Michelle Porter
Michelle Porter (she/her) is a writer and scholar from the Métis homeland and living in Newfoundland and Labrador. She is a descendent of the Métis Goulet family from the Manitoba Red River, and the author of the memoirs Approaching Fire and Scratching River. A Grandmother Begins the Story is her first novel. Her first book of poetry, Inquiries, was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry, Canada 2019. She teaches creative writing at Memorial University in Newfoundland.
Award-winning author Michelle Porter makes her fiction debut with an enchanting and original story of the unrivaled desire for healing and the power of familial bonds across five generations of Métis women and the land and bison that surround them.
This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of vividly realized, funny, wise, confused, struggling characters—including descendants of the bison that once freely roamed the land—heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction.
My writing desk overlooks Circular Road in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Love sitting here.
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo. Tells the story of the fall of an oppressive regime in which all the people are dogs or horses. This book takes you places no other book has.
My grandmother. Her bravery, resilience and her beautiful sense of humour.
I come from a long line of Métis musicians and fiddlers and this music shapes the stories I tell.
I would love to write a science fiction novel as an opportunity to play with a world removed from the real world and I’d also like to write a murder mystery to play within the gritty boundaries of the real world.
I’m a Virgo through and through. That means I overthink things and I have a perfectionist streak, both of which come in handy while writing, but are less useful in other areas of my life!
The Circle by Katherena Vermette.
Can I have more than one superpower? I’d let a spider bite me, or fall into a vat of nuclear waste for super strength and the ability to fly!
Carter is a young mother on a quest to find the true meaning of her heritage, which she only learned of in her teens. Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her get to her ancestors in the afterlife. And Geneviève is determined to conquer her demons—before the fire inside burns her up—with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Meanwhile, Mamé, in the afterlife, knows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to cut herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the living, just as they must find their own paths forward. And a young bison wants to understand why he keeps being moved and whether he should make a break for it and run for his life.
This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of vividly realized, wise, confused, struggling characters attempting to make sense of this life and the next, heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction.