Joan Finnigan
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
writer and poet. She won a Genie Award for Best Screenplay in 1969. She wrote over 30 books, many of them oral histories of the Ottawa Valley
Ottawa Valley
The Ottawa Valley is the valley along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec along the Ottawa River. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield...
.
Personal life
Joan Finnigan was born in and raised in OttawaOttawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
. She was the daughter of Frank Finnigan
Frank Finnigan
Francis Arthur Clarence "The Shawville Express" Finnigan was a Canadian ice hockey professional forward who played in the National Hockey League from 1923 to 1937. During this time, he played for the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and St...
, an Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
' hockey legend, and mother Maye Horner, and the sister of Frank Jr, Norma and Ross Finnigan. She was educated at Lisgar Collegiate, Carleton University
Carleton University
Carleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has...
and Queen’s University. Together with her husband, Grant Mackenzie, whom she married in 1949, Finnigan had three children, Jonathan, Roderick and Martha Mackenzie.
MacKenzie died in 1965 and Ms. Finnigan raised the children as a single mother, while supporting the family through her writing. Her daughter Martha recalls as a child falling asleep to the sound of the typewriter at night. Finnigan died in Ottawa on August 12, 2007 at the age of 81. She was survived by her three children and seven grandchildren.
Writing career
After graduating from university, Finnigan began her career as a teacher and reporter for the Ottawa JournalOttawa Journal
The Ottawa Journal was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Ottawa, Ontario from 1885 to 1980.It was founded in 1885 by A. Woodburn as the Ottawa Evening Journal. Its first editor was John Wesley Dafoe who came from the Winnipeg Free Press. In 1886, it was bought by Philip Dansken Ross.The...
. She won the Canadian Genie Award for Best Screenplay in 1969 for the 1968 film The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar
The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar
The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar is a 1968 Canadian dramatic film directed by Peter Pearson and written by Joan Finnigan. The 49 minute drama stars Chris Wiggins and Kate Reid, along with Margot Kidder in her first feature role....
, which starred Margot Kidder
Margot Kidder
Margaret Ruth "Margot" Kidder is a Canadian-born American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Lois Lane in the four Superman movies opposite Christopher Reeve, a role that brought her to widespread recognition....
. The film also won the Canadian Film Award for Film of the Year.
She published over thirty books during her career, half of them inspired by her native Ottawa Valley
Ottawa Valley
The Ottawa Valley is the valley along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec along the Ottawa River. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield...
, including her ground-breaking, best-selling oral histories such as Some of the Stories I Told You Were True, It Was Warm and Sunny When We Set Out, Legacies, Legends & Lies, Tell Me Another Story and Tallying the Tales of the Old-Timers. Her oral histories have won several prestigious regional awards, while her poetry compendia, The Watershed Collection and Wintering Over, were shortlisted for the Pat Lowther and Trillium Awards, respectively. She also authored 14 collections of poetry, radio scripts, newspaper and magazine articles.
Her final oral history "Life along the Opeongo Line" was published in 2004. Finnigan was honored in Ottawa with the declaration of April 16, 2005 as "Joan Finnigan Day" by Ottawa's Mayor Chiarelli. She published her 14th collection of poetry in 2007, "Looking for a Turnout."