Josiah William Cockerill was born August 27th, 1987 in Port Hope, Ontario. He grew up one town over in Cobourg. Here he attended high school and spent the hours outside of academics playing soccer, tennis and camping in the summer.
He attended the University of Guelph starting in 2006 and graduated 4 years later with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. It was here where his writing first began. After leaving Ontario to go and work in Fort McMurray in the summer of 2008, while between semesters, Josiah began his first children's book. He didn't know it at the time, but that book would establish the setting of what was to become Burburry County and eventually lead him to writing Valor.