Craig Shreve

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.