Famous Canadian Authors from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut

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Northwest Territories and Nunavut

Rene Fumoleau was born in Vendée, France, on August 6, 1926. He studied to be a priest and came to Canada in 1953. He made his way to the Northwest Territories (Denendeh) and settled in Fort Good Hope (Radeli Koe) after a long boat journey down the Mackenzie River (Dehcho).  

Father Fumoleau quickly became attached to the Dene peoples of the area, loving how generous they were and how they interacted with each other. He supported them in their struggle over land claims. He published As Long as This Land Shall Last about the history of Treaties 8 and 11 that were signed between the Dene peoples and the Government of Canada in the early 1900s.

     In 1988, René began writing about his experiences in the north, putting them in two books of poetry and short stories, Here I Sit, and The Secret. After they were published he did readings and book signing at events and festivals across the land. He was also a prolific photographer taking thousands of pictures over his sixty-six years in the Northwest Territories. His table top books – Denendeh: A Dene Celebration (1984) and Way Down North: Dene Life, Dene Land (2010) – share highlights from his photos showing the people and land of Denendeh. Over 15,000 of his photographs are archived at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

     To add to his accomplishments, Rene Fumoleau was also a filmmaker. His first short film, I Was Born Here came out in 1977 and he partnered with Herb Norwegian, a former Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief, to direct and produce the short film Dene Nation in 1979.

     Father Fumoleau lived in Fort Good Hope from 1953 to 1959, Fort Franklin, 1960 to 1968 then returned to Fort Good Hope for a year. He moved to Yellowknife in 1970 and lived there for the next twenty-four years. In 1994, he moved to Lutsel K’e a small settlement on the beautiful East Arm of Great Slave Lake.

     In his later years Father Rumoleau developed dementia and moved into a dementia facility in Yellowknife. He died on his ninety-third birthday August 6, 2019.

Famous Canadian Author from Manitoba

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Manitoba

Margaret Laurence was born Jean Margaret Wemyss in the small town of Neepawa, Manitoba, on July 18, 1926. He mother died when she was four and her father remarried a year later. Her father and step mother adopted a boy. Unfortunately Margaret’s father died of pneumonia in 1935 so the three of them moved in with her grandfather.

     When Margaret was eighteen she moved to Winnipeg to attend United College, an arts and theology college associated with the University of Manitoba. She quickly had some poems published in the university’s student newspaper, The Manitoban, under the name Steve Lancaster. She said she got the name from the Lancaster bomber, an airplane used during WWII.

     During her first year she joined the English Club, a student organization for writers. She also met with other students who were as enthusiastic about writing as she was at a place called Tony’s in the basement of the United College. She was also the associate editor of Vox, the college’s literary journal. She had more of her works featured in local publications as well. While pursuing her undergraduate studies she had one critical essay, three short stories and eighteen poems published.

     After her graduation Jean Margaret Wemyss married Jack Fergus Laurence, an engineer. Because of Jack’s job they moved to England for a year, then British Somaliland for two and onto the Gold Coast for five years. During this time Margaret grew to love Africa, its peoples, and its land and began recording and translating their folk tales and poetry. A tree for Poverty: Somali Poetry and Prose was published in 1954.

     Margaret and Jack had a daughter in 1952 and a son in 1955. The family moved to Vancouver, B.C. in 1957 where they lived for five years. During this time Margaret’s first novel, This Side Jordan, was published in 1960. This book plus, The Prophet’s Camel Bell (1963) and The Tomorrow Tamer (1963), were all based on her time in Africa. After her return to Canada she wrote The Stone Angel (1964), her best known novel. It is set in Manawaka, a fictional small town in Manitoba. The novel is about a ninety-year-old woman whose story alternates between her memories of the past and her present activities. For years the novel was required reading in many North American schools and colleges.

     Margaret filed for divorce from her husband in 1962 and moved to London, England for a year and then to Penn, Buckinghamshire. During this time she wrote A Jest of God (1966) for which she won a Governor General Award. The couple’s divorce was finalized in 1969 and Margaret returned to Canada to be writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto. After a few years she moved to Lakefield, ON and bought a cabin on the Otonabee River, near Peterborough, ON.

     In 1972 she was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada. While at the cabin she wrote The Diviners which was published in 1974 and which won her, her second Governor General’s Award. On March 3, 1976, Margaret, along with five fellow Canadian writers, founded the Writer’s Trust, a charitable organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers. After completing Heart of a Stranger, a collection of essays, (1977), Margaret began writing children’s stories.

     The National Film Board of Canada filmed a documentary titled Margaret Laurence: First Lady of Manawaka. It aired 1978. She served as Chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough from 1981 to 1983.

     In 1986, Margaret Laurence, one of Canada's most esteemed and beloved authors, was diagnosed with lung cancer. The disease had spread to other organs and there was no treatment offered except palliative care. All her novels were about strong women and rather than put herself and her family through needless suffering, Margaret Laurence took a drug overdose on January 5, 1987. She documented her decision in writing. She was buried in the Neepawa Cemetery, in Neepawa, Manitoba.

     Her novel, The Stone Angel, was made into a feature-length film staring Ellen Burstyn. It premiered in the fall of 2007

     In 2016, Jean Margaret Wemyss Laurence was named a National Historic Person.

Famous Canadian Authors from Saskatchewan

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Saskatchewan

William Ormond (W.O.) Mitchell was born on March 13, 1914 in Weyburn Saskatchewan. His father died when he was seven and he contracted bovine tuberculosis of his wrist when he was twelve. The disease is contagious and it is spread by contact between infected domestic animals, such as cattle, and humans. It can be spread through inhaling infected droplets from coughing or by contact with a wound. He had to withdraw from school and spent his time wandering the open prairie around the town. Through this he became attuned to the beauty, vibrancy, and energy of the land. This would play a major role in this later writing.

     In an effort to cure his TB his family spent the winters from 1927 to 1931 in California and later Florida. They returned to their cottage on White Bear Lake in Saskatchewan each summer. W.O. majored in philosophy at the University of Manitoba, studied journalism and play writing at the University of Washington in Seattle, then spent four years working odd jobs in Alberta. He got his teaching certificate through the University of Alberta and married Merna Hirtle in 1942. He also had two short stories published in Maclean’s and Queen’s Quarterly that same year.

     Mitchell spent the next couple of years as a principal in small town schools then he and his wife moved to High River, just south of Calgary, where he began freelance writing. His first novel Who Has Seen the Wind was published in 1947 and was loosely based on his father’s death. It has been called one of the best Canadian books ever written.

     William moved to Toronto in 1948 and became the fiction editor at Maclean’s. He also began writing his radio series Jake and the Kid for CBC. The series, which ran from 1950 to 1956 had over two hundred episodes and was about a fatherless boy, his mother, and a hired hand who lived on a farm in Saskatchewan. Mitchell adapted the story into a CBC television series in 1961. He also had two very successful plays, The Devil’s Instrument (1962) and Back to Beulah (1974) televised on CBC. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s he wrote many plays that were featured in theatres throughout Saskatchewan.

     By the time the Mitchells moved to Calgary in 1968, W.O. was one of the most recognized authors in Canada. He held readings and book signings across the country. Besides his radio, television and stage plays Mitchell wrote a total of nine books. He spent much of his time putting on workshops for aspiring and established writers. He founded and ran the creative writing program at the Banff Centre from 1974 to 1986.

     William received nine honorary degrees, two Stephen Leacock Awards for humour, a Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Saskatchewan Arts Board, became an officer of the Order of Canada, and was named to the Queen’s Privy Council.

     W.O. Mitchell died in Calgary on February 25, 1998. He is remembered as the author who put the Saskatchewan prairie on the literary map of Canada.