Vera Starbard

Vera Starbard is a four-time Emmy-nominee writer, and current Alaska State Writer Laureate. She is Tlingit and Dena'ina (Alaska Native) and was born on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska to Don and Linda Starbard. Vera was given the Tlingit name of T'set Kwei and is of the Leeneidi clan. She has two sisters, Karla and Miranda Starbard, and a brother, Nathan Starbard, and was raised all over Alaska following her father's position as an Alaska State Trooper.

Vera graduated from East Anchorage High School in 2000, where she served as Editor in Chief of the school newspaper, and first began professionally writing and editing at age 18 for the Sagebrush Newspaper in Reno, Nevada. She married Joe Bedard in Anchorage, Alaska, and they now live on Douglas Island in Southeast Alaska.

In 2017 Vera became a writer for the PBS Kids animated series "Molly of Denali," and the series premiered in 2019. It won a Peabody award in 2020 for its first season, and was nominated for two awards at the inaugural Children's and Family Emmys in 2022, and two Emmy awards in 2023. Vera was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Preschool Animated Series for her writing on the show in 2022 and 2023, and nominated under Short Form Program as Co-Head Writer of "The Big Gathering" shorts in 2023.

She began as a staff writer for the ABC show "Alaska Daily" in 2022 and wrote the series finale episode. She also wrote for the Disney Junior animated series "SuperKitties."

Vera’s debut middle grade novel, "Park Survival: Lost in Alaska," will be published by Scholastic in November 2026.

Vera was playwright in residence at Perseverance Theatre through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program. Her play "Our Voices Will Be Heard" premiered in 2016, and was published in the textbook "Contemporary Plays by Women of Color, Second Edition" in 2017. In 2018 it was adapted into a one-hour radio play, released nationally by Native Voice One. Perseverance Theatre also produced her play "Devilfish" in 2019, and full-length online play "A Tlingit Christmas Carol" in 2020.

Vera was Editor of First Alaskans Magazine for a decade, and is the recipient of numerous writing and editing awards, including the Alaska Literary Award, Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award, and the Alaska Governor's Awards for the Arts. She was appointed Alaska State Writer Laureate in 2025, and her appointment was extended through 2027.