Writer
Writing is Sharon’s first love. She published her first poem in the community newspaper kids’ section before she was 10, then cultivated her literary curiosity in fiction and poetry through her teenage years and into early adulthood, when her focus on theatre prompted her to make the jump to writing plays. She has had five plays produced since 2008, most recently Melody and the Fishes, which toured Newfoundland schools in 2024. She also has two plays in development and looks forward to seeing them on stage in the next few years. Judith Thompson called her script Factory Girls “a brilliant piece of feminist drama.” Since 2016, Sharon has also been working as a dramaturge, supporting other creators with their works in development.
After a long hiatus, Sharon returned to writing for the page while working toward her MA English. Since 2018, her non-fiction and poetry have appeared in Riddle Fence, her non-fiction has appeared in WORD and NLS, and her first collection of poetry, This Is How It Is, was published by Breakwater Books. Sharon was long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2020 and is a four-time winner of the Arts & Letters Awards in fiction, dramatic script, and poetry.
Her script, Dayboil, premiered at the Ship’s Company Theatre in Nova Scotia in 2022. That production was the most decorated work at the 2023 Robert Merritt Awards, winning 6 of the 10 categories in which it was nominated, including Outstanding Production. The script was published by Breakwater in 2024, and shortly thereafter was 2nd runner up in the inaugural Jenny Munday Atlantic Play Award competition.
Praise for Dayboil
The dialogue is a good, streamlined mixture of cliché – which can convey so much with its placement and intention – and direct verbal thrusts by one who knows her target’s vulnerabilities intimately. […] The dialogue is nicely calibrated, interspersed with telling beats, and realistically occasionally overlapping. […] All the gestures are telling: who wipes down the counter, and how efficiently, and why; who does or doesn’t top up someone’s coffee; even how someone takes the lid off a pot of chili. […] There are also moments of real, “earned,” humour and connection. And there is resolution, but enfolded within this is the acknowledgement that some human events are difficult to resolve.
Joan Sullivan, Saltwire
Praise for This Is How It Is
“From the first line of Sharon King-Campbell’s This Is How It Is, I felt immediately comforted. Not because these poems are warm and fuzzy – though some of them certainly are! – but because these are poems that are unapologetically Atlantic Canadian. Even though King-Campbell’s collection traverses the world, it is centred with these roots in Atlantic Canada.”
—Alison Manley, The Miramichi Reader
“This is a book about journey, touching on different kinds of travel. Across the globe, through perspective, and into the past. The words have traction, trekking in various realms, where King-Campbell guides us through how it is.”
—Joan Sullivan, The Telegram
“Sharon King-Campbell writes with such apparent ease. […] Her poetry catches the imagination, catches my breath, and catches pieces of life spanning from Newfoundland, to Thailand, to New Zealand and back again. […] I have found a new favourite poet.”
—more.books.than.days
“Sharon King-Campbell’s use of language is exquisite! […] pure lyrical inventiveness.”
—bookalong
“Evocative and introspective, a perfect summer read for fellow poetry-lovers.”
—saltpagesnl