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.

Source

Sketchley, Andrew. "Beth Powning." New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia, Winter 2012. Accessed 24 April 2023.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Sussex

Headshot of Beth Powning
Picture Caption

Beth Powning 

Credit

National Post, via https://nble.lib.unb.ca/browse/p/beth-powninghttps://nble.lib.unb.ca/browse/p/beth-powning.  Accessed 24 April 2023.

See the New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia entry.

Bibliography Items

Displaying 1 - 7 of 7
Powning, Beth. Seeds of another summer : finding the spirit of home in nature. Toronto, ON: Penguin Studio, 1996, 115 pp. [ book ]

Powning, Beth. Shadow child : an apprenticeship in love and loss. Toronto, ON: Viking, 1999, 308 pp. [ book ]

Powning, Beth. The hatbox letters : a novel. Toronto, ON: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2004, 352 pp. [ book ]

Powning, Beth. Edge seasons : a memoir. Toronto, ON: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2005, 232 pp. [ book ]

Powning, Beth. The sea captain's wife. New York, NY: Plume, 2011, 374 pp. [ book ]

Powning, Beth. A measure of light : a novel. Toronto, ON: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2015, 323 pp. [ book ]

Powning, Beth. The sister's tale : a novel. Toronto, ON: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2021, 312 pp. [ book ]