My name is Craig Shreve. I was born and raised in North Buxton, Ontario, a small town that has been recognized by the Canadian government as a National Historic Site due to its former status as a popular terminus on the Underground Railroad, the system of routes and safe houses that assisted slaves escaping from the southern states.
From a young age I wanted to be a writer, but over the years pragmatism won out and I instead studied Computer Science at the University of Guelph. After graduating, I continued to write as a hobby, but I felt that I did not have enough life experiences. I set out to rectify that, which led me to a passion for extreme activities – skydiving, hang-gliding, bungy-jumping, rock-climbing, caving, rapelling, Running with the Bulls in Pamplona, tobogganing down the side of a volcano, and sand-boarding in the Atacama desert. Along the way I met people who were involved with humanitarian travel, and they infected me with the volunteering bug. I helped build homes in Honduras, Kenya, Guatemala, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Chile, and I have been touched by the families that I have been able to work with.
Throughout this, I wrote. I managed to get some small pieces published in Confluence and Reflections, before enrolling in Humber College’s Creative Writing program in 2008. In 2010, my first novel-length manuscript was a semi-finalist in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award. My debut novel, One Night in Mississippi will be released in February 2015 from Dundurn Press and Thomas Allen Publishing.
I currently live in Chatham, Ontario.
