Born and grew up in central Alberta, studied at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The author of five novels (Judith, The Tent Peg, No Fixed Address, Places far from Ellesmere, Restlessness), two books of criticism, and many non-fiction and critical texts, especially works investigating cultural perspectives both contemporary and historical. Her latest publications are Prairie Gothic, and In This Place (with photographer George Webber) and the prose/poetry work, Stampede and the Westness of West. She has published hundreds of articles, reviews and essays on Canadian culture and the west. She has a continuing and passionate interest in Canada's north, geographical and historical temperament as tonal accompaniment to landscape, and place writing as investigative practice. She teaches Fiction and Creative Writing in the Department of English at the University of Calgary.