He is a Canadian author, best known for The Shack, a novel.
Background
The eldest of four, born May 11th, 1955, in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, the majority of his first decade was lived with his missionary parents in the highlands of Netherlands New Guinea (West Papua), among the Dani, a technologically stone age tribal people. These became his family and as the first white child and outsider who ever spoke their language, he was granted unusual access into their culture and community. Although at times a fierce warring people, steeped in the worship of spirits and even occasionally practicing ritualistic cannibalism, they also provided a deep sense of identity that remains an indelible element of his character and person. By the time he was six, he was flown away to a boarding school. In the middle of a school year, his family unexpectedly returned to the W.
Education
By the time Young graduated, he had already attended thirteen different schools.
Completing his undergraduate degree in Religion, Young graduated summa cum laude from Warner Pacific College in Portland.
Career
Young paid his way through Bible College working as a radio disc jockey, lifeguard and even a stint in the oil fields of northern Alberta. He spent one summer in the Philippines and another touring with a drama troupe before working in Washington D.C. at Fellowship House, an international guesthouse.
The following year, Young met and married Kim Warren and for a time worked on staff at a large suburban church while attending seminary. He also have owned businesses and worked for others in diverse industries, from insurance to construction, venture capital companies to telecom, contract work to food processing; whatever was needed to help feed and house his growing family. Young has always been a writer, whether songs, poetry, short stories or newsletters; never for public consumption but for friends and family. While he has extensively written for business, creating web content, business plans, white papers etc., The Shack was a story written for his six children, with no thought or intention to publish.
Religion
In an interview with World Magazine's Susan Olasky, Young, who is no longer a member of a church, said "(The institutional church) doesn't work for those of us who are hurt and those of us who are damaged. . . . If God is a loving God and there's grace in this world and it doesn't work for those of us who didn't get dealt a very good hand in the deck, then why are we doing this? . . . Legalism within Christian or religious circles doesn't work very well for people who are good at it. And I wasn't very good at it."
Views
Quotations:
“I thought the way I grew up was ‘normal’ but I think most would probably agree that my history and journey have been a bit unusual.” — Wm. Paul Young
“Life is participation and writing is one of the exquisite expressions of that journey. It is the reaching for and the grasping of the ‘invisibles’ and making them accessible to a conversation.” — Wm. Paul Young from Writing As Participation