CRAWFORD KILIAN was born in in New York City in 1941. Crawford grew up in Los Angeles, California and Mexico City. He graduated from Columbia University in 1962, and after a stint in the U.S. Army he worked as a technical writer-editor for the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California.

Crawford began his teaching career at Vancouver Community College after moving to Canada with his wife Alice in 1967. He moved to Capilano College when it opened in 1968, and has taught there ever since. In 1972 he received a master's degree in Canadian literature from Simon Fraser University.

Crawford's writing career has included a regular weekly column for the Vancouver Province, eleven novels, two children's books, a social-studies textbook, and two nonfiction books. His most recent novel, Greenmagic, was published in March 1992; the sequel will appear in 1995. Other books by Crawford Kilian include: Wonders, Inc. (1968), The Last Vikings (1974), The Empire of Time (1978), Icequake (1979), Eyas (1982), TsunamiBrother Jonathan (1984), Lifter (1986), The Fall of the Republic (1987), Rogue Emperor (1988), and Gryphon (1983), (1989).

In recent years, Crawford has explored the educational potential of computer telecommunications. He has served as a mentor for writing students in distance-education research projects, taught in the Applied Information Technology program at Capilano, and interacted with students, teachers, writers and editors on various electronic bulletin-board systems. He is a frequent speaker at education conferences. In the past year he has published articles about online discourse and education in Technos, Educom Review and Internet World.