Author and expert on world religions, esotericism, and mythology born in southern Ontario in 1969.
Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, also known as Sean Tinsley or Sean A. Tinsley, is of Scottish and Mohawk descent. He was born in 1969 in southern Ontario, where he grew up learning woodworking and storytelling from his father.
After completing an education in the arts, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley studied writing in Toronto (Ontario). In his literary pratice, he specializes in world religions, esotericism, and mythology, with a focus on precolonial Inuit cosmology. In 2005, his short story “Green Angel” won second place in the Writers of the Future (WOTF) contest, a science fiction and fantasy story contest established in 1983 by American author L. Ron Hubbard and sponsored by Galaxy Press. Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley’s story was published alongside the other winners in volume 21 of Galaxy Press’ magazine, also entitled Writers of the Future.
Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley is married to Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, an expert on world languages, religions, and cultures, with whom he has co-authored most of his books. Together, the couple have published 10 successful novels with Inhabit Media, including Why the Monster (2017), Lesson for the Wolf (2015), Tuniit: Mysterious Folk of the Arctic (2014), and The Raven and the Loon (2013), which was translated into Inuktitut the same year. In their novels, Sean and Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley celebrate the history and unique character of Arctic cosmology, cosmogony, and shamanism. Many of their books are taught in schools and universities.
Sean and Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley’s most successful novel is Skraelings: Clashes in the Old Arctic. First published in English in 2014, it was then translated to Inuktitut the same year and into German in 2019. In 2014, the novel was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in the English-language Young People’s Literature category. In 2015, it won the Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Literature. As a result, 2,500 copies of Skraelings: Clashes in the Old Arctic were purchased for library collections and Native Friendship Centres across Canada. Keavy Martin mentions and analyzes Skraelings: Clashes in the Old Arctic in her book Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature (2012).
Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley currently lives in Nunavut with his wife. The couple’s recent publications include the book Tanna’s Owl (2019).