Phil Campagna was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1960, to parents who moved annually. The eldest of five boys, he quickly learned the art of storytelling to ward off mutiny against the sitterâ”himself. During a five-year stint of small-town living, this storytelling took on the form of writing to ward off his own boredom. The wanderlust that resulted from living in a small town, combined with news reports of oppression in South America, sparked his interest in Chile. Inspired by these issues, Phil scribbled the first pages of what would eventually become his first young adult novel, The Freedom Run (Douglas and McIntyre). The Liberty Circle, his first work with Napoleon Publishing, was published in the spring of 2000, and was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award.
