Florence Gibson's stunning Belle is the extraordinary story of two recently freed slaves, husband and wife, journeying to the north in search of a new life. When they encounter a white woman fighting for the suffrage movement, they become entwined in the social upheaval that epitomizes post Civil War America.

Florence Gibson's profile page

Florence was born in Montreal, Quebec and raised in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. She has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and genetics and an M.D. She practised in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Hong Kong and East Africa before returning to Canada to practice and eventually write full-time.Her play Belle was short listed for a British Council New International Playwriting Award in 1996 before its premiere at Factory Theatre, Toronto, in 2000. It was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and won a Chalmers Canadian Play Award. It has also been produced in London, England, Ottawa and New York.Her radio drama Missing You, (Love) aired in September 2001 on CBC and Florence has adapted it for stage production at the Factory Theatre, Toronto, 2008. Missing won the Herman Voaden National Playwriting Award, 2005.Her play, Home is My Road, produced at Factory Theatre, Toronto in 2003, where she is currently writer in residence, won the Carol Bolt Canadian Authors Association National Award for drama, 2004. Her newest hit play i think i can, told through tap dance and choreographed by Shawn Byfield, premiered at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People in April 2007, was nominated for five Dora Mavor Moore Awards and won for Outstanding New Musical.Florence is currently working on How Do I Love Thee?, a play about Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, commissioned by the Stratford Festival of Canada. Florence is completing her novel, Stout, and beginning a new tap piece with Shawn Byfield, Malepygion.