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.