AnnickPress

Claire Eamer was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1947. Growing up  on the Prairies, she spent summer days exploring the riverbank, catching grasshoppers, and gathering wildflowers for her long-suffering mother. Reading was an important part of her life. In fact, Claire’s parents occasionally had to phone the library and ask to have Claire sent home when she’d lost track of time. She read her way through the non-fiction section, from myths and legends to natural history to how to build a radio. In fiction, she loved the Narnia series, Catherine Anthony Clark’s Canadian fantasies, historical fiction by Henry Treece, Geoffrey Trease, and Rosemary Sutcliff, and Howard Pease’s books about life at sea.  

As a child, Claire daydreamed about being a writer. In university, she studied English literature as a way of reading even more. After two university degrees in English, Claire switched career paths from teaching to journalism, quitting university and getting a job on a small newspaper. She has had the good fortune of being a professional writer of one sort or another ever since—working as a freelance writer of non-fiction, everything from government reports to interactive CDs. Claire has worked as a reporter for newspapers and radio, and has prepared several radio documentaries.  

Since she moved to the Yukon in 1984, a lot of Claire’s writing has been focused on science, environmental topics, and history. She has written a long-running weekly newspaper on Yukon science, and has researched and written several reports on several aspects of Yukon history. She also spent more than three years coordinating a climate change research network. Claire has written four books for Annick Press, including Super Crocs & Monster Wings (2008),which won the 2009 Canadian Science Writers’ Association Award. Her latest book, Lizards in the Sky (Fall 2010), explores the strange places where animals make their homes.

Claire lives in Whitehorse, the capital city of the Yukon in the far northwestern corner of Canada. She is fascinated by science and natural history, and by the wilderness that surrounds her. She is married with one son, and enjoys travel, photography, walking, and, of course, reading!