About Christen
Christen Shepherd earned a post-graduate certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers in 2018, under the supervision of Governor General Award winning author, Dianne Warren. Shepherd has also studied writing with Carol Bruneau at NSCC and holds a degree in Anthropology from the University of Western Ontario.
After the success of her blog, in 2013 she published The Flawed Farm and in 2015 she co-authored, The Promise:Truth from the Trenches of Adoption. Part memoir and part manual, The Promise has become widely circulated among adoption professionals and adoptive parents in Canada and the US, and is provided as a resource to parents taking the Pathway to Permanence adoption training course.
All books are available in trade paperback through lulu.com.
An unpublished novel, Suffering Things was a semi-finalist in the 2001 Chapters/Robertson Davies First Novel Prize, and in 2018 her novel, The Approaches was named to the long list for the Guernica Prize.
Although she has a deep love for writing fiction, Shepherd strongly believes in permanency for foster children and lends her voice to adoption advocacy; she's given numerous speeches and workshops on trauma and adoption.
She's written for a number of publications and is a frequent contributor to Today's Parent Magazine. Shepherd has also appeared in the media regarding her other passion: rescuing chickens. She lives on a farm in Ontario, Canada.