Craig Childs

Childs was born in Tempe, Arizona. His parents were James Childs, an insurance agent, and Sharon Carpenter (née Riegel), an artist who made furniture. They divorced when he was three years old, however, and Childs was primarily raised by his mother, whom he described as a "insatiable outdoor traveler."{{cite web |last=Tonino |first=Leath |date=June 2016 |title=The Skeleton Gets Up And Walks: Craig Childs On How The World Is Always Ending |url=https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25025-the-skeleton-gets-up-and-walks |work=The Sun |access-date=January 23, 2025}} His father, whom Childs described as "a southern New Mexico intellectual redneck," had been a promising runner in his early years, but a torn Achilles tendon in his freshman year at college permanently ended his athletic ambitions; Childs later believed this setback led his father to becoming a bitter alcoholic.{{cite web |last=Wadler |first=Joyce |authorlink=Joyce Wadler |date=December 27, 2007 |title=Under a Mountain, Making Friends With Danger |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/garden/27childs.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 23, 2025}}

Childs earned his Bachelor of Arts and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1990. He later earned his master's degree in desert studies from Prescott College.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Childs spent his summers working as a river guide across Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming and spent his winters living in the mountains and desert. He spent seven years living out of his truck in this period.{{cite web |last=Purser |first=Cullen |date=December 10, 2022 |title=Author and naturalist Craig Childs eats crow over his younger self's mistakes |url=https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/rocky-mountain-pbs/craig-childs-stone-desert-fruita |work=Rocky Mountain PBS |access-date=January 23, 2025}}

Childs's first book Stone Desert was written over the course of the winter of 1994 while he stayed in Canyonlands National Park. The book was initially published by John Fielder's Westcliff Publishers in 1995 when Childs was 28, for which he was paid an advance of $4,000. He has since written over a dozen books and essay collections, including The Secret Knowledge of Water (2000), House of Rain (2007), and Finders Keepers (2010). He is a regular commentator on NPR's Morning Edition and has contributed writings to the Los Angeles Times, Men's Journal, The New York Times, and Outside.{{cite web |last=Childs |first=Craig |date=January 2, 2007 |title=A Past That Makes Us Squirm |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/opinion/02childs.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 23, 2025}}{{cite web |last=Markosian |first=Richard |date=July 11, 2020 |title=Stories from the Edge with Flash Flood Chaser and Author Craig Childs |url=https://utahstories.com/2020/07/stories-from-the-edge-with-flash-flood-chaser-and-author-craig-childs/ |work=Utah Stories |access-date=January 23, 2025}}

Childs has taught graduate writing courses at the University of Montana, the University of Alaska Anchorage, and the Mountainview MFA at Southern New Hampshire University.

In 2019, his voice was used as a narration in John D. Boswell's flowmotion documentary Timelapse of the Future.{{cite AV media |author=Melodysheep |date=March 20, 2019 |title=TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time (4K) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA |format=video |language=English |publisher=YouTube |access-date=January 23, 2025}}

Childs writing has been praised by literary critics for vividly chronicling the geography and history of the American Southwest.{{cite web |last=Flores |first=Dan |authorlink=Dan Flores |title=House of Rain |url=https://orionmagazine.org/article/house-of-rain/ |work=Orion |access-date=January 23, 2025}}{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=George |authorlink=George Johnson (writer) |date=August 26, 2010 |title=Den of Antiquities |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Johnson-t.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 23, 2025}} However, he has also been criticized by academics such as the archeologist Brian M. Fagan for misrepresenting or misunderstanding some of scientific data about which he writes.{{cite web |last=Fagan |first=Brian |authorlink=Brian M. Fagan |date=May 27, 2018 |title=Seeing America as Our Ice Age Ancestors Did |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/books/review/atlas-of-a-lost-world-craig-childs.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 23, 2025}}

Childs has received numerous accolades for his work, including the National Outdoor Book Award in 1998 and the Orion Book Award in 2013,{{cite web |last=Blechman |first=Andrew |date=April 24, 2013 |title=Conversation with the 2013 Orion Book Award Winning Author Craig Childs |url=https://orionmagazine.org/article/conversation-with-the-2013-orion-book-award-winner-craig-childs/ |work=Orion |access-date=January 23, 2025}} and is a three-time recipient of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute's Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (2007, 2012, and 2018).{{cite web |last=Metrick |first=Ellen |date=January 4, 2023 |title=Craig Childs reflects on new edition of 'Stone Desert' |url=https://www.telluridenews.com/norwood_post/article_7c0d7782-8b70-11ed-b976-835a66d0ee01.html |work=Telluride Daily Planet |access-date=January 23, 2025}}

Childs currently lives outside of Norwood, Colorado. He was married to the artist and photographer Regan Choi, a fellow river guide he met in the early 1990s. The couple had two children, Jasper and Jaden, before divorcing in 2015.{{cite web |last=Slosson |first=Mary |date=March 15, 2015 |title=Acclaimed author Craig Childs moves to town |url=https://www.telluridenews.com/news/article_0e4c0202-cd35-5e2e-8536-2a715ce93827.html |work=Telluride Daily Planet |access-date=January 23, 2025}}

• Stone Desert: A Naturalist's Exploration of Canyonlands National Park (1995)
• Crossing Paths: Uncommon Encounters With Animals in the Wild (1997)
• Grand Canyon: Time Below the Rim (1999)
• The Secret Knowledge of Water (2000)
• Soul of Nowhere (2002)
• The Desert Cries: A Season of Flash Floods in a Dry Land (2002)
• The Way Out: A True Story of Survival (2005)
• House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest (2007)
• The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild (2007)
• Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession (2010)
• Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Future of the Earth (2012)
• Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America (2018)
• Virga & Bone: Essays from Dry Places (2019)
• Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau (2022)

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.houseofrain.com/ Official website]

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Category:Living people

Category:1967 births

Category:American male writers

Category:American nature writers

Category:American travel writers

Category:21st-century American academics

Category:21st-century American explorers

Category:People from Tempe, Arizona