Shirlee Matheson
Canadian Aviation is a young industry and includes many great pioneering Aviatrixes. Let Shirlee
captivate you with her colourful illustration as a professional story teller.
Shirlee Smith Matheson’s definition of success is being “a story keeper” – writing adult nonfiction biographies as well young adult novels that add to society’s collective knowledge. Shirlee has lived on farms in Manitoba near the Riding Mountains, and in Alberta west of Sylvan Lake; and in urban areas ranging from Lacombe, Alberta; to Vernon and Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia; in Australia; and in Calgary.
Shirlee’s enrollment in writing programs at the Banff Centre afforded her the privilege of meeting,
and having as instructors, some of Canada’s top writers: W.O.Mitchell, Alistair MacLeod, Irving
Layton, Robert Kroetsch, Richard Lemm, Phyllis Webb and Orm Mitchell. She further attended
summer programs at the Iowa School of Writing.
The advice she received from these instructors and mentors has served her well. As of 2015,
Shirlee has had 20 books published; further, several titles that went out of print following several
reprints are currently being edited, updated and released by new publishers. “It’s great to see
these books gain new life,” Shirlee says. “They had become ‘old friends’, not only to me but also to
readers who refer to these stories that they had read when they were younger and were now
interested in purchasing copies for their children or younger friends. Yes, my writing career has
now spanned a couple generations of readers!”
The latest in Shirlee Smith Matheson’s popular Canadian aviation stories,Amazing Flights and
Flyers, is a fascinating collection of adventures ranging from aerial hijackings to secret Nazi
weather stations in Labrador, from the missions of the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association to
an incredible aerial rescue expedition in the Antarctic. “Every story is different, every story is
astonishing, and every story is completely true!”
Shirlee’s literary material is in the University of Calgary Library Special Collections at: Shirlee’s Literary Material
To visit her website; http://www.ssmatheson.ca/