About the Author

HAROLD R. JOHNSON (1957-2022) was the author of five works of fiction and five works of nonfiction, including Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours), which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Born and raised in northern Saskatchewan to a Swedish father and a Cree mother, Johnson served in the Canadian Navy and worked as a miner, logger, mechanic, trapper, fisherman, tree planter, and heavy-equipment operator. He was a graduate of Harvard Law School and managed a private practice for several years before becoming a Crown prosecutor, until he retired from the practice of law and wrote full time. Johnson was a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation.