Chris Walter (author)

Chris Walter (born August 16, 1959) is a Canadian punk rock historian, novelist and founder of the independent publishing company GFY Press. His novels generally portray the darker aspects of humanity such as drug addiction, prostitution, and homelessness.

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Chris was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He became involved with drugs at a very early age and was kicked out of school before leaving home at fifteen, working a succession of menial jobs and collecting welfare for long stretches. Forming his first punk rock band in 1980, Chris soon realized that he was never going to be a musician and began publishing a punk fanzine, Pages of Rage, which gave him his first taste of creative writing, although he wouldn’t complete his first novel, Beer, until he was almost forty. His drug addiction raged out of control after moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1991, where he completed several novels but overdosed on heroin and eventually became homeless. Upon rehabilitation in January 2001, he devoted himself to work and to his family. Chris Walter resides in Vancouver with his long-time girlfriend and their son.

GFY Press specializes in urban fiction, “books about punks, drunks, junkies and whores,” and has published 23 titles: 12 novels by Walter, his autobiographical trilogy, two collections of short stories, novels authored by Simon Snotface, Drew Gates and Stewart Black, and biographies of Canadian punk groups Personality Crisis, SNFU, and the Dayglo Abortions. Despite their dark subject matter, Walter's books are known for black humour, presented in prose described by critics as “convincing, lively, real, accessible, and wildly entertaining.”

Walter has also contributed to a number of publications, including The Nerve, Mass Movement, Razorcake, The Big Takeover, The Georgia Straight, Vice, Loud Fast Rules, The Republic, and Absolute Underground. He was featured in Prairie Coast Films' 2010 documentary Open Your Mouth And Say... Mr. Chi Pig, a film that looks at the life of SNFU singer Mr. Chi Pig.