Brian Payton is a writer of fiction and nonfiction.

Born in Los Angeles County in 1966, Payton lived in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, and Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 before settling in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 at the age of 16. He was educated at the Seminary of Christ the King and the University of Victoria

University of Victoria

The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...

.

Payton’s first novel, Hail Mary Corner (Beach Holme), is a coming-of-age tale based on his experience living among fellow seminarians and Benedictine monks. His nonfiction writing about adventure, wildlife, and the environment has appeared in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

, Canadian Geographic

Canadian Geographic

Canadian Geographic is the bimonthly magazine of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society . It was first published in May 1930 under the name Canadian Geographical Journal. The society's objective was to produce a popular magazine dealing primarily with Canadian geography...

, and The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

. In both 2001 and 2002, his work earned a Lowell Thomas

Lowell Thomas

Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...

 Silver Award for best North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n travel essay from the Society of American Travel Writers.

Shadow of the Bear: Travels in Vanishing Wilderness is published by Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Bloomsbury Publishing plc is an independent, London-based publishing house known for literary novels. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. The company's growth over the past decade is primarily attributable to the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Bloomsbury was named Publisher of...

 (USA) and Viking Press

Viking Press

Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...

 (Canada). A work of narrative nonfiction, it chronicles a personal search for the eight remaining bear species across continents, cultures, and memory.

Payton's latest book, The Ice Passage: A True Story of Ambition, Disaster, and Endurance in the Arctic Wilderness (Doubleday Canada), is a narrative nonfiction account of the final voyage of HMS Investigator.

Payton lives with his wife in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

.

Nonfiction

The Ice Passage: A True Story of Ambition, Disaster, and Endurance in the Arctic Wilderness (2009)

Shadow of the Bear: Travels in Vanishing Wilderness (2006)

Literary Trips: Following in the Footsteps of Fame, Vol. 2 (anthology, 2001)

External links

• Brian Payton’s homepage