The Confessions of Nipper Mooney, full of vivid character portraits and written with a playwright's ear for dialogue, is a compelling story that charts an original course through the beauties and horrors of childhood.

Ed Kavanagh grew up in Kilbride, Newfoundland and Labrador, and now lives in Mount Pearl. He received an Honours B.A. in English and a B. Ed from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a B.A. in Music from Carleton University, and an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick. He has worked as a writer, actor, musician, theatre director, university lecturer, and editor. His stories, essays, dramatic scripts, and poetry have earned many awards in the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition. Ed has taught creative writing through the extension services of both Memorial University and the University of New Brunswick. He is a past-president of the Writer’s Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador.

In addition to the Amanda Greenleaf series of children’s books, Ed has also published The Cat’s Meow: The Longside Players Selected Plays 1984-1989 (co-author and editor), and released a recording of his children’s songs: Alison Gross and Other Wickedly Wonderful Songs. In 2001, Killick Press published his first adult novel, The Confessions of Nipper Mooney, which won the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the Winterset Award, and was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His most recent releases are the Celtic harp CDs Weaving the Wind: Music from Newfoundland Performed on Celtic Harp, One Star Awake (both nominated by MusicNL for Best Instrumental Album of the Year), and On Strings of Light: Christmas Melodies Performed on Celtic Harp. An omnibus edition of his children=s stories, Amanda Greenleaf: The Complete Adventures, was published in 2004.

Since the publication of his first book in 1986, Ed Kavanagh has travelled widely, visiting many schools and libraries. As a musician, harper, and writer of children’s songs, he adds variety to his visits with musical selections on guitar and Celtic harp. He has performed extensively throughout Newfoundland and Labrador as well as in Nova Scotia, Ontario, New Brunswick, St. Pierre, New Zealand, and Ireland.

Ed Kavanagh's profile page

• Winner, Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award

Kavanagh taps into the island's richly atmospheric Irish-Catholic culture, using it as raw material for the creation of an evocative poetics of place. [Kavanagh]delivers a straightforward prose punctuated with exquisitely spare descriptive passages and fresh, natural dialogue. The characters are boldly drawn and believable, resonating with a raw authenticity that balances the mythological subtext underlying the story. This layering effects an intoxicating blurring of boundaries between religion and folklore, poetry and prayer, faith and truth.