Dear Mr. Smallwood

Drawing on one of Newfoundland and Labrador's richest archival treasures, the letters written to J.R. Smallwood (in the Archives and Special Collections Division, QEII Library, Memorial University), Dear Mr. Smallwood considers the lives and stories of everyday Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as they navigated what was arguably the biggest political transition of their lifetimes: the entry of the former dominion of Newfoundland into confederation with Canada in 1949. With over 30 contributors, this collaborative project brings together archival materials, scholarly essays, autobiographical reflections, and poetic and visual responses to compliment existing narratives about Confederation. Dear Mr. Smallwood is based on extensive archival research; however, our interest does not lie with Confederation as an historical event. Rather, as life writing scholars, we are interested in the relationship between Confederation and life narrative. Drawing specifically on the thousands of letters written to Smallwood between 1948 and 1951, we consider how Newfoundlanders and Labradorians represented themselves and made meaning of their lives; that is, we focus on the stories they told about themselves and this rapidly changing place they called home. As unique expressions of people's hopes, dreams, discontents, and desires, the letters open a window onto Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as political agents. In their letters, these correspondents both articulated their current living situations and imagined their futures, looking for ways to improve their own lives, and those of their communities. Taken together, the letters are a vital – but until now, virtually untapped – source towards imagining a collective political autobiography of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Sonja Boon is an award-winning researcher, writer, teacher, and flutist. Professor of Gender Studies at Memorial University from 2008–2023, Sonja is passionate about stories and storytelling. She has published on a variety of topics, from considerations of gender, embodied identity, and citizenship in eighteenth-century medical letters, to breastfeeding selfies and virtual activism, autobiographies of infanticide, auto/ethnography and the embodiment of maternal grief, and craftivism in the feminist classroom. She is the author or co-author of five books, most recently, The Routledge Introduction Auto/Biography in Canada (with Laurie McNeill, Julie Rak, and Candida Rifkind, 2023). Her literary work appears in ROOM, The Ethnic Aisle, Geist, Riddle Fence, and Pinhole Poetry, among others. Sonja was principal flutist with the Portland Baroque Orchestra (Oregon, USA) for six years, and has also appeared as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician with such organizations as the Toronto Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Holland Festival of Early Music, and Osaka World Expo, among others. Sonja was awarded the Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies by the Royal Society of Canada in 2020, and in 2022 was elected to the Royal Society's College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.

Vicki S. Hallett is Associate Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.  Her work lives at the confluence of postcolonial, feminist, and life-writing studies and she is fascinated by the ways we create ourselves and our places in the world through stories.  She is the author of Mistress of the Blue Castle: The Writing Life of Phebe Florence Miller (ISER Books, 2018), and has contributed to journals such as a/b:Auto/Biography Studies, The Journal of Autoethnography, Acadiensis, and TOPIA.  She is a mother, and a settler Newfoundlander living in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) and Nitassinan, Nunatsiavut, NunatuKavut (Labrador).