Helen Weinzweig
Helen Weinzweig | |
|---|---|
| Born | Perla Chuma Tenenbaum May 21, 1915 Zurich, Switzerland |
| Died | February 11, 2010 Toronto, Ontario |
| Occupation | novelist, short stories |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 1960s-1980s |
| Notable works | Basic Black with Pearls, A View from the Roof |
| Spouse | John Weinzweig |
Helen Weinzweig (1915–2010), née Tenenbaum, was a Canadian writer.[1] The author of two novels and a short story collection, her novel Basic Black with Pearls won the Toronto Book Award in 1981, and her short story collection A View from the Roof was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction in 1989.[1]
Born in Switzerland in 1915 to parents hailing from near Radom, Poland, she emigrated to Canada at age nine with her mother,[1] and married composer John Weinzweig on July 12, 1940.[2] She published her first short story, "Surprise!", in Canadian Forum in 1967,[1] and her debut novel Passing Ceremony was published in 1973.[1] She came to be regarded as one of Canada's first important feminist writers.[1] Her style was marked by experimental forms with some aspects of metafiction; in her short story "Journey to Porquis", a writer on a train trip realizes that all of his fellow passengers are characters in his novel.[1]
Weinzweig also wrote and produced a one-act play, My Mother's Luck,[3] and several of her short stories in A View from the Roof were adapted for stage and CBC Radio broadcast by playwright Dave Carley.[3]
Weinzweig died in 2010, aged 94.[1]
Works
[edit]- Passing Ceremony (1973)
- Basic Black with Pearls (1981)
- in German, transl. Brigitte Jakobeit: Schwarzes Kleid mit Perlen. Wagenbach, Berlin 2019
- My mother's luck (1983)
- A View from the Roof (1989)
- Nero e perle (1994)
Archive
[edit]Helen Weinzweig papers, Coll. 1945–2003 at the library, University of Toronto
External links
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References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h "Helen Weinzweig, Toronto author of surreal fiction, dead at age 94". The Globe and Mail, February 16, 2010.
- ^ John Beckwith; Brian Cherney. "A Self-Made Composer". Weinzweig Essays on His life and Music. p. 9.
- ^ a b "Helen Weinzweig (1915 - 2010)". Playwrights Guild of Canada, April 1, 2010.
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
- 1915 births
- 2010 deaths
- Canadian women novelists
- Canadian women dramatists and playwrights
- Writers from Toronto
- 20th-century Canadian novelists
- 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- Jewish Canadian writers
- Polish emigrants to Canada
- Canadian feminist writers
- Canadian women short story writers
- 20th-century Canadian women writers
- 20th-century Canadian short story writers