Claire Cameron
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Claire Cameron (born March 1973) is a Canadian novelist and journalist.


Personal life

Her father Angus Cameron was a prominent academic at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
who founded the
Dictionary of Old English ''The Dictionary of Old English'' (''DOE'') is a dictionary of the Old English language, published by the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, under the direction of Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos, Antonette diPaolo Healey, an ...
.Dictionary of Old English
/ref> Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Cameron attended
Northern Secondary School (Toronto) Northern Secondary School (often referred to as Northern Secondary, Northern, or NSS) is a public high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It teaches grades 9 through 12. It is a part of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Prior to Amalgama ...
and
Queen's University Queen's or Queens University may refer to: *Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada *Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK **Queen's University of Belfast (UK Parliament constituency) (1918–1950) **Queen's University of Belfast ...
for History and Culture (in
Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...
). Cameron was a wilderness instructor for
Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
Outward Bound
/ref> and she worked for The Taylor Statten CampsTaylor Statten Camps
/ref> in Algonquin Park. Later she interned for
Sierra Club Books Sierra Club Books was the publishing division, for both adults and children, of the Sierra Club, founded in by then club President David Brower. They were a United States publishing company located in San Francisco, California with a concentrat ...
in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and co-founded the consulting company Shift LearningShift Learning
/ref> in
London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
. She now resides in Toronto with her husband and two children.Author Website
/ref>


Writing


Novels

Cameron's first novel ''The Line Painter'', was published in 2007 by
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
Canada. It won the 2008 Northern Lit Award from the Ontario Library ServiceNorthern Lit Awards
/ref> and was nominated for a 2008 Arthur Ellis Crime Writing Award for best first novel. Cameron has said in regards to beginning her writing career and specifically ''Line Painter'', "I almost made an album. I had one decent song for the album. It was about a guy who paints lines on the highway for a job. I wrote that song because it looked to me like painting lines was a simpler way to go about making a living. I nearly finished my album. I was recording my painting lines song, but I kept messing it up (because I can't sing or play). I got so frustrated, I ended up smashing my guitar around. This is the only rock star-ish thing I've ever done. After the smashing, all I had left was a half decent idea about painting lines. I'm better at typing than I am at guitar, so I sat down and started to write." Cameron's second novel, ''The Bear'', was published in February 2014 by
Little Brown & Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...
in the United States,
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
in Canada, and
Harvill Secker Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press. History Secker & Warburg Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...
/Vintage in the United Kingdom & Commonwealth.The Bear: Bukowski Agency
/ref> Cameron was leading a trip through Algonquin Park a year after the bear attack on Lake Opeongo of October 11, 1991, which ended in the death of two adults. The stories she heard continued to haunt her years later and eventually became the basis for '' The Bear ''.The Bear
/ref> In '' The Bear'', Cameron re-imagines the events of October 1991 by adding two small children into the mix. It is a bestseller in Canada and was recently long listed for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize). Cameron's third novel "The Last Neanderthal" is published (April 25, 2017) by Little Brown & Co in the U.S., Penguin Random House in Canada, and SEM Libri in Italian, and forthcoming from Cargo/De Bezige Bij in Dutch and Forlaget Bazar in Danish.


Other Writing

Cameron also writes reviews, interviews, and articles for ''
The Millions ''The Millions'' is an online literary magazine created by C. Max Magee in 2003. It contains articles about literary topics and book reviews. ''The Millions'' has several regular contributors as well as frequent guest appearances by literary not ...
'',Claire Cameron The Millions
/ref> '' The Rumpus'',Claire Cameron The Rumpus
/ref> ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'','' and ''
The Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...
''.Claire Cameron Los Angeles Review of Books
/ref> Cameron has also written a collection of last words from
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
inmates' final statements for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.


Bibliography

* ''The Line Painter'' (2007) * ''The Bear'' (2014) * ''The Last Neanderthal'' (2017)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Claire 1973 births Living people Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian women novelists Canadian women journalists Journalists from Toronto Writers from Toronto 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian women writers