Helen Fogwill Porter

Helen Fogwill Porter CM (born May 8, 1930) is a Canadian author and activist.

Early life

Porter was born on May 8, 1930, on the Southside of St. John’s, Newfoundland. She is the eldest child of Robert (Bob) Fogwill, who worked in the Newfoundland Railway freight office, and Evelyn Horwood.^[1] She grew up on the Southside of town and was educated at Holloway School and Prince of Wales College, St. John’s. As a teenager she petitioned for Confederation Following her graduation and a business course from Prince of Wales College, she worked as a shorthand typist with the Department of Justice.

Porter began writing in 1962, but not until 1973 did she devote her full-time to writing.^[2] In 1953 she married John Porter; the couple had four children: Kathy, Ann, John, and Stephen.^[3] They lived in Corner Brook and Fortune before returning to St. John's. John Porter died in 1983; John Porter Jr. died in 2016.

When their youngest child entered high school Porter started work at the A. C. Hunter Library. She was introduced to the writing of Margaret Duley, and met other aspiring writers.

Porter is a member of the Writers Union of Canada (and has been given a rare lifetime membership), and served on the boards of PEN and the Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador (WANL).^[4] She still resides in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Writing career

Porter first became serious about writing in 1962.^[5] In 1963 she began having articles, reviews, short stories and poetry published in a variety of magazines; some of these being Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Star Weekly and Saturday Night. Her works were then further published in the Quill and Quire, Fiddlehead, the Antigonish Review and the Journal of Canadian Fiction.^[2] At the beginning of her writing life Porter based most of her stories out of England, Scotland or the U.S. because she believed that nobody would be interested in reading about stories based in Newfoundland.^[6] By 1973, Porter’s short stories, articles, poems, plays and reviews were published throughout Canada and abroad. In the year 1977 she collaborated with Bernice Morgan and Geraldine Rubia on writing "From this Place", an anthology from women writers of Newfoundland and Labrador.^[5] Porter’s Below the Bridge was published in 1979 which was a story about her childhood growing up on the south side of St. John’s.^[6] Her first novel, January, February, June or July (1988), was followed by A Long and Lonely Ride (1991) and Finishing School (2007), as well as her memoir Below the Bridge (1980). Her most recent publication is the poetry collection Full Circle. Helen was also a founding member of the Newfoundland Writer’s Guild.^[5] As part of that group she helped bring Metroverse, a Canada Council initiative placing poetry on city buses, to St. John's.

Volunteering and employment

Porter taught creative writing with Memorial University Extension Arts from 1976-1990 and with the division of Continuing Studies from 1991.^[1] Porter gave a great deal of time to numerous voluntary agencies and associations, and worked with the Visiting Artists' Program of the Newfoundland Teachers' Association. Working with the Visiting Artists' Program involved spending several weeks each year visiting schools in Newfoundland where she hoped to impart to school children a sense of their own literature. Porter was highly involved with the "Metro Verse" project. This was a project that put pieces of poetry on the inside of metro public transit buses to give people something to read rather than just commercial advertisements. This project lead her to get involved with a similar one in Alberta called "Take the Poetry Route" that put pieces of poetry inside buses in Edmonton, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, and Medicine Hat.^[6]

Political life

Porter has a passion for equality. Her feminism led her to the women's movement in the early 1970s.^[2] As well, she is a founding member of the Newfoundland Status of Women Council. In the decade between 1975 and 1985, Porter ran for election as a New Democratic Party representative four times. She ran in the riding of Mount Pearl, a suburb of St. John's, Newfoundland. Her goals were to get the economy back on track and to gain equality for women.^[1] Porter has been described as "an outstanding candidate with an enormous commitment to her community". Her audience also stated that: "Helen Porter will fight for real change for the benefit of all Newfoundlanders." In 2003 The Helen Porter Fund was established to help women NDP candidates. She has marched for causes and protested events from the Vietnam War to a Metrobus strike to St. John's heritage preservation.

Mental Health Reform

Porter has been outspoken about her struggles with depression. "When you're in a depression it is impossible to imagine it will ever end," she told her friend and fellow author Bernice Morgan in an interview in 2011. "My depression is not related to events in my life. I think, at least in part, I inherited it from my father." Though she suffered from this since childhood, she was not diagnosed until she was 51. Her honesty is part of her advocacy this, yet another. social issue. "Oh, I don't derive any credit for that," she told Morgan. "It's just the way I was born, the same way my father was born. Some people see colours, some don't. I see every bit of suffering and injustice. It's not a nice way to be and I don't enjoy it – but I do see it and I can't ignore it."

Awards

Porter received numerous awards during her years of writing. At least fifteen of her works were honored with awards in the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competitions throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including Bus Ride, a conversation between two women coming home from bingo; this later became a radio play broadcast on CBC Radio as well as a one act play performed at a festival on the upper concourse of the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre. Her first novel, "January, February, June or July" published in 1988, won the Young Adult Canadian Book Award from the Canadian Library Association in 1989,^[1] and was short-listed for Books in Canada W. H. Smith Best First Novel Award. Porter also received the year’s lifetime achievement award for her length of time as a leading figure in the Guild. She said that the award honored the Guild as much as it did herself. Memorial University granted her an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 1997. Porter also received the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993.^[7] She was awarded the Order of Canada with the grade of member in December 2015.^[8] That same year a footbridge spanning the Waterford River was dedicated to her.

The Helen Fogwill Porter Fund

In March 2003, the New Democratic Party of Newfoundland and Labrador launched a fund in the name of Helen Porter. The fund aids women who are seeking to run as an NDP representative. The fund assists women at the provincial level in general and by elections. The financial assistance provides child care, campaign costs and household assistance. The Helen Fogwill Porter Fund will also support conferences where female candidates can meet with each other. At these conferences, the candidates may exchange their own ideas with each other and offer support. Nancy Riche stated, "The province needs more women in the legislature. If Helen had won in one of the elections in which she ran, she would have made more than a difference. She would have changed the political landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador." ^[9]

Works

References

External links

• Helen Porter at Library of Congress Authorities, with 2 catalogue records