Marjorie Simmins

Last updated
Marjorie Simmins
Marjorie Simmins photo.jpg
Simmins in 2017
Born (1959-02-17) February 17, 1959 (age 65)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
OccupationWriter, journalist, teacher.
Alma mater University of British Columbia, Mount Saint Vincent University
Period1991 to present
Genre Memoir, Essay, Journalism
Notable worksCoastal Lives (2014)
Year of the Horse (2016)
Memoir: Conversations and Craft (2020)
Somebeachsomewhere: The Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable (2021)
Spouse Silver Donald Cameron

Marjorie Simmins (born February 17, 1959) is a Canadian writer, journalist and teacher. She is the author of three books of non-fiction that blend personal essays, memoir and journalism to explore themes of love and loss, the lure of the sea and her lifelong passion for horses. A fourth book on memoir writing includes interviews with prominent authors who practise the craft and is intended to serve as a guide for those who wish to tell their own stories. [1] [2]

Contents

Simmins's writing has appeared in many newspapers and magazines including the Vancouver Sun , The Chronicle-Herald, Canadian Living , Halifax Magazine, Saltscapes, The Antigonish Review and Fishermen's News. [3]

Her work has won several awards including gold medals at the National Magazine Awards and the Atlantic Journalism Awards and in 2020, she won the Established Artist Recognition Award from Arts Nova Scotia. [4] [5] [6]

Simmins has taught memoir-writing in workshops across Canada and online. [7]

She was married to the Canadian writer Silver Donald Cameron for 22 years until his death in 2020. He is a vivid presence in her memoir writing and many of her essays. [8] [9]

Early years and education

Marjorie Simmins was born in Ottawa, the youngest of four children of Barbara Simmins (née Atkinson) and Richard Beaufort Simmins. The family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where Simmins was raised. Her father served as Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery before her parents divorced. Barbara Simmins began working as a night-time taxi driver to sustain the household and look after their four children before earning an education degree and becoming a high school teacher. [8]

In 1972, when Simmins was 12, her mother bought a registered half-Arabian pony, the beginning of Simmins's lifelong love of horses and her interest in writing about them. According to Simmins, her mother hoped the big pony would help her 17-year-old sister Karin, who had been diagnosed with drug-induced schizophrenia, to avoid using barbiturates and heroin. Simmins writes that she and her sister became inseparable while training and riding the horse on trails and beaches, taking lessons and entering schooling shows and, as they progressed, registered shows. Karin's mental disorder worsened, she became increasingly violent, and in 1974, she died of a drug overdose at age 20. A grief-stricken Simmins sold the horse. [8] [10]

In an interview with the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia, Simmins said writing came naturally for her. She wrote letters, mainly to family members, from the age of six or seven and started writing journals when she was 12, so it was "a natural transition from letter and journal writing, to personal essays. It took no time at all to understand that the pronoun 'I' had greatest interest and biggest heart if connected to 'we' or the universal experience." [11]

In 1984, Simmins earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from the University of British Columbia. [12] In 2011, she completed a Research Master's Degree in Literacy Education at Mount Saint Vincent University after submitting a thesis on memoir writing as a renegade genre. [13] She holds a Certificate in Adult Education from Dalhousie University. [14]

Journalism

In 1991, Simmins began a career as a freelance writer and reporter publishing her work in Canadian newspapers with regular work for the Vancouver Sun as well as magazines including Canadian Living and Fishermen's News based in Seattle, Washington covering commercial and sports fishing on Canada's Pacific coast for six years. She also wrote personal essays such as "Trips From There to Here" about her troubled sister Karin. That essay was published by Saturday Night magazine and won a Gold medal at the 1994 National Magazine Awards. [15]

After moving to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to join her husband, the writer, Silver Donald Cameron, Simmins continued freelance writing for such publications as the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Halifax Magazine and Saltscapes magazine. [16]

Her 2019 article for Saltscapes on the loving partnership between the musician Matt Minglewood and his wife, Babs, won a Gold medal at the 2020 Atlantic Journalism Awards (AJAs) for arts and entertainment reporting. [17] [18] Her 2011 piece for Progress Magazine on the comedian Shaun Majumder's plan to build a eco-hotel with a five-star restaurant in his tiny hometown of Burlington, Newfoundland, also won a Gold medal at the AJAs. [19] [20]

Non-fiction books

"In 2009, after being a professional writer for nearly twenty years, I was surprised to find I had not yet published a book of any kind," Simmins writes in her book on memoir writing. That year she enrolled in a master's degree program at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax where she intended to study memoir and use her thesis as the basis for a published book. Memoir made sense, she writes, because of all the letters, journals and essays she had published over the years, all using variations of "my direct-to-the reader voice -- which enabled me to be candid and personal as though talking to a good friend, and yet, conversely, somehow gave me enough artistic distance to craft a story." [13] [16]

Coastal Lives: A Memoir

In 2014, three years after completing her master's thesis, Simmins published Coastal Lives: A Memoir. The book includes essays, many published previously in Canadian magazines and newspapers, and brief stories about personal friendships and family relationships. The book's title refers to writers living on opposite Canadian coasts who meet, fall in love and marry: Simmins herself, who vows never to leave her beloved Pacific coast, and Silver Donald Cameron, "a cussedly stubborn man," whose heart belongs to Cape Breton Island on the stormy North Atlantic. [8]

I believe that our times in history, anyone's time in history, is only as special as the people who come and go in it, and the places you are able to call home.

– From Coastal Lives: A Memoir.

One reviewer wrote of the book: "Simmins's intense culture shock in hurling herself from the life of a single urban Vancouver writer into a rural Cape Breton 'kitchen racket' culture demonstrates the plurality of Canadian solitudes. 'Learning a first language for the second time is even stranger,' she writes of coming to terms with Cape Breton idioms." [21]

However, in The Antigonish Review, Marq de Villiers felt that the contrasts Simmins draws between Cape Breton and B.C. were not persuasive. "The sense of wonder she expresses at the differences seems wide-eyed and oddly parochial; a skillful and experienced journalist, as she was, should surely have been more worldly than that." Overall though, he praises the deftness of her touch in recounting the love affair at the heart of her story without being defensive about her 22-year age difference with Cameron and avoiding mawkishness, petty resentment and self-effacement in conveying the "looming presence" of his late wife Lulu and Cameron's intense grief at her untimely death. [22]

Nova Scotia writer, Harry Thurston found that Simmins's essays explore "a wide emotional territory" and that the book "is an inward journey into the depths and shallows of love and loss, an emotional landscape as complex and winding as the two coastlines where the drama of her personal life plays out." [2]

Year of the Horse: A Journey of Healing and Adventure

Simmins's second book, Year of the Horse: A Journey of Healing and Adventure, is an autobiographical work that was published in 2016, five years after she suffered disabling injuries in a horseback riding accident that left her temporarily unable to walk. After three years of therapy and recovery, Simmins decides to ride again and to train for competition in a horse show. Her decision coincides with the Chinese Year of the Horse in 2014. [10]

As her recovery and training continue, Simmins recalls vivid memories, telling stories about the many horses she has known as well as the people who have touched her deeply. One reviewer compared her book to a "slow-burning candle" and added that, "the warmth of Simmins's stories carry us through those dark desolate times when optimism and hope seem so faint." [23]

Writing in The Antigonish Review, Marion Quednau saw the book as a story of love and discovery as Simmins moves from youthful, horse-riding exuberance to her sudden realization in mid-life that she can form a partnership with a horse by "listening" to its needs as one listens to a human partner to find the basis for loyalty, trust and love. "What this book describes best is that love is complicated, and for most of us, happily, we have no choice but to stay engaged, wistful or enraged, fearful or unwilling, until we get it --- the fleeting, hard-won sensation of being in sync with the edges of the unknown, beautiful in motion, constantly in change." [24]

In 2016, Simmins told an interviewer that the book is not just for people who ride horses. "Whether you ride horses or not...this book is intended to give you the best seat in the house, atop one of the world's most elegant and swift creatures." [25]

Somebeachsomewhere: The Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable

Simmins's 2021 book tells the improbable story of a Standardbred race horse named Somebeachsomewhere that Brent MacGrath, a car salesman from small town Truro, Nova Scotia, bought in 2006 for only $40,000 at a yearling auction in Lexington, Kentucky. MacGrath made the purchase on behalf of Schooner Stables, a syndicate of six Maritimers from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Simmins writes that the sixteen-month-old bay colt would turn out to have a body like a locomotive. "For Schooner Stables, he would be the horse of a lifetime --- and would change the course of Standardbred horse history forever," she writes. [26]

Somewheresomebeach was almost undefeated, winning 20 of 21 races, earning more than $3.2 million and setting four world records. At the time of his death from cancer in January 2018, the world-champion Hall of Famer had sired Standardbreds who won more than $84.6 million in prizes. [27] [26]

Simmins told an interviewer in 2021 that the six owners were regular people pursuing a hobby. "After the briefest time, they realized they had a genius horse," she added. "Brent McGrath actually quit work and became the full-time trainer during the horse's second year of racing. It was just one bit of magic after another. He broke records every time he went on the track." [28]

The book delves into the history and lore of harness racing and includes interviews with a wide range of professionals, but Simmins says she tried to write for both harness-racing aficionados and those with little knowledge of the sport. "It's a real writerly challenge to get that right tone where you're not going to bore the harness racing person and you're not going to lose the person who plays golf." [29]

Memoir-writing book

In 2020, Simmins published Memoir: Conversations and Craft, a book that blends information on memoir writing in its various forms, tips for those who wish to tell their own stories and interviews with seven prominent Canadian writers on the art and craft of creating a memoir.

Memoir is a renegade genre. If memoir were a fish, it would dart past your hand when you reached out to touch it. It's not meant to be caught, only to swim against currents of accepted form.

– From Memoir: Conversations and Craft

The book begins by distinguishing between memoir, "a chapter in a person's life" and autobiography, a form that "covers a whole life." Simmins writes that successful memoirs are entertaining, truthful and detailed as they explore universal themes using humour, dialogue and a narrative arc --- a beginning, middle and end that move through stages of increasing tension to "a satisfying resolution." She writes that memoir writers need a "climax (or epiphany) near the end of the story." [16]

The writers whose interviews appear in the book are: Lawrence Hill, Plum Johnson, Linden MacIntyre, Edmund Metatawabin, Donna Morrissey, Claire Mowat and Diane Schoemperlen. Simmins follows each interview with sections that summarize key points on craft and suggest exercises designed to sharpen writing skills. [30] [16]

Simmins's book serves as a supplement to the workshops on memoir writing that she teaches across Canada and online. It also enlarges on her master's thesis in which she wrote: "In my teaching of memoir, to seniors and people of all ages, I have seen a uniform intensity of desire to begin writing – and muted interest in posterity. People either burn with story, their fingertips tingling with words to get down on paper – and often, a central one, such as the death of a child, a wartime or countryside childhood – or they do not. Now, more than ever, the world of memoir belongs to anyone, of any age, who for any reason, needs to record details of their life." [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alistair MacLeod</span> Canadian writer and academic (1936-2014)

Alistair MacLeod, was a Canadian novelist, short story writer and academic. His powerful and moving stories vividly evoke the beauty of Cape Breton Island's rugged landscape and the resilient character of many of its inhabitants, the descendants of Scottish immigrants, who are haunted by ancestral memories and who struggle to reconcile the past and the present. MacLeod has been praised for his verbal precision, his lyric intensity and his use of simple, direct language that seems rooted in an oral tradition.

Sheree Lynn Fitch is a Canadian writer and literacy advocate. Known primarily for her children's books, she has also published poetry and fiction for adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Nova</span> Federal electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada

Central Nova is a federal electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1968 until 1996. In 1996, Antigonish County and part of Guysborough County were placed with Pictou County in a new electoral boundaries configuration to form the electoral district of Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough. A new version of Central Nova was established in 2003 and — in conjunction with the Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough iteration — represented a significant electoral boundaries change with specific reference to Antigonish County. Between 1867 and 1997, Antigonish County was not in a riding that included Pictou County; rather, it comprised either its own electoral district (Antigonish), or part of other districts shared with Eastern Nova Scotia (Antigonish-Guysborough) and Cape Breton Island communities. In 2013, part of Antigonish County was "placed back" with communities in the electoral district of Cape Breton Canso, a riding which had emerged in part from the former Cape Breton Highlands Canso riding in 1996. The current version of Central Nova includes Pictou County, parts of Antigonish and Guysborough Counties and extends into Halifax Regional Municipality.

Hugh Alan "Buddy" MacMaster was a Canadian fiddler. He performed and recorded both locally and internationally, and was regarded as an expert on the tradition and lore of Cape Breton fiddle music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CJCB-DT</span> CTV television station in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

CJCB-DT is a repeater television station in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station has a transmitter in Blacketts Lake southwest of the city. It operated a TV studio in Sydney from 1954 until 2021, with all production and master control work now done in Halifax at CJCH-DT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver Donald Cameron</span> Canadian author and journalist (1937–2020)

Silver Donald Cameron was a Canadian journalist, author, playwright, and university teacher whose writing focused on social justice, nature, and the environment. His 15 books of non-fiction dealt with everything from history and politics to education and community development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Gaelic</span> Scottish Gaelic dialects of eastern Canada

Canadian Gaelic or Cape Breton Gaelic, often known in Canadian English simply as Gaelic, is a collective term for the dialects of Scottish Gaelic spoken in Atlantic Canada.

Claire Angel Mowat is a Canadian writer and environmentalist.

Lorri Neilsen Glenn is a Canadian poet, ethnographer, essayist and educator. Born in Winnipeg, and raised on the Prairies, she moved to Nova Scotia in 1983. Neilsen Glenn is the author and editor of several books of creative nonfiction, poetry, literacy, ethnography, and essays. She was Poet Laureate for Halifax from 2005-2009, the first Métis to hold the position. Her writing focuses on women, arts-based research, and memoir/life stories; her work is known for its hybrid and lyrical approaches. She has published book reviews in national and international journals and newspapers. Neilsen Glenn has received awards for her poetry, creative nonfiction, teaching, scholarship and community work.

Ami McKay is an American Canadian novelist, playwright and journalist.

Anne Simpson is a Canadian poet, novelist, artist and essayist. She was a recipient of the Griffin Poetry Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish</span> Latin Catholic diocese in Canada

The Diocese of Antigonish is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in Nova Scotia, Canada. Its current diocesan ordinary is Wayne Joseph Kirkpatrick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Archibald</span> Canadian suffragist and writer

Edith Jessie Archibald was a Canadian suffragist and writer who led the Maritime Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), National Council of Women of Canada and the Local Council of Women of Halifax. For her many forms of social activism, she was referred to as the "Lady of Grace" by King George V, and she was designated a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada in 1997.

Peter Sanger is a Canadian poet and prose writer. Sanger, who is also described as a critic and an editor, was born in Bewdley, Worcestershire, England, and immigrated to Canada in 1953. He was educated at the University of Melbourne, University of Victoria, and Acadia University. He lived and worked in Ontario, British Columbia and Newfoundland before settling in Nova Scotia in 1970 and teaching at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, where he became Head of the Humanities and Professor Emeritus.

Valerie Compton is a Canadian writer and journalist. Compton grew up in Bangor, Prince Edward Island and studied at the University of King's College. She has lived in Edmonton, Calgary, and Rothesay, New Brunswick. Compton has been writing short fiction for over twenty years, has written one novel, writes nonfiction articles, and works as a freelance editor and mentor to emerging writers. She now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Drummond MacGregor</span> Canadian Presbyterian minister and abolitionist (1759–1830)

Rev. James Drummond MacGregor was an author of Christian poetry in both Scottish and Canadian Gaelic, an abolitionist and Presbyterian minister in Nova Scotia, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Administrative divisions of Nova Scotia</span> Local governance within Nova Scotia

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is divided into 49 municipalities, of which there are three types: regional (4), town (25), and county or district municipality (20).

shalan joudry is a Mi'kmaw writer, oral storyteller, director, drummer/singer, and ecologist.

Linda Little is an author from Nova Scotia, Canada. Her third work of fiction has been praised as a "darkly beautiful novel".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maxine Tynes</span> Canadian poet

Maxine Nellie Tynes was a Canadian poet, writer, and educator.

References

  1. ↑ Lawlor, Allison (April 6, 2020). "Now is the perfect time to write a memoir". The Chronicle-Herald . pp. C3.
  2. 1 2 Thurston, Harry (April 12, 2014). "Travel to lands of the heart; Simmins's Coastal Lives offers personal insights along two coasts". The Chronicle-Herald . pp. G6.
  3. ↑ Simmins, Marjorie (September 5, 2022). "Marjorie Simmins". Marjorie Simmins, author, journalist and teacher. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Meet the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize readers". CBC books. September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Isle Madame author wins gold at Atlantic Journalism Awards". the Reporter. May 21, 2020. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  6. ↑ "2020 Creative Nova Scotia Awards Gala" (PDF). Arts Nova Scotia. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  7. ↑ Benjamin, Chris (November 16, 2020). "Marjorie Simmins on memoir". Atlantic Books. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Simmins, Marjorie (2014). Coastal Lives: a memoir. Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada: Pottersfield Press. p. 94. ISBN   978-1-897426-54-8.
  9. ↑ Davie, Emma (June 1, 2020). "Cape Breton author, environmentalist Silver Donald Cameron dies at 82". CBC News. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  10. 1 2 Simmins, Marjorie (2016). Year of the Horse: A Journey of Healing and Adventure. Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada: Pottersfield Press. ISBN   978-1-897426-90-6.
  11. ↑ "Author spotlight: Marjorie Simmins". WFNS: Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia. 31 July 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Donald "Silver" Cameron, CM, ONS, BA'60". Trek: A Publication Of alumni UBC. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 Simmins, Majorie (December 2011). "Memoir: An Examination of a Renegade Genre from the Inside Out". Master's Thesis, Mount Saint Vincent University. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.885.5164 .
  14. ↑ Boudrot, Jake (November 26, 2020). "Marjorie Simmins wins Creative Nova Scotia Award". the Reporter. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  15. ↑ "When writer Marjorie Simmins fell for an East Coaster, she traded the Pacific for the Atlantic, and found a new home on Nova Scotia's rugged shores". Saltscapes. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Simmins, Marjorie (2020). Memoir: Conversations and Craft. Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada: Pottersfield Press. p. 14. ISBN   978-1-988286-99-0.
  17. ↑ Simmins, Marjorie. ""Rockin the blues..."" (PDF). marjoriesimmins.ca. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  18. ↑ "AJAs announces 2019 Winners". Atlantic Journalism Awards. May 8, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  19. ↑ Simmins, Marjorie (2011). "To the Manor Born" (PDF). marjoriesimmins.ca. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  20. ↑ "AJAs announces 2012 winners". Cision (Canada Newswire). May 11, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  21. ↑ Benjamin, Chris (February 7, 2015). "A coast-to-coast love affair that's as big as the country". Ottawa Citizen. pp. D7.
  22. ↑ de Villiers, Marq (Autumn 2015). "Coastal Lives: a memoir by Marjorie Simmins". The Antigonish Review (183): 61–63.
  23. ↑ Gallant, Ryan (January 2, 2017). "Injury, recovery, rejuvenation: Simmins taps into sensitive subjects, takes reader for a ride". The Chronicle-Herald. pp. D6.
  24. ↑ Quednau, Marion (Summer 2017). "Year of the Horse: A journal of healing and adventure by Marjorie Simmins". The Antigonish Review (190): 19–23.
  25. ↑ Hersey, Linda (September 30, 2016). "Year of the Horse is a compelling new read from Marjorie Simmins". Times & Transcript . pp. C4.
  26. 1 2 Simmins, Marjorie (2021). Somebeachsomewhere: A Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus Publishing Limited. ISBN   978-1-77108-932-6.
  27. ↑ Briggs, Dave (January 15, 2018). "Full obituary for Somebeachsomewhere". Harnesslink. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  28. ↑ Boudrot, Jake (June 16, 2021). "New book from Marjorie Simmins named bestseller". The Reporter (Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia).
  29. ↑ MacKenzie, Richard (January 28, 2021). "New book on Somebeachsomewhere captures the 'heart' of the story". Truro News.
  30. ↑ King, Nancy (May 6, 2020). "Isle Madame author pens book on the art of writing memoir". Saltwire - Amherst/Cumberland County (NS) (web site). Retrieved October 4, 2022.

Author website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.