 | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2021) |
Bernice Morgan (born 1935) is a Canadian novelist and short-story writer. Much of her work portrays the history and daily life of Newfoundland. She is best known for her novel "Random Passage" which became a television mini-series on CBC. [1]
Morgan was born in St. John's, in pre-Confederation Newfoundland, to William Vardy of Random Island, Trinity Bay and Sadie (Vincent) Vardy of Cape Island, Bonavista Bay. Much of Morgan's writing reflects life in these outport communities.
She attended the St. John's Seventh-day Adventist Academy from Grade 1 to Grade 10. Morgan completed her last year of high school at MacPherson Academy, after which she took a Commercial Course at Bishop Spencer, where her formal education ended. [2]
Morgan married George Morgan, also of St. John's, in November 1956. The couple had three children: a son and two daughters.
After leaving her Commercial Course, Morgan worked at a variety of office jobs as a cashier and clerk. During those years she continued to write, winning several Newfoundland & Labrador Arts and Letters Awards and publishing in local newspapers and magazines and on CBC Radio. Morgan's first writing job was at the Daily News where she published a weekly column titled "Suburban Scrawl" under the pseudonym Maggie Barrett. Subsequently, Morgan worked for many years in public relations, first with Memorial University of Newfoundland where she was editor of "The Gazette" and later with the Newfoundland Teachers' Association (NTA) where she edited "The Bulletin".
Morgan, together with writers Helen Fogwell Porter and Geraldine Chafe Rubia, edited "From This Place" (Jesperson Press, 1977), a collection of the writing by 45 women of Newfoundland and Labrador. The project was funded by a Secretary of State Grant to mark International Women's Year.
Literary magazines that have published Morgan's short stories include "Fiddlehead", "The Pottersfield Portfolio", "Grain", and "Tickle Ace". Among the anthologies that have carried Morgan's writing are, "Digging Into the Hill" (Writers Alliance of Newfoundland & Labrador), "Twelve Newfoundland Short Stories" (eds. Janes and Cuff, Harry Cuff), "The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Short Fiction" (ed. Matthews, Breakwater) "Dropped Threads 3: Beyond the Small Circle" (ed. Anderson, Vintage Canada), and "Signatures: Newfoundland Women Artists and Writers"(ed. McGrath, Killick). School textbooks with Morgan's short stories include "Themes For All Times"(Jesperson Press); "Cultures" (Harcourt Brace); and "Openings" and "Stages" (Breakwater Books).
In September 1986 Morgan resigned from the NTA to begin working on her first novel. Random Passage , published in 1992, depicts a fishing community in the 1800s in a fictional Newfoundland outport called Cape Random. The place name is a combination of her parents' birthplaces. The sequel, Waiting for Time (1994), carried the story of Cape Random forward into the Newfoundland Cod Moratorium of 1992. "Waiting for Time" was awarded the 1995 Thomas Head Raddall Award and the Canadian Author's Association Award for Fiction (1992). It was republished in Ireland, and in translation in Quebec and Germany.
In 2002, the four-part TV mini-series Random Passage, produced by Barbara Doran, was aired in Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Company and in Ireland. The screenplay, by St. John's writer Des Walsh, was based on Morgan's first two novels. The film site remained as a tourist attraction after the series ended. [3]
Morgan's third novel, "Cloud of Bone" (Knopf Canada, 2007), explores humanity's capacity for genocidal violence. Moving from World War II, St. John's to 1998 Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and then to a pre-European Newfoundland, "Cloud of Bone" examines the murder of the Beothuks through the eyes of a World War II sailor, Shawnadithit, and a British anthropologist. "Cloud of Bone" won the 2008 Newfoundland & Labrador Book Award in Fiction and was shortlisted for the Thomas Head Raddall Award. The novel has been republished by Penguin Books. [4] [5] [6]
In 2015 Morgan's novella, The Dragon's Song, was printed as a limited edition art book by Running the Goat Books and Broadsides and illustrated with woodblock engravings and lithographs by her daughter Jennifer Morgan. This novella follows the life of two Newfoundland Christian missionaries in pre World War II China. [7] Her children's book, Seasons Before the War, illustrated by Brita Granstrom, was published by the same press in 2018. Morgan has described this book as, "the story of free-range children in prewar St. John's." "Seasons Before the War" was one of four books shortlisted for the INDY Nonfiction Award in 2021. [8] [9]
In the summer of 2022 Perchance Theatre, based in Cupids, NL, mounted Morgan's play "Area of Uncertainty" under the direction of Sarah Phillips. This play describes the effect of Amelia Earhart's eleven-day stop-over on Trepassey, Newfoundland in 1928. [10]
In 1996 Bernice Morgan was named Artist of the Year by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and in 1998 she was awarded an honorary degree by Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003, and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. In 2020 the St. John's YWCA presented her with their Woman of Distinction Award, [11] and in December of that year, Morgan was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council (ArtsNL) Hall of Honour. [12]
Kevin Major is a Canadian author who lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador with his wife. He writes for both young people and adults, including fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, and plays.
Caitlin Maura Hanrahan is a Canadian author and academic.
Cassie Eileen Brown was a Newfoundland and Labrador journalist, author, publisher and editor. Brown is most distinguished for her books Death on the Ice, which was featured in Reader's Digest, and The Wreck of the Florizel.
Paul O'Neill was a writer, historian and former CBC producer. He wrote many books on the history of Newfoundland. O'Neill was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, and raised in Bay de Verde until the age of 8 when his family moved to St. John's.
Michael Crummey is a Canadian poet and a writer of historical fiction. His writing often draws on the history and landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Al Pittman was a Canadian writer and teacher from Newfoundland.
Georgina Ann Stirling was a Newfoundland opera singer, known by her stage name Marie Toulinquet. Born in Twillingate, in Newfoundland, she became a world-renowned prima donna soprano who played in opera houses throughout Europe and United States. She was Newfoundland's first opera singer and became known as The Nightingale of the North.
Gerald Leopold "Gerry" Squires, was an artist from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Perhaps best known for painting dramatic landscapes in acrylic and oil, Squires also produced major work in sculpture, lithography and stained glass. He was also an accomplished portraitist. Much of his work drew inspiration from the landscape and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Random Passage is a 1992 novel by Newfoundland author Bernice Morgan. It was published by Breakwater Books Ltd. of St. John's. It was followed by a sequel, Waiting for Time.
Mary Dalton is a Canadian poet and educator.
Michael Cook was a Canadian playwright known for his plays set in Newfoundland.
Kathleen Winter is an English-Canadian short story writer and novelist.
Agnes Helen Fogwill Porter was a Canadian writer, educator, and activist.
Sharon Bala is a Canadian writer residing in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Pam Hall is a Canadian artist, filmmaker and writer living in Newfoundland.
Sheilah Lukins is a Canadian writer residing in St. Phillip's, Newfoundland. She writes both non-fiction titles and books for children. The first book in her children's series, Full Speed Ahead: Errol's Bell Island Adventure, won the Bruneau Family Children's/Young Adult Award, which is a part of the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards. The second book in the series, Flying Ace: Errol's Gander Adventure, won a Canada Book Award. Along with writing, she works at the Memorial University Library.
Patrick Warner is an Irish-Canadian author residing in St. John's, Newfoundland. He writes both novels and poetry. Warner has won several awards for his works, including the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Award, the Newfoundland Book Award, the Percy Janes First Novel Award, and the Independent Publisher Regional Fiction Award.
Carmelita McGrath is a Canadian writer residing in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. She writes poetry, children's literature, and novels. She has also written short stories and has received awards for her writings. Along with writing, McGrath is also an editor, teacher, researcher, and communications consultant.
Berni Stapleton is a Canadian writer residing in Newfoundland. Along with writing, Stapleton is also a performer and playwright. Her debut book, They Let Down Baskets, won the 1999 Newfoundland Book Award for Best Non-Fiction.
Michelle Butler Hallett, born 1971, is a Canadian writer from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador who writes predominantly literary- historical fiction. Her novel Constant Nobody was the winner of the Thomas Head Raddall Award at the 2022 Atlantic Book Awards.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
