C.W. Nicol, born in Wales (1940) and educated in England, first visited the Arctic in 1958 to research eider ducks for McGill University. By 1965 he was spending seven months a year in the North as a marine mammal technician for the Arctic Biological Station, and studying karate in Japan (he now holds a black belt, fifth dan rank). Nicol was the first game warden at the Simian Mountain National Park in Ethiopia; an Environmental Emergency Officer at the Environmental Protection Service in Vancouver; and a member of the Minister of Environment's committee on environment and culture in Japan. He traveled regularly throughout Japan and abroad, giving lectures on environmental and cultural topics.

Nicol also conceived, wrote and acted in numerous TV documentaries, filmed in Zaire, Inner Mongolia, the Canadian Arctic, New Zealand, Wales, Scotland, England, Australia and Japan. In 1980 he won the Japan Broadcasting Writer's Award for a television drama written in Japanese. He is the author of many articles, essays, translations, novels and books for young people, including Harpoon and The White Shaman.In 2003, Nicol published The Raven's Tale with BC-based Harbour Publishing.

He also served as a committee member for the Kaiko Takeshi Literary Prize. After 1980, Nicol lived in Japan with his wife and two daughters.

Diagnosed with cancer in 2016, C.W. Nicol died in 2020 aged 79.

[BCBW 2023]