Michelle Berry


Michelle Berry is a Canadian author of three books of short story collection as well as six novels . In October 2016, she opened The Hunter Street Bookstore in Peterborough, Ontario. Berry closed the bricks-and-mortar store in June 2020, in part because of the pandemic, but rents space in Meta4 Contemporary Craft Gallery and continues to operate an online ordering service.

Personal life and education

Berry was born May 19, 1968 in San Francisco to Edward and Margaret Berry. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1986 and later received a Master of Arts from the University of Guelph.
Berry married Stuart Baird in 1990 and has two daughters, Abigail Berry and Zoe Baird.

Career

Berry published her first book, How to Get There from Here, in 1997 and has since published many more.
In addition to writing her own books, Berry reviewed books with The Globe and Mail for many years.
In October 2016, she opened The Hunter Street Bookstore in Peterborough, Ontario. She closed the bricks-and-mortar store in June 2020, in part because of the pandemic, but rents space in the Meta4 Contemporary Craft Gallery and continues to operate an online ordering service.
Berry teaches at the University of Toronto and mentors at Humber College.

Critical reception

''This Book Will Not Save Your Life'' (2011)

The Globe and Mail reviewed Berry's 2011 novel This Book Will Not Save Your Life favorably, with reviewer Moira Dann calling it a "a well-executed story that goes from quirky to murky, while keeping the reader wondering what's going to happen next...The story is well-paced and the characters are unforgettable."

''Interference'' (2014)

Berry's 2014 novel Interference received mixed reviews. Writing in the National Post, Emily M. Keeler said, "Berry's better than most at weaving in and out of the perspectives of so many characters without losing steam; she manages her cast with considerable skill, and her approach makes it all the more enjoyable to piece together the goings on in fictional Parkville. Interference is like a short drive through a strange suburb, that rich domain of beautiful, frustrated youth and workaday adulthood; Berry's Parkville is a place many Canadians will recognize, but altered just slightly enough through her comic noir lens to let a little of the wit, and the fear, bleed out of the novel and into your head." By contrast in The Globe and Mail, reviewer Emily Donaldson suggested "Berry's characters are so thinly developed it's difficult to imagine them stripped of their banal problems."

''The Prisoner and the Chaplain'' (2017)

Berry's sixth novel, The Prisoner and the Chaplain, was published in September 2017. "The terror and disgust she works up in the novel's closing passages have staying power beyond the contrivances of its plot," asserts a review in Quill & Quire.

Awards and honours

Berry received grants from the Ontario Arts Council in 1995, 1999, and 2000, as well as a grant from Canada Council in 1998.
YearTitleAwardResultRef.
2010This Book Will Not Save Your LifeColophon AwardWinner
2011I Still Don’t Even Know YouMary Scorer Award for Best Book Published by a Manitoba PublisherWinner
2011I Still Don’t Even Know YouReLit Award for Short FictionShortlist
2018ReLit Award for NovelShortlist

Publications

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