Allan Stratton is a playwright and novelist. His professional arts career began while he was still in high school, when James Reaney published his playThe Rusting Heart in the respected literary magazineAlphabet. It was broadcast on CBC radio in 1970. Since then he has writtenRexy!, (1981 Chalmers Award, the Canadian Authors' Association Award, and the Dora Mavor Moore Award),Papers (Chalmers Award),Bag Babies, Dracula, The 101 Miracles of Hope Chance, Joggers, A Flush of Tories and the radio playWhen Father Passed Away. Allan headed the Drama Department at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, where he taught senior directing, acting and playwriting. For the past few years, his focus has been fiction. The results of this work include novels:The Phoenix Lottery, Leslie's Journal, Chanda's SecretsandChanda's Wars. His work is published by Penguin Books, Samuel French, the Riverbank Press, Annick Press, Deutscher Taschenburg Verlag, Allen and Unwin, The Chicken House, Bayard Jeunesse, Asunaro Shobo, Coach House Press and Playwrights Canada Press, and has been anthologized by a number of others. He lives in Toronto with his partner, three cats and any number of fish.