Photo by K. Ho Photography

Photo by K. Ho Photography

 

Allison Mills grew up in the suburbs of Vancouver, where she spent a lot of time reading novels under her desk at school and bickering with her younger brother. As the daughter of a teacher-librarian, Allison had easy access to books of all kinds and developed a deep appreciation for writers like E. Nesbit, Diana Wynne Jones, and Ursula K. Le Guin. She also spent a lot of time scaring herself with spooky stories, a habit which grew into a life-long fascination with ghosts. She sympathizes with them. As someone who's both Ililiw/Cree and settler Canadian, Allison knows what it's like to straddle boundary spaces. This preoccupation with all things ghost-related inspired her first novel, The Ghost Collector (Fall 2019).

Despite all her covert in class reading, Allison did like school quite a bit and now has three masters degrees, including an MFA in creative writing. She aims to create stories like the ones she loved to read as a kid, but with more kids like her in them. When she's not writing, Allison works as an academic librarian and archivist.