A resident of St. John’s for 35 years, Fred Armstrong was born and raised in Ottawa. He has been a freelance journalist for print, radio, and television for more than 30 years and now works part-time as a desk editor for CBC and writes the feature "Curmudgeon’s Diary" for The Morning Show. He was a recipient of one of the first Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador mentorships in 2004. Armstrong lives in St. John’s with his wife Elizabeth. Happiness of Fish is his first novel.