Biography

Though born in England, Michael Winter has spent most of his life in Newfoundland. While growing up in Corner Brook, Winter dabbled in a diverse cross-section of occupations; he has experience being a paperboy, a trap-shoot operator and a city planner. Ultimately, however, Winter chose writing as his main focus. This decision, indeed, has met with much approval, as he has won a number of awards for his fiction. Nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, his debut novel, This All Happened (2000), won the Winterset Award. Before publishing long fiction, however, Winter released two collections of short stories, Creaking in Their Skins (1994) and One Last Good Look (1999), which was serialized for CBC Radio’s Between the Covers. The latter collection, along with This All Happened, centres on the writer-protagonist Gabriel English and his life in St. John’s. Considering that Winter is a member of the Burning Rock Collective, a St. John’s-based writers’ group that includes the likes of Lisa Moore and Claire Wilkshire, he is well qualified to comment on the flourishing literary scene in St. John’s. Following the publication of This All Happened—a novel that takes the form of a daily diary and is subtitled “A Fictional Memoir”—Winter admitted that his chief protagonist is a loosely-veiled version of himself. Further cementing this suspicion is the fact that Winter’s next novel, The Big Why, is the novel that English was talking about writing in This All Happened. Nominated for the Atlantic Book Awards’ Thomas Raddall Fiction Prize and Ontario’s Trillium Book Award, The Big Why is a historical novel that details the American painter Rockwell Kent’s time in Brigus, Newfoundland. Winter has also become more active as an essayist, teacher and juror. He has published articles in such publications as The Walrus and Brick Magazine and has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts and with the University of Toronto’s Continuing Studies department and the University of New Orleans’ Low Residency M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Winter was one of four jurors for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and in 2008 was awarded the Writers' Trust Notable Author Award for a writer in mid-career based in part on the success of his novel The Architects are Here in the same year. His novel The Death of Donna Whalen (2010) is a documentary fiction based on a murder that occurred in St. John's. Winter has split his time between St. John’s and Toronto.

Bibliography

  • ed. Extremities: Fiction from the Burning Rock. St. John's: Killick Press, 1994.
  • Creaking in their Skins. Kingston: Quarry Press, 1994.
  • One Last Good Look. Erin: Porcupine's Quill, 1999.
  • This All Happened: A Fictional Memoir. Toronto: Anansi, 2000.
  • co-editor. The Journey Prize Stories: From the Best of Canada's New Writers, Vol. 15. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2003.
  • The Big Why: A Novel. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2004.
  • The Architects are Here. Toronto: Viking Canada, 2007.
  • The Death of Donna Whalen. Toronto: Hamish Hamilton, 2010.
  • Minister Without Portfolio. Toronto: Hamish Hamilton, 2013.

    See also:
  • "A Galapagos Wave Strikes Newfoundland." Writing Life: Celebrated Canadian and  International Authors on Writing and Life. Ed. Constance Rooke. Toronto: McClelland, 2006. 405-14.
Selected Overviews
The Big Why
This All Happened

Click on selected overview to read...

Critical Sources

  • Armstrong, Christopher. "The Rock Observed: Art and Surveillance in Michael Winter's This All Happened." Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 25.1 (2010): 37-533.
  • Callahan, Lance. “This all Happened.” The Fiddlehead 208 (2001): 171-3.
  • Dinka, Nicholas. Rev. of The Big Why, by Michael Winter. Quill & Quire 70.9 (2004): 40-1.
  • Goldie, Terry. "The Angel Gabriel." Essays on Canadian Writing 82 (2004): 173-86.
  • Grainger, James. Rev. of This All Happened, by Michael Winter. Quill & Quire 66.5 (2000): 30-1.
  • Hill, Colin. “The Art of Recollection” Canadian Literature 170/171 (2001): 236-8.
  • Hinchcliffe, Peter. "Michael Winter's 'Really Good Bricks.'" New Quarterly: New Directions in Canadian Writing 91 (2004): 68-73.
  • Marshall, Susanne. "Moose Steaks on Styrofoam: Michael Winter Reimagines Newfoundland Wilderness and Identity." Dalhousie Review 90.1 (2010): 77-91.
  • Salem-Wiseman, Lisa. “Restoring the Past Without Veneer.” Rev. of The Big Why, by Michael Winter. Books in Canada 34.2 (2005): 4-5.
  • Smith, Russell. "Double Exposure in Michael Winter's One Last Good Look." New Quarterly: New Directions in Canadian Writing 21.2-3 (2001): 33-43.
  • Percy, Owen. “Melting History: Defrosting Moments Novels by Wayne Johnston, Michael      Winter, and Robert Kroetsch." Studies in Canadian Literature 32.1 (2007): 212-30.
  • Thompson, Peter. "Surveillance and the City in Michael Winter's This All Happened." English Studies in Canada 36.4 (2010): 71-90.
  • Winter, Michael. "The Force of Mystery." Interview with Claire Wilkshire. Writers Talking. Ed. John Metcalf and Claire Wilkshire. Erin, ON: The Porcupine Quill, 2003. 10-26.
  • Wyile, Herb.“This All Was Said: An Interview with Michael Winter.” The Antigonish Review 161       (2010): 117-34.

Videos

Continuity and Gabriel English (10.6mb)
On His English Background (7.8mb)
The Burning Rock Collective (17.1mb)
The Big Why as Historical Novel (11.5mb)
The Architects are Here as Harbinger (6.6mb)