Adele Wiseman

Template:Short description Template:Infobox writer Adele Wiseman (May 21, 1928 – June 1, 1992)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> was a Canadian author.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she received a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and psychology from the University of Manitoba in 1949.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her parents were Russian Jews who emigrated from Ukraine to Canada, in part, to escape the pogroms that accompanied the Russian Civil War.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

In 1956, Wiseman published her first novel, The Sacrifice, which won the Governor General's Award,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Canada's most prestigious literary prize. Her novel, Crackpot, was published in 1974.<ref name=":0"/> Both novels deal with Jewish immigrant heritage, the struggle to survive the Depression and World War II, and the challenges the next generation faced in acculturating to Canadian society.

Wiseman also published plays, children's stories, essays, and other non-fiction. Her book, Old Woman at Play, examines and meditates on the creative process while paying tribute to Wiseman's mother and the dolls she made.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Wiseman was lifelong friends with Margaret Laurence who was another Canadian author from Manitoba.<ref name=":0"/> She was an active and accessible Writer-in-Residence at the University of Windsor in her final years. At a campus rally against the First Gulf War, she read passionately a new poem denouncing war.

Awards

• Governor General's Award for English-language fiction for The Sacrifice (1956)<ref name=":0"/><ref>"Governor-General Literature Awards Are Announced". Red Deer Advocate, May 8, 1957.</ref>
• Beta Sigma Phi Sorority Award (1957)<ref name=":0" />
• Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (1957)<ref name=":0" />
• Canadian Foundation fellowship (1957)<ref name=":0" />
• Guggenheim fellowship (1958) <ref name=":0" />
• Canada Council Arts Scholarship (1959)<ref name=":0" />
• Leipzig Book Fair Bronze Medal (1964)<ref name=":0" />
• Canadian Booksellers Association Book Award (1974)<ref name=":0" />
• J. I. Segal Foundation Award (1974 and 1988)<ref name=":0" />
• Three Guineas Charitable Foundation Agency Award (1984–1985)<ref name=":0" />

Selected works

• The Sacrifice (1956)
• Old Markets, New World (1964)
• Crackpot (1974)
• Old Woman at Play (1978)
• Memoirs of a Book Molesting Childhood and Other Essays (1987)
• Kenji and the Cricket (1988)
• Puccini and the Prowlers (1992)

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Valerie-Kristin Piehslinger. Portrayals of Urban Jewish Communities in U.S. American and Canadian Immigrant Fiction in Selected Texts by Anzia Yezierska and Adele Wiseman. AV Akademikerverlag, Saarbrücken 2013 Template:ISBN Template:URN
• Adam Sol, David S. Koffman, Gary Barwin, Michael Greenstein, Ruth Panofsky, Lisa Richter, Emily Robins Sharpe, and Rhea Tregebov. “Canadian Jewish Poetry: A Roundtable”, Canadian Jewish Studies / Études Juives Canadiennes vol. 34, 2022.

External links

• Adele Wiseman archives are held at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto
• Adele Wisemen at York University Libraries