Curtis Parkinson

Curtis Parkinson grew up in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated from Queen’s University in chemical engineering and worked in South America and in Canada for many years. Then he moved to the Caribbean to live on a sailboat and to write, a lifelong dream. As Curtis says, “Many rejections later, the cat fell off the boat one night, and the cat’s story became my first book, Tom Foolery.”

More picture books and short stories followed, then five young adult novels.

Curtis’s first novel was Storm-Blast, the story of three lost teens adrift in the vast Caribbean Sea. Next came Sea Chase, a tale of a boy’s desperate search for his father, missing from their sailboat in the night. Both were nominated for Red Cedar Awards, and Sea Chase for the Arthur Ellis Award as well.

Domenic’s War, Curtis’s third novel, is based on the true story of a 12-year-old Italian boy caught in the midst of one of the fiercest battles of World War II. It was nominated for a Silver Birch Award, and has been translated into Italian.

Death in Kingsport, published in 2007, is a murder mystery featuring a 15-year-old sleuth, Neil, his sidekick, Graham, and new friend Crescent in a town where nothing is as it seems.

Just out, another exciting murder mystery with Neil, Graham and Crescent. The Castle on Deadman’s Island tells the story of a mysterious disappearance, a castle with a curse, and a most unusual will, a will that leads to murder and mayhem.


Bibliography — Curtis Parkinson

Young Adult Novels
The Castle on Deadman’s Island (Tundra), 2009
Death in Kingsport (Tundra), 2007
Domenic’s War (Tundra), 2006
Sea Chase (Tundra), 2004
Storm-Blast (Tundra), 2003

Picture Books
Emily’s Eighteen Aunts (Fitzhenry), 2002
Mr. Reez’s Sneezes (Annick), 1999
Tom Foolery (Bradbury Press) , 1993

Short Stories
Wings, appeared in First Times, short story collection (Tundra), 2007
The Double-Ender, appeared in The Antigonish Review, 1993
The Reluctant Alien, appeared in The New Quarterly, 1993