Manawaka is a

fictional town A fictional city refers to a town, city or village that is invented for fictional stories and does not exist in real life, or which people believe to exist without definitive proof, such as Plato's account of Atlantis. Cultures have always had l ...

in the

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 o ...

province of

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, frequently used as a setting in novels and

short stories 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 ...

Margaret Laurence Jean Margaret Laurence (née Wemyss; July 18, 1926 – January 5, 1987) was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, and is one of the major figures in Canadian literature. She was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-pr ...

. The town was based on Laurence's real-life hometown of

Neepawa Neepawa is a town in Manitoba, Canada located on the Yellowhead Highway at the intersection with Highway 5. its population was 5,685. Neepawa was incorporated as a town in 1883. It is bordered by the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford a ...

, and should not be confused with the real-life town of

Maniwaki, Quebec Maniwaki is a town located north of Gatineau and north-west of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, Canada. The town is situated on the Gatineau River, at the crossroads of Route 105 and Route 107, not far south of Route 117 (Trans-Canada Highwa ...

. The town is also used in

Daniel Poliquin Daniel Poliquin (born December 18, 1953) is a Canadian novelist and translator. He has translated works of various Canadian writers into French, including David Homel, Douglas Glover, and Mordecai Richler. Poliquin and his hometown of Ottawa a ...

's novel ''L'écureuil noir''. The Manawaka sequence consists of the books '' The Stone Angel'', '' A Jest of God'', '' The Fire-Dwellers'', '' A Bird in the House'', and '' The Diviners''.McArthur, Douglas (March 30, 1994). "Neepawa, Manitoba: Home on the prairie with Margaret Laurence: Those who take the detour off the Trans-Canada will find fictional Manawaka, the scene in five classic novels, is a real place", '' The Globe and Mail'', p. D1.

References

Fictional populated places in Canada Manitoba in fiction {{Manitoba-stub