Helen Weinzweig (1915–2010), née Tenenbaum, was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

writer."Helen Weinzweig, Toronto author of surreal fiction, dead at age 94"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', February 16, 2010. The author of two novels and a short story collection, her novel ''Basic Black with Pearls'' won the

Toronto Book Award The Toronto Book Awards are Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city ...

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. Born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in 1915, she emigrated to Canada at age nine with her mother, and married composer John Weinzweig on July 12, 1940. She published her first short story, "Surprise!", in '' Canadian Forum'' in 1967, and her debut novel ''Passing Ceremony'' was published in 1973. She came to be regarded as one of Canada's first important

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

writers. Her style was marked by experimental forms with some aspects of

metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

; 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. Weinzweig also wrote and produced a one-act play, ''My Mother's Luck'',"Helen Weinzweig (1915 - 2010)"
Playwrights Guild of Canada, April 1, 2010. and several of her short stories in ''A View from the Roof'' were adapted for stage and

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

broadcast by playwright

Dave Carley Dave Carley is a Canadian playwright who has written for stage, radio and television. His plays have had over 450 productions across Canada and the United States, and in other countries. They have won, or been nominated for, a number of awards, i ...

. Weinzweig died in 2010, aged 94.

Works

* ''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)

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinzweig, Helen 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

Works

Archive

External links

References