Canadian author Michael Christie was born to a working-class family and grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is best known for its extractive industries, particularly forestry. Christie spent much of his childhood playing in the forests around his neighborhood, informing his affinity for the environment in Greenwood. Central to this affinity is the tension between preservation and livelihood, allowing him to navigate the nuances of logging as a necessary industry tempered by preservationist ideals. Christie himself became a carpenter at one point, building the Galiano Island home that he would inhabit with his family.

Christie attended the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia, where he wrote his first book, a 2011 linked collection of stories entitled The Beggar’s Garden. The linked quality of this book hints at one of the defining marks of his long-form fiction work, namely his penchant for ensemble casts that provide the reader with a wide lens for looking at the world. Christie formalized this in his 2015 debut novel, If I Fall, If I Die, setting a wide focus on a cast of characters that include skateboarders, an agoraphobic artist, a bootlegger, and a pack of wolves.