Born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, she has spent the last thirty years on a ranch in the southwest near the Saskatchewan-Montana border. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan, but didn't begin writing until she was 38, publishing her first book at 44. She is married to Peter Butala, and has one son, Sean Hoy, and two grandchildren. The Butala ranch, with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, became the Old Man On His Back Conservation Area in 1993. She has published fifteen works of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as essays, articles, and poems and has had five plays produced. Next book: THE GIRL IN SASKATOON: A MEDITATION ON FRIENDSHIP, MEMORY AND MURDER: HarperCollins, 2008.
PUBLICATIONS:
Real Life. HarperCollins, 2005.
Lilac Moon: Dreaming of the Real West. HarperCollins, 2005
Wild Stone Heart. HarperCollins, 2000
The Garden of Eden. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1998.
The Perfection of the Morning: An Apprenticeship in Nature. HarperCollins, 1994.
The Gates of the Sun. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1994.
The Fourth Archangel. Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 1992.
Fever. Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 1990.
Luna. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1994; Fifth House Publishers, 1988.
AWARDS:
Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize for Fever, 1992
Shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for fiction and for nonfiction for Queen of the Headaches; The Perfection of the Morning
Officer, Order of Canada
Five conservation awards
Silver National Magazine Award
Three Western Magazine Awards
Two Saskatchewan Book Awards for Nonfiction
Marian Engel Award for Women Writers in Mid-Career
