Biography of the Author

Joseph Boyden is thirty-eight, the third youngest of eleven children born into a strict Irish Catholic family.  He grew up with much history and myth swirling around him, stories of his father’s war exploits and his Uncle Erl’s ways.  During World War I, Boyden's father became a doctor and a war hero, thus bringing his family to the city.  His Uncle Erl lived in the bush, made his own clothing and travelled the world with only a few coins in his pockets.  

At sixteen, Joseph began travelling to the States on his own. He made close friendships with a group of misfits in South Carolina and Louisiana, resulting in his becoming of a roadie for their band.  This also allowed him to travel quite a lot, crisscrossing both the United States and Canada.  In order to feed his growing passion for the road, Joseph kept all kinds of odd jobs.  Eventually, he enrolled in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the University of New Orleans.  Here, he met his wife, Amanda who was a trapeze artist, contortionist and writer. He returned with his wife to Ontario and took a job as a professor of Aboriginal programs on James Bay in the far north. Joseph worked for two years up and down the reserves of the west coast of the bay teaching communications. 

Joseph also has split personality, a combination of his father and Uncle Erl. He believes that he has his father’s responsibility and his uncle’s belief that the world is to be traveled. Joseph writes and teaches writing. His heart is part Irish, part Ojibwa and he is Canadian in America. He lives history, and is inspired by legend. Through all these experiences, the Three Day Road came to life.