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Rene Schmidt
René Schmidt

René Schmidt was born in Holland and immigrated to Canada when he was three. His parents came too. In his teens and twenties he worked as an underground mine worker, truck driver, construction worker, taxi driver, ship officer trainee and upholsterer. René studied theatre performance at Ryerson and is a graduate of York University's Creative Writing Program and Faculty of Education. As a teacher René began writing high-interest low vocabulary books for his students. His first book, Canadian Disasters by Scholastic Canada (1985 edition) was a top bestseller and reprinted three times. New editions followed in 1999, 2006 and 2013. Leaving Fletchville, an award-winning fiction novel, deals with parenthood, racism, friendship and bullying.
In the last ten years René built an energy efficient house, managed a youth drop in centre and taught Senior Drama at a local high school. He and Shirley have two sons, Adrian and Daniel. René enjoys his 40 acres and plants trees, cuts wood, does carpentry and rides a vintage motorcycle. He frequently judges short fiction for the Writer's Union.