Robin McGrath (born March 29, 1949) is a Canadian writer from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.[1]

Early career

The daughter of former Newfoundland politician James McGrath,[1] she completed a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Western Ontario, and later taught at the University of Alberta.[1] During her academic career, she also wrote for the London Free Press and the Edmonton Journal, and published Canadian Inuit Literature: The Development of a Tradition, one of the first-ever academic studies of Inuit oral literary traditions.[2] She left academia and returned to St. John's in 1993 to pursue creative writing.[1]

Writing career

She published the short fiction collection Trouble and Desire in 1996,[3] which was a Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award nominee in 1998.[4]

Escaped Domestics, her first poetry collection, followed in 1998.[5] The book was a J. M. Abraham Poetry Award nominee,[6] and won a Canadian Jewish Book Award for poetry in 1999.[7]

In 1999 she published the young adult novel Hoist Your Sails and Run.[8] The book was a nominee for the Ann Connor Brimer Award in 2001.[9] In 2002, the Resource Centre for the Arts staged her theatrical play A Mountain of Shoes, about a young Holocaust survivor who settles in Newfoundland,[10] and she published the novel Donovan's Station.[11] The novel was a Commonwealth Writers Prize nominee for Canada and the Caribbean in 2003.[12]

In 2005 she published the poetry collection Covenant of Salt,[13] for which she received another J.M. Abraham Poetry Award nomination in 2006.[14]

Her 2009 novel The Winterhouse won a Canadian Jewish Book Award for fiction in 2010.[15]

She has also published the novels Gone to the Ice (2003),[16] and Livyers World (2007)[17] and the non-fiction books Salt Fish and Shmattes: The History of the Jews in Newfoundland and Labrador from 1770 (2006), a history of the Jewish community in Newfoundland and Labrador,[18] and Life on the Mista Shipu: Dispatches from Labrador (2018).[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Aaron Peach, "Robin McGrath (1949-)". Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador, 2006.
  2. ↑ Ruth Panofsky, "Escaped Domestics, by Robin McGrath". Quill & Quire, Winter 1999.
  3. ↑ "Over the transom". The Globe and Mail, February 10, 1996.
  4. ↑ "Provincial book awards short list announced". The Telegram, March 19, 1998.
  5. ↑ Janet Fraser, "Poems full of life, love, laughter". The Telegram, November 22, 1998.
  6. ↑ "Atlantic Writing Award nominees announced". Halifax Daily News, April 24, 1999.
  7. ↑ "Story about life in a Polish shtetl wins Jewish writing prize". The Globe and Mail, May 4, 1999.
  8. ↑ Mike McCarthy, "McGrath pens winning yarn". The Telegram, March 12, 2000.
  9. ↑ "David Adams Richards up for Atlantic prize". The Globe and Mail, April 24, 2001.
  10. ↑ Gordon Jones, "A Mountain of Shoes: short show, deep impact". The Telegram, March 8, 2002.
  11. ↑ Margaret Macpherson, "Same old same old from the Rock: Interesting story has familiar ring". Edmonton Journal, September 29, 2002.
  12. ↑ Allison Lawlor, "Polished Hoe wins Commonwealth book award". The Globe and Mail, March 4, 2003.
  13. ↑ Barb Carey, "Homage to the island and its ways; A pair of Newfs celebrate homeland culture". Toronto Star, May 1, 2005.
  14. ↑ "N.B. author makes awards short list". Times & Transcript, April 15, 2006.
  15. ↑ Morley Walker, "Winnipeg authors win national awards". Winnipeg Free Press, April 7, 2010.
  16. ↑ Lynn Barter, "McGrath novel terrific, Ode to Newfoundland pictures stunning". The Telegram, June 15, 2003.
  17. ↑ "Morgan, McNaughton take N.L. book prizes". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador, May 28, 2008.
  18. ↑ Jean Edwards Stacey, "Author publishes research about Jews in province". The Telegram, August 20, 2006.
  19. ↑ Sal Sawler, "10 Hot New Books to Fuel Your Winter". Atlantic Books, November 29, 2018.
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