Beth Powning

1949-

Beth (Davis) Powning (writer, essayist, and photographer) was born and raised in Putnam, Connecticut in 1949. Upon graduating from E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut, she moved to Bronxville, New York to attend St. Lawrence College. It was during her stay at university that she met her future husband, Paul Powning, a sculptor and photographer, whom she married in 1969. She studied creative writing under the mentorship of E.L. Doctorow and graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts. After graduation, she and her husband moved to New Brunswick, where they purchased a small farm near Sussex. She published two anthologies of her nature photography, Roses for Canadian Gardens (1991) and Hardy Trees and Shrubs (1995). Penguin published Seeds of Another Summer in Canada in 1995, and as Home: Chronicle of a North Country Life in America in 1996. Powning's next published work was Shadow Child: An Apprenticeship of Love and Loss (1999).  Following this Powning published The Hatbox Letters (2004), Edge Seasons (2005), The Sea Captain’s Wife (2010) and The Sister's Tale (2021). In 2010 that Powning received the Lieutenant Governor's Award for High Achievement in English-Language Literary Arts from the New Brunswick Arts Board. Powning currently lives outside of Sussex, NB.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Sussex