Joan Barfoot

Isla Duncan (University of Chichester)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

Born 17 May 1946
Activity 1966-ongoing

Places

Born in Canada
Active in Canada

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Barfoot's Works

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Joan Barfoot was born in 1946 on Owen Sound, a small city on the northern shores of Lake Huron, in Ontario, Canada. After graduating in 1969 with a degree in English from the University of Western Ontario, she worked for various local and national newspapers before establishing her career as a writer, in the early 80s. Until a few years ago, Barfoot wrote weekly current affairs columns for the

London Free Press

(London, Ontario) and taught both journalisms and creative writing classes at her old university. Her first novel,

Abra

(1978), published in Britain and USA as

Gaining Ground

(1980), won the

Books in Canada

First Novel Award; her second novel,

Dancing in the Dark

(1982) was made into a successful film and screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986.

Barfoot is, in 2008, the author

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1683 words

Citation: Duncan, Isla . "Joan Barfoot". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 April 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5312, accessed 23 November 2024.]