The Archives of Donna Morrissey fonds: A Guide
Collection Number: MS-2-753Fonds-level description created by Laurena Fredette, August 2006
Collection Level Description
Title: Donna Morrissey fonds
Dates: 1980-2005
Extent: 76 cm of textual records. - 21.1 MB of textual records
Donna Morrissey was born in 1956 and grew up in the small outport community of The Beaches on Newfoundland’s west coast. She was the first of six children born to logger and fisherman Enerchius Osmond and his wife Claudine. After dropping out of high school and working in the local fish plant, she left Newfoundland at age sixteen to travel across Canada. She moved throughout the country, spending time in Toronto and Alberta, employed as a cook and bartender, among other things. At age nineteen she married a fellow Newfoundlander. They were together for fifteen years and had two children. After ten years away, Morrissey returned to Newfoundland in her mid-twenties. At age thirty-two she was admitted to Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) as a mature student where she earned a Bachelor of Social Work. After working as a social worker for a year and a half she returned to school and obtained a Diploma in Adult Education. Donna Morrissey has lived and worked in Halifax since 1993.
Morrissey is a well known, colourful author of short stories, screen plays, and novels whose works draw heavily on her childhood experiences and Newfoundland background. She began writing in her late thirties and published her first novel, Kit’s Law, in 1999. Morrissey has published two Canadian best sellers, Kit’s Law, translated into three languages, and Downhill Chance. Her literary accomplishments include winning the Libris First Time Author of the Year Award, the international Winifred Holtby Award for regional fiction, the Alex Award, and the Thomas Raddall Award. Two of her short stories have also been adapted as scripts, each winning the Atlantic Script Writing Competition. Her screenplay The Clothesline Patch aired on CBC and won a Gemini for Best Production. To date, she has published three novels set in Newfoundland, the latest titled Sylvanus Now.
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"Donna Morrissey."Houghton Mifflin. 2006. Houghton Mifflin. 27 June 2006 Available: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/authordetail.cfm?authorID=7771.
"Donna Morrissey." The Writers’ Union of Canada. n.d. The Writers’ Union of Canada. 27 June 2006 Available: http://www.writersunion.ca/m/morrissey_d.htm.
"Donna Morrissey." Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. 2005. Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. 26 June 2006 Available: http://www.writers.ns.ca/Writers/dmorrissey.html.
Richards, Linda L."Donna Morrissey." January Magazine. July 2002. 27 June 2006 Available: http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/morrissey.html.
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Materials donated by Donna Morrissey in 2005.
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This fonds consists of several manuscripts of stories, novels, and scripts; correspondence with publishers and other associates; as well as a range of clippings and photocopies of published reviews, interviews, and profiles.
Finding aid available onsite.
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[Identification of item], Donna Morrissey fonds, MS-2-753, Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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