Colleen Murphy
Colleen Murphy is UNB's 36th writer-in-residence for the Winter term of 2018. She is a playwright, filmmaker, and librettist, born in Rouyn-Neranda, Quebec and raised in Northern Ontario. She was married to the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Allan King until his death in 2009. Her films have appeared in fesitvals across the globe, and herr libretti include My Mouth on Your Heart, composed by August Murphy-King, and Oksana G., composed by Aaron Gervais, which is a critically-acclaimed opera that addresses sex trafficing. The world premiere of Oksana G. was hosted by The Tapesty Opera in 2017.
Murphy's play Pig Girl won the 2016 Governor Gerneral's Literary Award for Drama, as well as the 2014 Carol Bolt Award. Her play The December Man/ l'homme de décembre won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, the CAA/ Carol Bolt Award, and the Enbridge Playwright's Award. Her play The Burninig Heart Cadaver was shortlisted for a 1999 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, and twice she won awards in the CBC Literary Competition for Fire-Engine Red and Pumpkin Eaters.
Previously, she has been playwright-in-residence at Finborough Theatre in London, U.K. (2010-2011), at Factory Theatre and Necessary Angel Theatre in Toronto, and at the University of Regina (2006-2007). She was also the Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University (2010), the writer-in-residence at the University of Guelph (2011), and the Edna Staebler Laurier Writer-in-Residence at Wilfred Laurier University (2014). Before she was the writer-in-residence at the Unviersity of New Brunswick, she completed three years as the Lee Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Alberta.
Colleen Murphy was introduced as the writer-in-residence for the University of New Brunswick on the 28th of February, 2018, at a reading in the Alumni Memorial Building on the Fredericton campus. She additionally did a reading on the Saint John campus at Ganong Hall on March 29th, 2018, as a part of UNBSJ's Lorenzo reading series; she reading from I Hope My Heart Burns First, The Breathing Hole (which premiered at the Stratford Festival in 2017), Pig Girl, Beating Heart Cadaver, and The December Man/ l'homme de décembre. Additionally, she read all over New Brunswick during her time as the writer-in-residence, at places such as Moncton and Sussex.
Colleen Murphy was preceded by Kerry Lee Powell as UNB's writer-in-residence.
Notes:
Source(s):
UA Case 191; Section 2; Colleen Murphy
© UNB Archives & Special Collections, 2014