Greg Hollingshead grew up in Woodbridge, Ontario. Since 1976, he has published more than five dozen stories and essays in magazines and anthologies in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. His first book, Famous Players (Coach House), a story collection edited by Matt Cohen, appeared in 1982. His books, the story collection White Buick and the novel Spin Dry both appeared in 1992. Hollingshead's story collection The Roaring Girl won the 1995 Governor General's Award for Fiction.

In 1998, Hollingshead published his second novel, The Healer, which was shortlisted for the 1998 Giller Prize and won the 1999 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His third novel, Bedlam, was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and was selected as the Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year. In 2007, he was awarded the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award. He is professor emeritus at the University of Alberta and director of writing programs here at The Banff Centre.