Eileen Kernaghan

Eileen Kernaghan is a Canadian fantasy novelist who grew up on a dairy farm outside Grindrod, B.C., Canada, population 600. The reading material she found on the family shelves -- Greek myths, historical novels, G. A. Henty's boys' adventure books, a collection of Weird Tales and Thrilling Wonder Stories -- helped to shape her writing career. Kernaghan's first published story, written when she was twelve, appeared in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. It earned her a byline, an illustration, and a cheque for $12.65. Her next appearance in print, twenty years later, was with a cover story in the New York science fiction magazine Galaxy. She went on to write a fantasy series, as well as numerous standalone novels. The settings of her historical fantasy novels range from the prehistoric Indus Valley and eighteenth century Bhutan, to Elizabethan England and nineteenth century Scandinavia. She is a three-time winner of the Prix Aurora Award for English-language Canadian speculative fiction. Kernaghan's day jobs have included elementary school teaching, arts administration, operating a used bookstore with her husband Pat, and, for many years, teaching creative writing at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, and Port Moody's Kyle Centre. Kernaghan lives in New Westminster, British Columbia, and has three adult children and four grandchildren.