40 books, mostly novels. Early life. He was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania in 1949. Career. Poyer graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971. He wrote as an active duty naval officer and a naval reserve captain; his service included duty in the Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, Caribbean, and Persian Gulf area prior to his retirement from the Navy in July 2001. Poyer began writing in 1976 and as of 2021 had published well over forty books. He has been called "the most  popular living author of American sea fiction". Although best known for his naval fiction, during the 1980s, Poyer also wrote alternative history and science fiction under the pseudonym David Andreissen. He has also published short fiction and nonfiction in numerous magazines, and is currently the contributing editor of SHIPMATE Magazine. Poyer's most popular novels, set in the present day, follow the career of U.S. Navy officer Dan Lenson, a thoughtful surface line officer whose ethical questioning sometimes conflicts with his duty. Another series, more slanted to the adventure genre, features an ex-Coast Guard commercial diver, Lyle "Tiller" Galloway . Both series have been published by St. Martin's Press. A series about the US Navy during the American Civil War is also published by Simon & Schuster. According to Poyer, much of his work draws upon his own experiences in military service and as a cruising sailor and sport diver. Poyer also published a series of books set in a fictional Hemlock County. They explore the history and folklore of north-western Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania oil industry that was the original basis for American industrial power. One of the 2018 books in the series, "Thunder on the Mountain", is  set in the Great Depression period. Poyer taught in the Wilkes University MA/MFA low-residency program in Creative Writing for sixteen years. He retired from teaching in 2021 but still consults. He's a fellow of the Ossabaw Writers Retreat and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a life member of ASNE, SNA, and USNAAA, and has served as a board member of the Library of Virginia and the Eastern Shore Public Library. Personal life. He lives with Lenore Hart on Virginia's Eastern Shore.