Mistress of the Blue Castle

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).

"A landmark book, Mistress of the Blue Castle seeks to illuminate the life and writing of a hitherto little-studied poet. The work is a significant contribution to the study of Newfoundland culture." - Mary Dalton, author of Edge and Merrybegot "Hallett sieves through all the balladry, salutations, even Miller's headstone, to sculpt an image of Miller, contextualized by the exchanges with those around her, as well as the momentous events – women's suffrage, two world wars, Confederation – occurring in her time." - Joan Sullivan, The Telegram

• Preface (vii)Acknowledgements (xi)Prologue: Graveside Visitation (xiii)INTRODUCTIONPhebe Florence Miller: A Writing Life (1)Creating the Sea-Glass Window (13)Place, Identity, and Life Writing (14)Writing from the Blue Castle (19)CHAPTER 1 Poetry and Place (27)Voices of the Island (30)Private (Shadowed) Voices (44)Patriotic Voices (49)Miller's Influence (66)CHAPTER 2 The Quotidian Matters: Journals and Diaries of Phebe Florence Miller (71)The Journals (76)The Diaries (85)