Christopher Chagnon
Biography
Christopher Chagnon was born in Bad Axe, Michigan February 19, 1951, the seventh child of a family of twelve. He moved with his parents, Rollin and Mildred Chagnon to Onaway, Michigan in 1955 where his father, a funeral director, opened the
Chagnon Funeral Home.
At an early age his mother encouraged him to read from the family’s extensive library containing the works of, Guy De Maupassant, Anton Chekhov, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway. But it wasn’t until 1969 when Robert Donia, his high school
English teacher, encouraged Chagnon to become a writer. While growing up in the rural northern Michigan town of Onaway, Chagnon was surrounded by a mix of interesting, indelible characters that have fueled his stories with rich dialogue and unforgettable scenes. But Chagnon’s path first led him to becoming a photographer gaining prominence while living in Detroit. In 1976, he was hired by the Detroit
Tigers, and spent more than ten years as their team’s photographer. He has spent time as the Detroit Pistons team photographer, photographer for the Associated
Press, United Press International, hotel photographer for Detroit’s Renaissance
Center, and his photos have appeared numerous times in national publications.
Throughout the ‘70s Chagnon wrote magazine articles, and newspaper features and he eventually opened a professional photo lab near Detroit.

Chagnon has three children, Justine, Marcel and Luc, and has moved back to Onaway,
Michigan with his wife, Nannette, whom he has been married to for forty-two years.
He is a full-time writer now and has had three short stories published and his first novel; ‘The Dregs of Presque Isle’, book one of a trilogy from The Chandlerville
Chronicles, will be released in June 2013.