Robin McGrath

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. 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.