More About the Author
Biographical Note: Andreas Schroeder
Andreas Schroeder emigrated to British Columbia from Germany in l951. He has made his living as a freelance writer for the past 43 years - writing books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction and radio drama, as well as translations, journalism and literary criticism. During bouts of certifiable dementia he has also committed brazen acts of cultural politics, serving as chairman of the Writers' Union of Canada (l976-77), and founding chairman the Public Lending Right Commission (l985-88), on whose Board he continued to serve from 1988 until 2008. He currently holds the Rogers Communications Chair in Creative Nonfiction at the University of British Columbia (UBC Creative Writing).
His 23 books include, most recently, RENOVATING HEAVEN (autobiographical novel), as well as SHAKING IT ROUGH (nonfiction), DUSTSHIP GLORY (novel), FILE OF UNCERTAINTIES (poetry), THE LATE MAN (short fictions), TOCCATA IN 'D' (novella), THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT (Mennonite Low German stories in English translation co-authored with Jack Thiessen), and THE MENNONITES IN CANADA (history). He has also published three popular collections of outrageous scams and hoaxes (SCAMS, SCANDALS & SKULDUGGERY; CHEATS, CHARLATANS & CHICANERY, and FAKES, FRAUDS & FLIMFLAMMERY) which were originally broadcast in shorter form on CBC Radio's BASIC BLACK SHOW, for which he was a contributor and performer for 12 years.
His books have been finalists for the Governor-General's Award (SHAKING IT ROUGH, 1976), the Sealbooks First Novel Award (DUSTSHIP GLORY, 1984), the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction (CHEATS, CHARLATANS & CHICANERY, 1998) and the BC Book Prizes' Ethel Wilson Fiction Award (RENOVATING HEAVEN, 2008). He won a National Magazine Award in 1990, a Stephen Leacock Award in 1997, and a Canadian Association of Journalists' Best Investigative Journalism Award in 1991. He has also won the OLA Red Maple Award twice for young-adult nonfiction, namely for THIEVES! and SCAMS!
When not writing, Schroeder spends his time motorcycling, downhill skiing and paragliding. He has been living in Roberts Creek, on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast, since 1999.
