Phil Callaway

Who is Phil Callaway?

Phil Callaway, who has achieved notoriety for his humorous writing and speaking, was born July 26, 1961 in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada. He has written more than 2 dozen books of family humor, children's literature, and novels, as well as hundreds of magazine articles. He maintains a rigorous speaking schedule, traveling primarily in North America speaking approximately 100 times a year to corporations, churches and conferences and is a frequent guest on national radio and television program.

He has edited the Prairie Bible Institute's magazine Servant since it began in 1989. He writes in English, and there are Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Indonesian, Portuguese and Korean translations of some of his books.

He grew up in Three Hills, where his parents worked on staff at the Prairie Bible College. He attended Prairie High School and Prairie Bible College as a student. He married his high school sweetheart in 1982. They have three children; stories from all of their lives appear in his writing.

His first two books, Honey, I Dunked the Kids and Daddy, I Blew up the Shed were based on material originally published in his column "Family Matters" in Servant Magazine. His column "Family Matters" now runs in two dozen magazines, and is translated into numerous languages including Chinese, French, German, and Norwegian. His work is primarily Christian, and at least one review has said that he bases his humor on a religious message "that in the long run overshadows and lessens the comic message." But Callaway insists that the label of "comic" was never his, that he uses humor not just to entertain, but to inspire. "I love to make people laugh. I've seen them fall off chairs when I speak. But I also like to tell them why I'm not in a home weaving baskets somewhere and it's because of faith and hope."