Maggie Helwig

Maggie Helwig
Born 1961
Wallasey, England
Occupation Novelist, poet, social activist
Website
www.maggiehelwig.com

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

Academic career

Her early education was at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI) in Kingston, Ontario, graduating in 1979,[1] then at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where she graduated with an honours B.A. in 1983.

After reading for an MDiv and serving as co-Head of Divinity at Trinity College, Toronto, she was ordained to the transitional diaconate in the Anglican Church of Canada at St. Paul's, Bloor Street, Toronto on 1 May 2011, and subsequently to the priesthood on 22 January 2012.

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.[2]

Her third novel, Girls Fall Down, 2008, was shortlisted for the 2009 Toronto Book Awards.[3] Jason McBride, writing in Toronto Life, described it as being "smart, suspenseful and compassionate."[4] Finally, in a book review by Greg Doran, the novel is described as the narrator having a significant relationship with the 'urban environment and the human spirit.'[5]

She has also co-edited many anthologies of Canadian fiction and poetry, with collaborators including Bronwen Wallace, Douglas Glover, Mark Anthony Jarman and her father, David Helwig.[6]

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 network, particularly during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.[7] She was also a well known advocate for Toronto's branch of the Occupy Wall St. Movement, and was one of 3 clergy from different denominations ticketed for setting up a chapel at the Occupy Toronto 're-occupation' camp on May 1, 2012.[8][9][10][11]

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

Essays

  • Apocalypse Jazz, 1993
  • Real Bodies, 2002

References

  1. ↑ Canadian Forum; Apr2000, Vol. 79 Issue 887, p17, 3p, 1 Black and White Photograph
  2. ↑ Grekul, Lisa. Canadian Literature, Fall 2005, Issue 186, p193-193, 1/2p
  3. ↑ City of Toronto, Toronto Book Awards - 2009: Maggie Helwig
  4. ↑ Jason McBride, "Text in the City", Toronto Life, April 2008; 42,4; CBCA Complete
  5. ↑ Canadian Literature; Spring 2009, Issue 200, p152-154, 3p
  6. ↑ Curriculum vitae, Maggie Helwig Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine.; see also Oberon Press website, "All titles". Retrieved 2010-12.28..
  7. ↑ Interview by Annie Wilson, Published in Pulse Niagara, August 7–13, 2008. Retrieved 2010-12.28.
  8. ↑ National Post, May 3, 2012, Two priests and a minister ticketed for trying to set up a chapel tent at Occupy rally, by Vidya Kauri
  9. ↑ Now Magazine, Feb 24, 2012, Girls Fall Down, the library’s one book for 2012 by Susan G. Cole
  10. ↑ Anglican Journal, May 08, 2012, Taking prayer to the streets By Marites N. Sison
  11. ↑ Rabble.ca, Activist Communiqué Occupy Toronto re-occupies Simcoe Park on May Day By Krystalline Kraus,May 3, 2012
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