David French
 David French is one of Canada's most popular and critically acclaimed playwrights. Born in Coley's Point, Newfoundland, David's best-loved works include the semi-autobiographical Mercer plays: Salt-Water Moon, 1949, Leaving Home, Of the Fields Lately and Soldier's Heart. This quintet of plays about a Newfoundland family has also touched audiences in Europe, South America, and Australia.
French's other plays include the smash-hit backstage comedy Jitters, the pool-hall drama One Crack Out, the comedy The Riddle of the World, the thriller Silver Dagger, and a translation of Chekhov's The Seagull, which became a Broadway production starring Jon Voight, Laura Linney, and Ethan Hawke.
David French's works have received many major awards, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play for Salt-Water Moon, which was also a finalist for the Governor-General's Award for Drama. French also won the Chalmers Award for Best New Canadian Play for Of the Fields Lately, an award for which he was nominated five times.
In 2001 David French was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. From 2003 to 2004 he was writer-in-residence for the University of Western Ontario. He resides in Toronto and summers in Cable Head, PEI.
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