About

Shannon Selin was born and raised in the small town of Biggar, Saskatchewan (“New York is big, but this is Biggar”). Her father was a history teacher, so she grew up immersed in history books and spent her holidays tramping around battlefields, graveyards and museums. Her early obsessions included Vikings, the Tudors and the Statue of Liberty.

Shannon always knew she would write novels, but the need to make a living and raise a family came first. She worked at jobs that involved a lot of non-fiction writing, including university research, technical writing and working for government, namely Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and British Columbia’s Ministry of Health. She has published many articles, book chapters and monographs in the fields of international security and health care.

Realizing that she needed to do what she always wanted to do, Shannon now writes historical fiction full time. Her short stories have appeared in The Copperfield Review and CommuterLit.com, and she is a contributor to History of Royals and Military History Now. Her novel Napoleon in America, which imagines what might have happened if Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from St. Helena and wound up in the United States in 1821, was published in 2014. Shannon is working on the sequel, Napoleon in Texas.

Shannon has a BA in Political Science from the University of Saskatchewan and an MA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. She and her husband live in Stratford, Canada. They have three grown children.

Click on the links below to read interviews with Shannon on other websites.

The St. Helena Sentinel – March 9, 2017

UBC Library – August 30, 2016

Harriet Steel’s blog – January 3, 2016

Random Bits of Fascination – October 25, 2015

Culturally Curious – March 29, 2015

History and Other Thoughts – June 6, 2014

The Maiden’s Court – May 6, 2014

Kerrisdale Playbook – May 3, 2014 (includes photos of the Napoleon in America book launch at Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver)

The Little Reader Library – January 24, 2014

Pebble in the Still Waters – January 19, 2014