Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library
The Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library was pleased to announce our 9th Writer in Residence at the Library, Donna Morrissey. Ms. Morrissey was our Writer-in-Residence @ the library from September 2012 until February 2013.
The Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library and our patrons, gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Writer in Residence @ the Library program through funding by the Canada Council for the Arts, Author Residencies program and the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library Board.
Donna Morrissey is the award-winning author of Kit's Law, Downhill Chance, What They Wanted, and Sylvanus Now, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She recently wrote a children's book, Cross Katie Kross, illustrated by her daughter, Bridget. Morrissey grew up in The Beaches, a small fishing outport in Newfoundland. She studied at Memorial University in St. John's and lived in various parts of Canada before settling down in Halifax, where she now lives.
Donna Morrissey's best selling, award winning novel, Kit's Law, has been translated into Japanese, German and Dutch. Her two screenplays have won the Atlantic Film Scriptwriting Competition two years in succession, with one of her scripts, Clothesline Patch, filmed and aired on CBC. Clothesline Patch was nominated for two Geminis Awards, Best Writing in a Dramatic Series and Best Production, which it won. Her second novel, Downhill Chance, won the 2003 Thomas Head Raddall Award for Fiction, and Sylvanis Now won the Raddall and the Booksellers' Choice Award. What They Wanted, a sequel to Sylvanus Now, was released in Fall 2008.
Donna Morrissey has instructed numerous writing workshops and seminars over the years from Humber College's School for Writers, Creative Writing at Dalhousie University (Department of English), to several Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia professional workshops and community workshops too. Donna is a member of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia.
The Deception of Livvy Higgs
For two traumatic days, Livvy Higgs is besieged by a series of small heart attacks while the ghost of her younger self leads her back through a past devastated by lies and secrets.
The story opens in Halifax in 2009, travels back to the French Shore of Newfoundland during the mid-thirties and the heyday of the Maritime shipping industry, makes its way to wartorn Halifax during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II, then leaps ahead to the bedside of the elder Livvy.
Caught between a troubled past, and her present and worsening living conditions, Livvy is forced to pick apart the lies and secrets told by her greedy, prideful father, Durwin Higgs, who judges her a failure, and her formidable Grandmother Creed, who has mysteriously aligned herself with Livvy's father, despite their mutual hatred.
Tending to Livvy during her illness is her young next-door neighbour, Gen, a single mother, social-work student, and part-time drug dealer. Overnight, a violent scene embroils the two in each other's lives in a manner that will entwine them forever. In The Deception of Livvy Higgs, the inimitable Morrissey has written a powerful tale, the Stone Angel of the East Coast.
Cross Katie Cross
In this charming children's story from award-winning author Donna Morrissey and her daughter, Bridgette, we meet Katie Kross, a curmudgeonly old woman who hates just about everything. Katie becomes so fed up with life on her farm that she decides to leave her home in search of Love Valley: a beautiful, idyllic place where she can be on her own, away from tedious chores, pestering neighbours, and pesky animals. But Katie's journey leads her to learn that sometimes dreams come true in the most surprising ways. Donna's lovely story is accompanied by her daughter Bridgette's charming and quirky illustrations.
What They Wanted
In What They Wanted, the second part of the Sylvanus Now Trilogy, award-winning author Donna Morrissey explores both new and familiar terrain: a divided house on the shores of Newfoundland and the equally challenging environment of an Alberta oil rig. After Sylvanus has a heart attack, family tensions rise to the fore. Sylvie must deal with her feelings of estrangement from her mother, Addie. Meanwhile, Chris, a natural artist, frustrates his dreams by going to work on the rig. A novel about guilt, responsibility, tragedy, and the enduring ties of family, this is vintage Donna Morrissey.
Downhill Chance
With Downhill Chance, Donna Morrissey crafted a captivating tale, and with Clair Gale, she created an unforgettable heroine. Clair is the unsinkable heart of the novel, a story of two families during wartime—the Osmonds and the Gales—of sisters joined by love, yet torn apart by fear and secrets. Set in pre-Confederation Newfoundland and spanning the years of the Second World War, this unique novel blends melodrama, gritty realism, and a flair for the comic.
Kit's Law
It is the 1950s in an isolated outport in Newfoundland. Fourteen-year-old Kit Pitman lives with her mentally handicapped mother, Josie—both of them cared for by Kit's indomitable grandmother, Lizzie. But when Lizzie dies suddenly, Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable to life's harsh realities and to unexpected dangers that repeatedly threaten to break them apart. With the bestselling and beloved Kit's Law, Donna Morrissey established herself as a stunning new voice in Canadian fiction.
Sylvanus Now
Sylvanus Now is a young fisherman of great charm and strength. His youthful desires are simple: He wants a suit to lure a girl—the fine-boned beauty Adelaide. Adelaide, however, has other dreams. Set against the love story of Addie and Sylvanus is the sea on the cusp of cataclysmic change. Caught between his desire to please his wife and his strongly independent nature, Sylvanus must decide what path his future will take.