Caroline Shepard grew up in Winnipeg, with the best of her summers spent poking along the shores of the Winnipeg River north of Lac du Bonnet. She has lived in Ontario and Quebec, with periods of work, study, and travel, in England, Europe, USA, Botswana, and East Africa.
In 1992, upon receipt of a galvanizing, albeit modest, Canada Council Grant, she left her position at the international NGO, CUSO, to devote more time to her writing. At the age of 50, she published her first short story.
Her short stories have since appeared in The Queen’s Quarterly, Grain Magazine, Room of One’s Own, Prairie Fire, and the Antigonish Review.
‘Off Centre’ (Oberon Press), her debut collection of short fiction, was short listed for the 2005 Danuta Gleed Award.
In 2014, she published her first novel, ‘Unlit Spaces’ (Friesen Press), a revised version of an earlier manuscript that had been longlisted for the 2001 Robertson Davies Chapters First Novel Award.
In July 2016, ‘Unlit Spaces‘ was a nominee for the inaugural Whistler Independent Writers Awards.
Caroline lives in Ottawa, where the view out her study/cottage window provides equal parts inspiration and distraction. It is her intention to complete her second novel in less than ten years.
