Dan Murphy

Dan Murphy is an educator, author, and poet living in Newfoundland and Labrador. He has co-authored environmental science textbooks and written and co-authored numerous books and curriculum resources in the field of outdoor and environmental education. Dan has worked as an outdoor writer writing extensively about the natural environment and outdoor pursuits. He is the co-author of Canyons, Coves and Coastal Waters: Canoe Routes of Newfoundland and Labrador with Breakwater Press and Sea Kayak Routes of Newfoundland and Labrador with Nimbus. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications, reflecting his longstanding interest in landscape, place, culture, and the natural world.

As a poet, Dan draws on his experiences of Newfoundland and Labrador, his childhood in Northern Ontario, and his lifelong connection to the outdoors. His poetry explores memory, landscape, community, family, and the relationship between people and the places they inhabit. Dan’s poetry has appeared in literary journals, magazines, anthologies, and online publications in Canada, the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. His work has appeared in Quills: Canadian Poetry Magazine, Rabbit Tales, Paragon IV, V, VI, Red River Review, The Tilting Expatriate, Fieldstone Review, The Scaldy Detail, Crannóg, The Newfoundland Quarterly, QWERTY, Juxtaprose Literary Magazine, The Mackinac, Vallum: Contemporary Poetry Magazine, The Dalhousie Review, and A New Ulster, among others.

A collection of his early work was published in Humber Mouths 2 as part of the Rabbit Arts Festival. In 2011, he received a Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Award for Poetry, and in 2016 he was a runner-up in the Sparks Literary Festival Poetry Contest. His poetry has also appeared recently in Poetry from the Rock, published by Engen Books.

Murphy is currently working on four poetry collections: Coal Blue Ocean, Mining Town: Epilogue, Canopy, and I’ve Never Witnessed Blue Like This and will be seeking publication. Mining Town, a chapbook drawn from his work, is forthcoming from Gordon Hill Press and The Porcupine’s Quill in spring 2027.