from author, playwright, producer
about the book
honey be is a collection of 32 poems and essays I wrote between 2015 and 2018. The pieces in this collection speak my truth. They explore the experiences of middle-aged women whose families and careers pose an ongoing tug of war. They peek at the humble affection for a little dog. They breathe strength and courage into the #MeToo movement. I hope you find a piece of yourself in this little book.
and, for the kid in you...
Every copy of honey be comes filled with surprises! Each paperback copy is different, imbued with just a bit of love. "Like what?" you might ask. It's a surprise! Perfect as a gift for yourself or for a loved one with a silly side.
With cover artwork by Spare Label.
an excerpt from the book:
That’s her whole garden
that one plant on that slope
The flower is sort of shoulder height
so the lady stands on the city street
pruning with tiny brass scissors.
She has made a rock shrine around her flower
and she waters it
so tenderly
you want to be that little green thing
just to experience that kind of love,
yes, you do.
I have witnessed with my bare eyes that same flower blooming in December (they’re supposed to bloom for 3 weeks in June!) and now I think that lady has faith in her plant
and loves it so dearly
she has faith that it will live long
and
so
it
does,
just for her,
to see her eyes, light up when she sees its buds in November.
​
- lady
on busy Queen Street
who loves one flower
ABOUT ME
Dawna’s Montreal childhood is blue collar roots, opera, bingo, NFB friends, ballet lessons, her soldier father’s PTSD, Hare Krishna community & Pentecostal gospel music. She uses this mixed bag of living to create raw & real work that is hugely successful.
Her first play Containers is chosen as the 2007 Official Selection at the Women’s Work New Play Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Dawna studies her way through The Second City Toronto, Dawna riting a show for 3 actors: Life as a Pomegranate. Without funding, Dawna adapts the fast-paced script into a solo show, quickly picked up by La Muse Venale Theatre Company at The Producer’s Club, NYC, moving on to the 2013 Mid-Town International Theatre Festival, Off Broadway, where Dawna wins Best Actress Award for Life as a Pomegranate. John Chatterton’s Short Play Lab, NYC, picks up Dawna’s next play, Hoody, a twisted re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood.
Dawna writes & stars in a drama of lost mothers and found magic in The Hush Baby, winning People’s Choice Award at 2013 Stratford's SpringWorks Festival. 24 union commercials later, Dawna gets cast in Becky Shaw (Sterling Theatre), Casa Loma’s Dracula: A Love Story & then Annie Sullivan in HelenAnnieAlex: The Helen Keller Story (Brant Theatre), followed by a lead in short film Treatment which brings home Outstanding Achievement Award at the Willifest Film Festival in Brooklyn, NY.
Her play about the ripples of war, Yellow Birds, is chosen for 2015 Alumnae Theatre Fireworks Festival New Play Intensive. A Mickey Full of Mouse opens 2016. Next comes her 1st book- a manual for parents - Faeries Real & Imagined: How to Create Magical Adventures for Very Young Children (available on Amazon). From adapting her unpublished dark fantasy novel A Yarn of Bone & Paper, to writing plays, to acting to producing - now she’s written a new book of words that make sense of living – HONEY BE – sold in 7 countries.