10 Facts About Sandra Birdsell

Sandra Birdsell lived most of her early life in Morris, Manitoba, where the family moved after her father joined the army in 1943.

Sandra Birdsell's father was a French-speaking Cree Metis born in Canada and her mother was a Low-German speaking Mennonite who was born in Russia.

When Sandra Birdsell was six and a half, her sister died from leukemia, which left a four-year gap between her and her next older sister.

Sandra Birdsell's loneliness led her to ponder by herself to the nearby parks and rivers allowing her imagination to go wild.

Sandra Birdsell left home at the age of fifteen, where she studied at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, where she studied under Robert Kroetsch.

In January 2007, Sandra Birdsell began a four-month term as the Carol Shields writer in residence at the University of Winnipeg.

In 2010, Sandra Birdsell was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada and in 2012 she was invested with Saskatchewan Order of Merit.

Sandra Birdsell is a mother to three children and a grandmother to four children.

Sandra Birdsell's second collection, from 1984, is a sequel collection to Night Travellers that the focuses on the Laftenierre family women from Agassiz and their women friends, though most of the stories ae set in Winnipeg.

Sandra Birdsell wrote A Prairie Boy's Winter, a one act play for children, which was co-written and produced by Prairie Theatre Exchange, in 1986.