[2] During her first year at United College, Laurence studied in a liberal arts program which included courses in English, History, Ethics, and Psychology.

Another of Laurence's achievements during her first year of college was being welcomed into the English Club, an organization of senior students who discussed poetry, led by professor Arthur L.

"Tony's", a part-cafeteria, part-coffee shop in the basement of United College, was another important place for Laurence to share her literary interests with colleagues.

During this period Laurence became associated with the Christian socialist movement known as the Social Gospel, which remained important to her for the remainder of her life.

In her senior year of college, Laurence had an increasing number of responsibilities while also continuing to have her own work printed in local publications.

In her reporting, she covered numerous social and political issues; she also wrote a radio column and reviewed books.

[1] The two-year experience of witnessing attempts to drill wells in Somalia's desert, and observing the social lives of both ex-pats and Somalis, would later be documented in her 1963 memoir, The Prophet's Camel Bell.

The family left the Gold Coast before it gained independence as Ghana in 1957, moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, where they stayed for five years.

According to the James King biography, The Life of Margaret Laurence, the prognosis was grave, and as the cancer had spread to other organs, there was no treatment offered beyond palliative care.

She died by suicide at her home at 8 Regent St., Lakefield, on January 5, 1987, by taking a drug overdose, documenting her decision in writing until the time of her death.

One of Canada's most esteemed and beloved authors by the end of her literary career,[5] Laurence began writing short stories in her teenage years while in Neepawa.

Each published fiction in literary periodicals while living in Africa, but Margaret continued to write and expand her range.

They show a strong sense of Christian symbolism and ethical concern for being a white person in a colonial state.

Set in a fictional Manitoba small town named Manawaka, the story is narrated by 90-year-old Hagar Shipley, alternating between her present moments and recollections of her entire life.

The Stone Angel, a feature-length film based on Laurence's novel, written and directed by Kari Skogland and starring Ellen Burstyn, premiered in Fall 2007.