Maggie Helwig (born 1961) is a Canadian poet, novelist, social justice activist, and

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

priest.

Academic career

Her early education was at

Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI) was a secondary school in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1792 by Reverend John Stuart based upon a grant for secondary education in the colony of Upper Canada, it moved to its location at ...

in Kingston,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, graduating in 1979, then at

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, Ontario, where she graduated with honours with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1983. After reading for a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and divi ...

degree and serving as co-Head of Divinity at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, Toronto, she was ordained to the transitional

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

in the

Anglican Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC or ACoC) is the Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is ''l'Église anglicane du Canada''. In 2017, the Anglican Church co ...

at St. Paul's, Bloor Street, Toronto on 1 May 2011, and subsequently to the priesthood on 22 January 2012. On 27 November 2021, she was appointed an honorary Canon of St James' Cathedral, Toronto.

Bibliography

Helwig's second novel, ''Between Mountains'', is a love story about a London-based Canadian journalist and a Serbian Albanian interpreter from Paris that endures the hardships that occurred during the war. The novel juxtaposes love and war within the characters while bringing about justice and truth. Her third novel, ''Girls Fall Down'', 2008, was shortlisted for the 2009

Toronto Book Awards 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 ...

. Jason McBride, writing in ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eatin ...

'', described it as being "smart, suspenseful and compassionate." Finally, in a book review by

Greg Doran Gregory Doran (born 24 November 1958) is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. ''The Sunday Times'' called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'. Doran was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (R ...

, the novel is described as the narrator having a significant relationship with the "urban environment and the human spirit." She has also co-edited many anthologies of Canadian fiction and poetry, with collaborators including

Bronwen Wallace Bronwen Wallace (26 May 1945 – 25 August 1989) was a Canadian poet and short story writer. Life and career Wallace was born in Kingston, Ontario. She attended Queen's University, Kingston (B.A. 1967, M.A. 1969). In 1970, she moved to Windsor, ...

, Douglas Glover,

Mark Anthony Jarman Mark Anthony Jarman (born 11 June 1955 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian fiction writer. Jarman's work includes the novel ''Salvage King, Ya!'', the short story collection ''Knife Party at the Hotel Europa'' and the travel book ''Ireland's Eye. ...

and her father,

David Helwig David Helwig (April 5, 1938 – October 16, 2018) was a Canadian editor, essayist, memoirist, novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. Life and career Helwig was born in Toronto, Ontario, where he spent his early childhood years. When h ...

Activism

Helwig has been involved in social activist groups such as TAPOL, the East Timor Alert Network, and the International Federation for East Timor which campaigned against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. She has also worked with the

Women in Black Women in Black ( he, נשים בשחור, ''Nashim BeShahor'') is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the Fi ...

network, particularly during the

Balkan wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

of the 1990s. She was also a well known advocate for Toronto's branch of the

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest Social movement, movement against economic inequality and the Campaign finance, influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial District, Manhattan, Wall S ...

movement, and was one of three clergy from different denominations ticketed for setting up a chapel at the Occupy Toronto "re-occupation" camp on May 1, 2012.

Works

Poetry

* ''Walking Through Fire'', 1981 * ''Tongues of Men and Angels'', 1985 * ''Eden'', 1987 * ''Because the Gunman'', 1987 * ''Talking Prophet Blues'', 1989 * ''Graffiti for J.J. Harper'', 1991 * ''Eating Glass'', 1994 * ''The City on Wednesday'', 1996 * ''One Building In the Earth: New and Selected Poems'', 2002

Fiction

* ''Gravity Lets You Down'', 1997 (

short fiction A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

) * ''Where She Was Standing'', 2001 * ''Between Mountains'', 2004 * ''Girls Fall Down'', 2008

Essays

* ''Apocalypse Jazz'', 1993 * ''Real Bodies'', 2002

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Helwig, Maggie 1961 births 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian women writers Activists from Ontario Anglo-Catholic clergy Anglo-Catholic writers Canadian Anglican priests Canadian Anglo-Catholics Canadian human rights activists Women human rights activists Canadian women activists Canadian women novelists Canadian women poets Living people New Democratic Party people People associated with Greenpeace People from Wallasey Trent University alumni Trinity College (Canada) alumni Writers from Kingston, Ontario Writers from Toronto