Joan Givner
Joan Givner (born in Manchester, England) is an essayist, biographer, and novelist, known for her biographies of women, short stories, and the Ellen Fremendon series of novels for younger readers that was finalist for the Silver Birch Awards, the 2006 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award for "Ellen Fremedon", and the Diamond Willow Awards. Biography. Following a grammar school education, in 1958 Joan obtained a BA (Hons.) from the University of London, and an MA from Washington University, in 1963.and after a period of teaching in the US, her Ph.D in London in 1972, and joined the  English Department of the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, which in 1974 became the autonomous University of Regina, and where she was appointed Professor of English in 1981. She remained on the faculty until she retired in 1995 to settle in British Columbia and take up full-time writing. In 1978-1979 Givner was Fellow of the Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, Harvard University. Givner was editor of the "Wascana Review" the literary journal of the University of Regina from 1984 to 1992, is a jury member for several literary prizes, and a contributor to the "Literary Review of Canada". In  1989 and 1990 she was a Member of the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council adjudication committee, and in 1991, Chair of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council adjudication committee. In 1992 Givner won the CBC fiction competition. In 1958 she married David Givner and has two children. Television. "Katherine Anne Porter: The Eye of Memory" (USA 1986) directed by Ken Harrison, produced by KERA Dallas, and starring Dina Chandel, Eleanor Clark, and Joan Givner as herself.