Shelley A. Leedahl

Shelley A. Leedahl (b. 1963) is a multi-genre writer in Saskatchewan, Canada. After leaving journalism school she became a young mother; operated a home daycare; worked in various retail positions; wrote advertising copy at a rock and roll radio station; was employed as a church secretary; and penned poems, stories, novels, and essays around the edges of her days. She has been writing fulltime since 1995.

Her first book, A Few Words For January (poetry, Thistledown Press, 1990) sold out within a month. Her eighth (and latest) title, The House of the Easily Amused (poetry, Oolichan Books, 2008), has been haled as "imagistic and narrative, [the poet demonstrates] an acute sense of what to leave out" (Marilyn Dumont); "carefully spoken love poems in a style that is constant and sure" (Fred Wah); and "limpid and subtle ... original and convincing ... these poems lodge in the mind in their unobtrusive way, like coins hidden in a hearth or the heart" (Bert Almon).

Leedahl lives and writes in a quiet village north of Saskatoon. Her daughter, Taylor Leedahl (b.1986) is the author of No Apologies For The Weather (poetry, Thistledown Press, 2008).