My desk offers a still life. I imagine it as a montage that Braque might paint, or maybe Picasso in one of his more sensitive periods. Every object is significant if it's read within its full context. There is no meaning without context. The ornamentation of my desk pulls me back to consider how I came to this point in my life, to this point in my art. Let me draw you a picture.
- excerpt from 'Rappings' in NAMING THE SHADOWS
Stories by Sharon Berg (The Porcupine's Quill, 2019)
I invite you to visit my world.
I was born in Ontario, Canada, to an Irish and English mom and a full-blooded Swedish father. I moved to the east coast of Newfoundland in December 2020. I now live in a tiny community of about 205 people in the middle of Terra Nova National Park. This territory previously was inhabited by the Beothuk and Mi'kmaq peoples. My daily views are spectacular and ever-changing, as I perch on a small hill overlooking Clode Sound (Bonavista Bay). And yes, I do invite you to visit my Writer's Retreat (see the page for my Oceanview Writers Retreat.) I have the perfect writing environment and I want to share it.
Above is a section of Newfoundland, showing you where Charlottetown is. The green surrounding it is Terra Nova National Park, the most easterly of Canada's national parks. I live on a hill overlooking Clode Sound and I can actually do whale watching from my living room couch!
Get To Know Me
I am a Canadian author working in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. My poetry and stories have appeared in periodicals across Canada, in the USA, Mexico, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, India, Singapore, and Australia. I was Poetry Reviews Editor for Artisanal Writer, an online journal focused on Canadian authors for 19 months. Later, I published interviews in Event, Freefall, The Miramichi Reader, and The tEmz Review (where I continue to make regulat contributions). I also write articles as well as traditional book reviews for a variety of periodicals.
My third poetry book, Stars in the Junkyard (Cyberwit, 2020), was a Finalist in the 2022 International Book Awards. I also won 2nd Place in the 2016 GritLit Poetry Contest. My cross genre history, The Name Unspoken: Wandering Spirit Survival School (Big Pond Rumour Press, 2019), won a 2020 IPPY Award for Regional Nonfiction. My debut collection of short fiction, Naming the Shadows (Porcupine's Quill, 2019) was also well received, as were my two early poetry books. The Body Labyrinth (1984) was published by Coach House Books and To A Young Horse (1979) was released by Borealis Books.
In 2006 I founded Big Pond Rumours as an international literary E-Zine. It featured poetry, stories, articles and book reviews, and it ran contests in every issue judged by independent judges. The prizes were 30/100 copies of a chapbook by the winning author, published by Big Pond Rumours Press.
I grew up in Ontario, Canada and I currently live in Charlottetown, NL, Canada in the middle of Terra Nova National Park where I run Oceanview Writers Retreat, established in the summer of 2022. (Look for the pages devoted to my Retreat on this website!)
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The map (above) shows Terra Nova National Park in bright green. The yellow patch on the right side, surrounded by green, shows where Charlottetown is located. There are 11 trails or site-seeing spots of varying difficulty in the park.
