Melanie Cameron was born in Kitchenerâ??Waterloo in 1971, has grown up within several communities, and now makes her home in Winnipeg. Holding the Dark is her first book, and it was shortlisted for the Eileen MacTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer. Cameron has been shortlisted twice for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer (1999, 2001).