Helen Fogwill Porter

Agnes Helen Fogwill Porter (May 8, 1930 – February 16, 2023) was a Canadian writer, educator, and activist. Porter attended the Holloway School and Prince of Wales College in St. John's. As a teenager, Porter was part of the petition drive for confederation between Newfoundland and Canada. Following her graduation, she worked as a shorthand typist with the Department of Justice.

In 1953, she married John Porter. The couple had four children: Kathy, Ann, John, and Stephen. The family lived in Corner Brook and Fortune, Newfoundland and Labrador 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.

Writing career One of Porter's first-published poems appeared in 1943, but she became serious about writing in 1962. In 1963, she began having articles, reviews, short stories and poetry published in Maclean's, Chatelaine, Star Weekly and Saturday Night. Her works were then further published in the Quill & Quire, The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review and the Journal of Canadian Fiction. At the beginning of her writing career, Porter based most of her stories out of England, Scotland, or the United States because she believed that nobody was interested in stories about Newfoundland.

It was not until 1973 that she devoted her full-time to writing. Porter said,One experience that I never had again is the one I had with writing Below the Bridge because that is probably the book that I most wanted to write. It's a memoir history about growing up on the South Side of St. John's in the 1930s and 1940s. That was a book I had to write. Porter's first novel, January, February, June or July (1988), took on the then-taboo subject of abortion. This was followed by A Long and Lonely Ride (1991) and Finishing School (2007). Her most recent publication is the poetry collection Full Circle. Porter's work has been said to construct narratives "that focus on commonplace events in order to examine the motivations, material conditions, constraints and desires that inform women's actions and responses in apparently non-dramatic situations."

Porter was a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada (of which she has been given a lifetime membership), and served on the boards of PEN and the Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador (WANL). Porter taught creative writing with Memorial University Extension Arts from 1976-1990 and with the division of Continuing Studies from 1991. Porter was also a founding member of the Newfoundland Writer's Guild. Memorial University of Newfoundland granted her an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 1997. She was appointed Member of the Order of Canada (CM)) in December 2015. It was presented during a special ceremony in St. John's. That same year a footbridge spanning the Waterford River was dedicated to her.

The Helen Fogwill Porter Fund In March 2003, the Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party launched a fund in Porter's name. 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 also support conferences where female candidates can meet with each other. 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."

Works

Articles

People I Should Like to Meet (1945) Growing Up on the South Side. The Atlantic Advocate (September 1965): 35-39. But Where Is Everything? (1975) To rearrange the past. Books in Canada 23:1 (1994): 21-23. The Road Taken (2000) My History Lessons (2000) It would have been our 47th anniversary. National Post (2000-10-18) OK, so my meals weren't exactly gourmet. National Post (2002-07-08)

Books From this Place - with Bernice Morgan and Geraldine Rubia (1977; ) Below the Bridge (1980; ) January, February, June or July (1988; ) A Long and Lonely Ride (1991; ) We Came From Over the Sea, British War Brides in Newfoundland - with Barbara B. Barrett C.M., Eileen Dicks, Isobel Brown, Hilda Chaulk Murray (1996) Finishing School (2007; )

Poems The Business of Getting Up (1943) She's Over Eighty, You Know (1950) They Do It Every Summer (1954) The Children Are Gone (1979) Moratorium (1999) To My Son Sunday Best (1992) Food for Thought (1996) Gwenda (1999) Full Circle (2018; )

Plays and short stories Teen-Age Tragedy (1946) For Every Man an Island (1982; ) The Five- Dollar Bet (1969) Moving Day Hot Night In July (1991)