Though born in Edmonton in 1941, David Carpenter's youth was spent in Edmonton, Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise. Graduating in 1964 with a B.A. and B.Ed. from the University of Alberta, he taught high school for one year before entering a M.A program in English at the University of Oregon. In 1967 he returned to Edmonton, M.A. in hand, and resumed his high school teaching career. Two years later he enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the University of Alberta, graduating in 1973. Dr. Carpenter spent the next two years as a post-doc at the University of Manitoba before accepting an appointment in Canadian Literature, Department of English, at the University of Saskatchewan. He was promoted through the ranks, becoming full professor in 1986. In the mid-1970s, Carpenter began to write seriously as a vocation. This early work was to become part of a series of interconnected works of fiction (Jokes for the Apocalypse, Jewels, and God's Bedfellows) published between 1985 and 1988. In the late 1980s, Carpenter began work on his first full length novel, Rider Wrong, and in 1994 published his first book of essays, Writing Home. 1995 and 1996 saw publication of his first how-to book, Fishing in the West, and his second book of essays, Courting Saskatchewan. Dr. Carpenter has received several literary awards, has taught creative writing at Fort San, Saskatchewan and is a frequent guest on CBC radio programs.