Berni Stapleton is a Newfoundland- Labrador writer and performer of unique distinction. She is a past recipient of the WANL award for best work in non-fiction for her contribution to the book They Let Down Baskets. (Published by Creative Book Publishing and co-created with the esteemed Chris Brookes and Jamie Lewis.) Her short stories and essays have appeared in Riddle Fence and The Newfoundland Quarterly. She is a recent recipient of the Ambassador of Tourism award from Hospitality NL. Berni was the Artistic Director of the Grand Bank Regional Theatre Festival for 11 years on the south coast of Newfoundland and is credited with having built during her years there a flourishing theatre and tourist attraction. She has been a playwright-in- residence with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights' Workshop Montreal, Alberta Theatre Projects, CanStage, PARC and other national companies. Her plays are regularly produced across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and she is currently working on several new works. "Brazil Square" is her homage to the iconic boarding house district of St. John's, NL and will be produced next year for Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company. For Rising Tide Theatre she is writing "The Margaret Duley Story" about the woman some might consider to be the Harper Lee of Newfoundland. "Our Fanny" is inspired by France Cluett, the World War 1 Nurse from Newfoundland who served overseas and is being produced in 2016 by Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador. She is celebrating 25 years as a playwright with the creation of a new one woman show called "The Remarkable Life of Clementine Parsons."