Don Hannah
Categories: Male Authors - Anglophone Authors - Novelists - Dramatists - Acadian Coast
Source: Michael Holly
Biography
I was born in the Old Moncton Hospital and raised in Shediac; I went to school at Shediac Central and then to King George and Moncton High schools. I studied Fine Arts and English at Mt A. then, after a few years in PEI, came to Toronto to go to York.
My first plays were produced at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto where I was writer in residence. I’ve also been in residence at Canadian Stage Theatre, the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, and for the Yukon Public Library system. Most recently, I was the Lee Playwright in Residence at the University of Alberta.
Facing South, my opera, with composer Linda Catlin Smith, premiered at the 2003 World Stage Festival. For five years I was the director of the Tarragon Young Playwrights Unit. As a dramaturge, I’ve worked at the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC), the National Theatre School, Vancouver’s Playwrights Theatre Centre, and the Banff Playwrights Colony. In the fall of 2008, I directed my play There is a Land of Pure Delight at Live Bait Theatre in Sackville. I’m currently working on a pair of one person shows and a novel.
How has New Brunswick influenced your work?
A lot of what I write has its roots in my past and in my childhood, and so New Brunswick surfaces a lot in my writing. There are plays like In the Lobster Capital of the World that are set in NB and plays like Rubber Dolly and Fathers and Sons with characters who come from NB. There is a Land of Pure Delight was set in south eastern NB at the turn of the 19th century. Both of my novels, The Wise and Foolish Virgins and Ragged Islands have strong ties to the province. I do write a lot about the geography of the east coast, which I love very much, and so there are descriptions in my books of places like the Bouctouche Dune, Albert County, and the Tantramar Marsh.
What is your favourite New Brunswick book, and why?
The book from New Brunswick that really knocked my socks off was David Adams Richards’ Road to the Stilt House.
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Literary Prizes |
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| Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award - 2008 | In recognition of: Ragged Islands |
| AT&T OnStage Award - 1998 | In recognition of: The Wooden Hill |
| Nomination - Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award | In recognition of: The Wise and Foolish Virgins |
| Nomination - Dora Mavor Moore Award |
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Featured Publication |
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Ragged Island (2007) |
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Find this author in the New Brunswick public libraries catalogue.
Source(s): Author.
