BIOGRAPHY

Renée Moffett Thompson was born in Seattle, Washington, and raised in Japan, Georgia, Kansas and California. She attended California State University at Sacramento, majoring in Environmental Resources, before marrying Steve Thompson at age 20. Renée and Steve then moved north, where Steve pursued a degree in wildlife biology from Humboldt State. For the next two decades they traversed the United States with their daughters, Jena and Maya, settling on or around wildlife refuges in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Texas, Virginia, and Georgia.

While living at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas, Renée volunteered at the refuge’s visitors’ center, steering birdwatchers toward some of the refuge’s then-393 species of birds, including Painted Buntings, Groove-Billed Anis, and Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers.

Renée has worked as a newspaper columnist and reporter, an editor for a court-reporting firm, and as a freelance writer. When she and Steve returned to the West Coast in 2002, she began writing fiction full time. Renée has received praise for her writing from Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove.