Donna Morrissey (born January 13, 1956, in The Beaches, Newfoundland) is a Canadian author.

At age 16, Morrissey left her birthplace of The Beaches, a small outport on the west coast of Newfoundland. She lived in various places in Canada before returning to St. John's, where she studied at Memorial University and obtained a Bachelor of Social Work and a diploma in adult education. Morrissey now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Morrissey has written six national best sellers and prize-winning novels — Kit's Law, Downhill Chance, Sylvanus Now, What They Wanted, The Deception of Livvy Higgs, and The Fortunate Brother — as well as one Gemini-nominated screenplay. In 2021 She published a memoir, Pluck: A Memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Terrible, Amazing Journey to becoming a Novelist.

Morrissey defended Frank Parker Day's novel Rockbound in Canada Reads 2005. Rockbound eventually won the competition. In the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, an "all-star" competition pitting the five winning advocates from previous years against each other, Morrissey returned to champion Anosh Irani's novel The Song of Kahunsha.

Bibliography

• Kit's Law
• Downhill Chance
• Sylvanus Now
• What They Wanted
• The Deception of Livvy Higgs
• The Fortunate Brother
• Pluck: A memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Terrible, Amazing Journey to Becoming a Novelist

Filmography

• Clothesline Patch (screenplay)

nominated for Gemini for Best Writing

Awards and recognition

• For Sylvanus Now:
  • Winner of the Thomas Head Raddall Award
  • Atlantic Booksellers Choice Award
  • Short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize
• For Downhill Chance:
  • Winner of the Thomas Head Raddall Award
• For Kit's Law:
  • Winner of the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award
  • Winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
  • Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award
  • Shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award
  • Shortlisted for the Atlantic Provinces Booksellers' Choice Award
  • Shortlisted for the Thomas Head Raddall Award
• For Clothesline Patch:
  • Winner, Best Production, 2002 Gemini Awards

nominated Best Writing

• For The Deception of Livvy Higgs:
  • One Book Nova Scotia selection, 2016

For "The Fortunate Brother":

Winner of the Thomas Head Raddall Award

Winner of Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Book of 2017

External links

• Author page at Penguin Canada
• Donna Morrissey's web page
• Donna Morrissey's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Donna Morrissey at IMDb
• Online interview from CBC Words at Large