Background
Michael Winter was born in 1965 in Jarrow, England. His father was an industrial arts teacher, who moved the family to Newfoundland three years later, eventually settling in Corner Brook.
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book
Minister Without Portfolio
(Henry Hayward has been living life the way he's wanted—wo...)
Henry Hayward has been living life the way he's wanted—working hard, playing hard—but when his girlfriend tells him she's leaving, it destroys him. In a quest to recover, he joins an army-affiliated contracting crew that takes him overseas to a Canadian base in Afghanistan. In the company of friends, he begins to mend: having laughs and being rebellious, blithely unaware of all he's left behind. But everything changes during a roadside incursion when a routine patrol turns fatal. And Henry, who survives, knows in his heart that he is responsible. Upon returning home, tormented by guilt, he resolves to take care of the people and places around him: Martha Groves, whose boyfriend was killed in Afghanistan; his friends and neighbours; and a summer home that needs revitalizing. Henry tries his best to seek roots after a rootless life, collecting around himself a "community of a hundred people" for whom he cares deeply and is responsible. But he hasn’t factored in family history and social infidelity—and Martha has a revelation of her own that may change everything. Minister Without Portfolio illuminates the power and violence of self-creation. It asks: To whom are we beholden? Who do we adopt—and who couldn't we live without? It is an emotionally affecting work, filled with truths about the frailties and miracles of human nature, by a writer of exceptional talent.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143187805/?tag=2022091-20
Minister Without Portfolio By Winter, Michael ( Author ) Paperback 2014
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IWJ1SAM/?tag=2022091-20
The Big Why: A Novel
( Michael Winter's powerful new novel, The Big Why, brill...)
Michael Winter's powerful new novel, The Big Why, brilliantly fictionalizes a pivotal year in the life of celebrated American artist Rockwell Kent. In 1914, at the age of thirty, Kent decides to escape the superficial world of New York City and move to Brigus, Newfoundland, with his wife and three children to follow a few months later. A socialist and a philanderer, certain in the greatness of his work, he is drawn north by a fascination for the rocky Atlantic coast and by the example of Brigus's other well-known resident, fabled Arctic explorer Robert Bartlett. But once in Newfoundland, Kent discovers that notoriety is even easier to achieve in a small town than in New York. As events come to a head both internationally and domestically and the war begins, Kent becomes a polarizing figure in this intimate, impoverished community, where everyone knows everyone and any outsider is suspect, possibly even a German spy. Writing in Kent's voice, Michael Winter delivers a passionate, witty, and cerebral exploration of what makes exceptional individuals who they are―and why. Shortlisted for the Trillium Award
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596910259/?tag=2022091-20
This All Happened (Paperback) - Common
(The commodity a fiction writer sells is his own life, his...)
The commodity a fiction writer sells is his own life, his spirit. This is especially true in fiction that draws from autobiography. In Michael Winter's journal-a-clef, This All Happened, we are exposed to the kernel of truth that exists in each day. Told from the viewpoint of Gabriel English, the work opens windows onto a richly textured, fast-paced filmic compilation of daily vignettes over one c
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FFB6EZO/?tag=2022091-20
This All Happened
(Told from the viewpoint of Gabriel English, This All Happ...)
Told from the viewpoint of Gabriel English, This All Happened opens windows onto a richly textured, fast-pacedly filmic compilation of daily vignettes over one calendar year (if Fellini were a Newfoundlander...). Gabriel's passion for Lydia Murphy leads him into paroxysms of jealousy-but he never abandons his shrewdly witty perspective on the vagaries of modern love. Concrete and delicately rendered, This All Happened depicts a man's descent from love to fury.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887846513/?tag=2022091-20
The Death of Donna Whalen
(When Donna Whalen is stabbed thirty-one times in her home...)
When Donna Whalen is stabbed thirty-one times in her home on Empire Avenue in St. John’s, her friends, family, and neighbours believe the culprit to be her abusive boyfriend, Sheldon Troke. But the evidence is circumstantial, the testimonies tainted by personal bias and attempts at deception. Police and prosecutors face a daunting challenge, and the course of justice, with all its intricacies and failings, takes many unpredictable turns before the truth is finally revealed. In this extraordinary novel, Michael Winter has mined the records of Sheldon’s trial—thousands of pages of court transcripts, police wiretaps, newspaper reports, private letters and diary entries—and distilled their raw, naked truth into a mesmerizing work of documentary fiction that captures the myriad voices of the people involved.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143053388/?tag=2022091-20
Michael Winter
Edit ProfileEducation
After high school, Winter attended Memorial University, graduating in 1986 with a Bachelor in economic geography.
Career
Winter’s first short story collection, Creaking in Their Skins, was published in 1994. In 1999, editor John Metcalf at The Porcupine"s Quill published his second book of stories, One Last Good Look. Winter moved to Toronto in 1999, where he published his first two novels: and
Much of Winter’s fiction chronicles the life and adventures of his fictional alter ego, Gabriel English.
This All Happened, for example, is organized as a fictional diary, with 365 entries describing Gabriel’s life in Saint John's, his relationship with filmmaker Lydia Murphy, and the progress of the novel he is trying to write. The Big Why was a historical novel narrated by real-life American artist Rockwell Kent describing the time he spent in Brigus, Newfoundland, in 1914.
Kent was eventually deported from Newfoundland on suspicion of being a German spy. Winter was one of the judges of the 2006 Giller Prize, and his line drawings illustrate Noah Richler"s This is My Country, What"s Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada (2006).
He serialized short teasers for each chapter of his third novel, The Architects are Here (2007), on Facebook.
, his fourth novel, is described by the author as “documentary fiction”. lieutenant uses court documents, transcripts and other material to tell the story of Donna Whalen, a Saint John's woman stabbed to death, possibly by her boyfriend Sheldon Troke. The book is based on the 1993 murder of Brenda Young.
Winter’s sister Kathleen Winter is also a writer
Winter’s novels and short stories have been described as having “a free-flowing, vibrant dialogue, presented without quotation marks. His characters" speech ranges from contemplative and meandering to rapid fire and piercing.” Lynn Coady, reviewing The Death of Donna Whalen, wrote that Winter’s use of documentary material “shows amazing faith in the power of story itself, the sheer ability of raw human character to transfix us.
In stepping back from centre stage and turning the spotlight entirely on this devastating array of intersecting lives and deaths, Winter has enacted some of the most powerful storytelling of his career.”.
Achievements
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2000 Nominee, Rogers Writers" Trust Fiction Prize (for This All Happened) 2000 Winterset Award (for This All Happened) 2004 Short list, Trillium Book Award (for The Big Why) 2004 Short list, Thomas Head Raddall Award (for The Big Why) 2004 Long list, IMPAC Literary Award (for The Big Why) 2007 Short list, Giller Prize (for The Architects are Here) 2008 Writers" Trust Notable Author Award 2010 Shortlist, Rogers Writers" Trust Fiction Prize (for The Death of Donna Whalen) 2013 Longlist, Scotiabank Giller Prize (for Minister Without Portfolio).
Works
book
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This All Happened
(Told from the viewpoint of Gabriel English, This All Happ...)
-
Minister Without Portfolio
(Henry Hayward has been living life the way he's wanted—wo...)
-
The Big Why: A Novel
( Michael Winter's powerful new novel, The Big Why, brill...)
-
The Death of Donna Whalen
(When Donna Whalen is stabbed thirty-one times in her home...)
-
This All Happened (Paperback) - Common
(The commodity a fiction writer sells is his own life, his...)
- Minister Without Portfolio By Winter, Michael ( Author ) Paperback 2014
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This All Happened
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Born
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Nationality
Canada
Awards
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Winterset Award; Scotiabank Giller Prize; Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize; Thomas Head Raddall Award
The Winterset Award is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council to a work judged to be the best book, regardless of genre, published by a writer from Newfoundland and Labrador.; The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries.The Winterset Award is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council to a work judged to be the best book, regardless of genre, published by a writer from Newfoundland and Labrador.; The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries.
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Winterset Award; Scotiabank Giller Prize; Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize; Thomas Head Raddall Award
The Winterset Award is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council to a work judged to be the best book, regardless of genre, published by a writer from Newfoundland and Labrador.; The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries.The Winterset Award is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council to a work judged to be the best book, regardless of genre, published by a writer from Newfoundland and Labrador.; The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries.