Michael Crummey

Michael Crummey is a Canadian novelist and poet, one of the most celebrated writers working in Newfoundland literature. Born in Buchans, Newfoundland, he grew up in several Newfoundland communities before studying at Queen's University and Memorial University. The Adversary (2023), published in Canada and shortlisted for the Giller Prize, and subsequently released internationally, won the Dublin Literary Award in 2025. Set in an isolated outport in eighteenth-century Newfoundland, it follows a merchant and his rival in a struggle that escalates over generations into violence and obsession. Crummey's earlier novels include Galore (2009), which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Dublin Literary Award, and The Innocents (2019), which won the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the International Booker Prize. His poetry collections include Salvage (2002) and Hard Light (1998). Crummey lives in St. John's, Newfoundland. His fiction is marked by its deep knowledge of Newfoundland history, its Gothic sensibility, its dark humor, and its formal command of historical voice. He is considered one of Canada's major literary figures.