Shannon Cowan

Shannon Cowan came to Eartheasy as a writer and stayed as its editor, planning and commissioning the site's content for more than a decade. Before that, she was a novelist.

Her debut, Leaving Winter, was published by Oolichan Books in 2000 and reached the BC bestseller list. Tin Angel, a young-adult novel set in British Columbia in 1969, followed from Lobster Press in 2007 and was named a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. She co-wrote Hiking Vancouver Island for Falcon Guides and co-edited Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood for McGill-Queen's University Press.

Away from the desk she hikes, paddles, plays the fiddle, and has a weakness for vintage typewriters and letterpress printing.

Six acres, two families, one piece of land

She works six acres of alder bottom on Vancouver Island with her husband and daughters, sharing the land with a second household — two families turning semi-rural brush into a working farm.

There is a poultry flock, an orchard, and a mixed ornamental and edible garden.

Credentials and education

• Master's in Creative WritingUniversity of British Columbia
• Art degreeUniversity of Guelph
• Writing Studio, 1998The Banff Centre

Books and recognition

• Leaving Winter — novelOolichan Books, 2000 · ISBN 9780889821866 · BC bestseller list
• Hiking Vancouver IslandFalcon Guides / Globe Pequot, 2003, with Lissa Cowan · ISBN 9780762723508
• Tin Angel — young-adult novelLobster Press, 2007 · ISBN 9781897073681 · set in British Columbia in 1969
• Double Lives: Writing and MotherhoodMcGill-Queen's University Press, 2008, co-editor · ISBN 9780773533776
• Finalist, Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People2008, for Tin Angel
• Eden Mills Literary Prize, 2002 · Norma Epstein Award, 2002 · CBC Literary Competition shortlist, 2002
• Tin Angel — Quill & Quire Best Books of the Year, starred reviewAlso rated Highly Recommended in CM: Canadian Review of Materials
• Editorial Coordinator, youngpoets.caA project of the League of Canadian Poets