About Donna Morrissey, Writer

It was my good fortune to have been born and raised in an outport of 12 houses, and where we were only allowed to talk to six of those. It made for a real small growing up environment, but if you put a bell-jar over that place you’d come to understand every kind of conflict! Simply to say, people are complex, relationships even more so. The wealth of learning evoked in such a small culture (can we say that – a small culture??) will continue to feed me and my writing throughout this life and perhaps others.

“We are of our own making,” my mother always lectured. No doubt. Which is why we all have a unique story to tell. I’ve learned how we all live within myth, and one of the keys to meaningful living – and good writing – is to find that myth playing out within us, or within a character. And then bridge that myth to everyday life. Sometimes while thinking about my story, or that of a character’s, I falter. And should I continue to falter or get too lost within a feeling, I turn to the writings of the greats with the hopes of learning about whatever that feeling was that I got lost in.

Sometimes, I simply turn to my mum who I carry within me, and query such thoughts as, ‘Mom, when you buffs the down off the birds before cooking them – how is it you holds them so gently?’ And as she answers….’So’s not to break the skin, Donna, and sap the oil from the meat.  The bird might be dead, but he’s still your supper…’

I write her words…Most times our greatest teachers are those who walk along the same shores as ourselves.