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Michelle Porter

Biography

Michelle Porter

Michelle Porter's debut novel, A GRANDMOTHER BEGINS THE STORY, won the 2024 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her previous books include the memoir SCRATCHING RIVER and APPROACHING FIRE, a work of creative nonfiction about her great-grandfather, a fiddler from the Red River, which was shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award. She is the descendent of a long line of Métis storytellers and a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation; she lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, where she teaches creative writing and Métis Literature at Memorial University.

Michelle Porter

Books by Michelle Porter

A Glacier's Guide to Dying
by Michelle Porter - Fiction

Robbie has spent most of his life wondering about his real father, Mike, who long since left their family due to his struggles with visions and mistrust of the modern world. As he rescues his mother from encroaching wildfires, he's determined to also find his father. Robbie takes off to find answers. When his uncle confesses that he last dropped Mike off at a glacier, they climb up the mountain of ice to see if Mike might still be there and if he's still alive. On the slopes of a huge glacier, Robbie starts hearing the ancient voice of the glacier itself giving him guidance. Has he accessed a deep connection to the land, or is he succumbing to the same illness that had wreaked havoc on his father's life? 

A Grandmother Begins the Story
by Michelle Porter - Fiction

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 if he should make a break for it and run for his life.