Curriculum vitae: Maggie Helwig

Education | Books | Anthologies | Periodicals | Awards | Grants | Lectures | Editorial work | Other work | Other positions held

Education

Honours BA (Classical Latin), Trent University, Peterborough, Canada, 1983

Books Published

(as author)

• Girls Fall Down, Coach House Books, April 2008: novel
• Between Mountains, Knopf Canada (Canada), Chatto and Windus (UK), 2004: novel
• One Building In the Earth: New and Selected Poems, ECW Press, 2002: poetry
• Real Bodies, Oberon Press, 2002: essays
• Where She Was Standing, ECW Press, 2001: novel
• Gravity Lets You Down, Oberon Press, 1997: short fiction
• The City on Wednesday, Lowlife Publishing, 1996: poetry chapbook
• Eating Glass, Quarry Press, 1994: poetry
• Apocalypse Jazz, Oberon Press, 1993: essays
• Graffiti for J.J. Harper, Lowlife Publishing, 1992: poetry chapbook
• Talking Prophet Blues, Quarry Press, 1991: poetry
• Because the Gunman, Lowlife Publishing, 1990: poetry chapbook
• Eden, Oberon Press, 1989: poetry
  
• Tongues of Men and Angels, Oberon Press, 1987: poetry
• Walking Through Fire, Turnstone Press, 1983: poetry

(as editor)

• Speaking in Tongues: PEN Canada Writers in Exile, Banff Centre Press, 2005
• Coming Attractions 02, Oberon Press, 2002 (with Mark Jarman)
• Coming Attractions 01, Oberon Press, 2001
• Coming Attractions 00, Oberon Press, 2000
• Coming Attractions 99, Oberon Press, 1999
• Coming Attractions 98, Oberon Press, 1998
• Coming Attractions 97, Oberon Press, 1997
• Coming Attractions 94, Oberon Press, 1994 (with Douglas Glover)
• 94: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1994 (with David Helwig)
• Coming Attractions 93, Oberon Press, 1993 (with Douglas Glover)
• 93: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1993 (with David Helwig)
• Coming Attractions 92, Oberon Press, 1992 (with Douglas Glover)
• 92: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1992 (with David Helwig)
• Coming Attractions 91, Oberon Press, 1991 (with Douglas Glover)
• 91: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1991 (with David Helwig)
• Coming Attractions 90, Oberon Press, 1990 (with David Helwig)
• 90: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1990 (with David Helwig)
• Coming Attractions 89, Oberon Press, 1989 (with Bronwen Wallace)
• 89: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1989 (with David Helwig)
• Coming Attractions 6, Oberon Press, 1988 (with David Helwig)
• 88: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1988 (with David Helwig)
• Coming Attractions 5, Oberon Press, 1987 (with David Helwig)
• 87: Best Canadian Stories, Oberon Press, 1987 (with David Helwig)

Work Published in Anthologies

poetry/fiction

• untitled story in Very Short Stories, Off Cut Press, 2003
• excerpt from "Little Dead Things" in 100 Poets Against the War (versions 1, 2 and 3), e-anthology from nthposition.com, 2003
• "Epidemics and Elsewhere", in The Common Sky, Three Squares Press, 2003
• "In This Place", in Written in the Skin, Insomniac Press, 1998
• "South America -- Nativity" in Stop and Search, Blue Nose Poets, 1995
• "How Can I Tell You That the World is Round" in The Last Word, Insomniac Press, 1995
• "In Time of Danger" in A Discord of Flags: Canadian Poets Write About the Persian Gulf War, 2nd edition, ed. Steven Heighton, Peter Ormshaw and Michael Redhill, 1992
• "A Second Procession", "The Conversion of St Paul" and "The Secrets of Enoch" in Christian Poetry in Canada, ECW Press, 1989
• "Translation", "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Comes to Dinner" and "The Art of the Fugue", in Poets 88, Quarry Press, 1988
• "Certain Notes from Bruegel" and "The Pink Blouse" in Full Moon, Quadrant Editions, 1983

essays

• My essay "Hunger" has been frequently reprinted, in anthologies including Canadian Content, Holt, Rinehart and Winston; The Reader, Harcourt Brace; The Norton Reader; The Quill Reader; and Twist and Shout: A Decade of Feminist Publishing in This Magazine, and is widely used in university and college curricula across North America
• "Seasons of the Sacred" (book review) reprinted in Native North American Writers , Gale Research, 1994
• "Women's Poetry" in Carry On Bumping, ed John Metcalf, ECW Press, 1988
• My essay "Tiananmen" is often used in Canadian high school curricula

Published in Periodicals

poems

Acta Victoriana, Antigonish Review, Angel Exhaust (UK), ARC, Canadian Literary Review, Canadian Forum, Canadian Literature, Conspiracy of Silence, Dandelion, Descant, Digger and Christian Anarchist, Fiddlehead, Grain, Greenfield Review (US), Greensboro Review (US), Hook and Ladder, Malahat Review, New Quarterly, Pawn to Infinity, Poetry Toronto, Poetry Canada, Prism, Quarry, Queen Street Quarterly, Queen's Quarterly, Rampike, Stanzas, This Magazine, Toronto Life, Waves, Zymurgy
In translation: Zarez (Croatia)

fiction

Angel Exhaust (UK), Brick, Canadian Fiction Magazine, Independent on Sunday Magazine (UK), Peterborough Review, Quarry, Sin Over Tan, Smoke, This Magazine

essays

Brick, Canadian Forum, Canadian Woman Studies, Catholic New Times, Life and Peace Review (Sweden), Magical Blend, Maisonneuve, Ottawa Citizen, Peace News (UK), Poetry Canada, Quarry, what magazine
In translation: ARKzin (Croatia), Ikkevold (Denmark)

journalism/book reviews

The ACTivist, Books in Canada, Catholic New Times, The Globe and Mail, The Nerve, New Statesman and Society (UK), Ottawa Citizen, Peace Magazine, Peace News (UK), This Magazine, Toronto Star, what magazine, Word: Toronto's Literary Calendar

Awards

• Canadian Church Press Award, best narrative, fiction or non-fiction, 2000
• "South America -- Nativity", joint winner of the Blue Nose Poet of the Year Competition (UK), 1995
• Talking Prophet Blues shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award, 1989

Grants (partial list)

• Works in Progress grant, Ontario Arts Council, spring 2002
• Established Writers grants, Toronto Arts Council, 1998 and 2001

Talks and lectures (partial list)

• Gzowski College, Trent University, October 2003, "Literature, Voice and Exile", part of PEN Canada panel "Embedded in Exile"
• Islands of the World Conference VII: New Horizons in Island Studies, June 2002, University of Prince Edward Island, talk on "East Timor: Prospects for Post-War Justice"
• Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, May 2002, "East Timor: Prospects for Post-War Justice"
• McMaster University, fall 2000, "Perspectives on Nonviolence", talk for McMaster OPIRG
• University of Toronto at Mississauga, March 2000, "Nonviolence in Practice", lecture to Peace and Conflict Studies class taught by Prof. Metta Spencer
• McMaster University, fall 1999, "Feminism and Nonviolence", lecture to Peace Studies class taught by Prof. Graeme MacQueen
• War Resisters' International Triennial, Poreč, Croatia, summer 1998, led (along with Biljana Kasić of the Women's Studies Institute of Zagreb) a five-day workshop on "Group Identity and Conflict"
• Ottawa Small Press Fair, June 1996, "Poetry and the Real World"
• Coventry University (UK), 1995, "Human Rights in East Timor"
• Kingston School of Writing, 1989, "Poetry and Apocalypse"
• I have given readings at venues including:

  Toronto

  ARC Gallery, Abbey Books, The Apocalypse Club, The Art Bar Reading Series, The Axle-Tree Coffee House, The Cameron House, Fat Albert's, Free Times Café, The Harbourfront Reading Series, The Idler Reading Series, The Lexiconjury Reading Series, Nicholas Hoare/Globe and Mail Books and Brunch Series, Pages Bookstore This Is Not A Reading Series, The Pontiac Quarterly, The Rivoli, The Scream in High Park, Sneaky Dee's, Toronto Reference Library Reading Series, University of Toronto Bookstore Reading Series, Word on the Street

  Ottawa

  Collected Works Bookstore, Gallery 101, National Library Reading Series, Ottawa International Festival of Authors, Ottawa Small Press Fair

  Kingston

  The Sleepless Goat. Modern Fuel Gallery

  Hamilton

  Hamilton Public Library

  Montreal

  Double Hook Bookstore

  Calgary

  Pages on Kensington

  Vancouver

  Women in Print Bookstore

  Victoria

  James Bay Inn, Mocambo Café

  Salt Spring Island

  Salt Spring Books

  International

  Hungry Mind Bookstore, Minneapolis, USA; Blue Nose Poets Reading Series, London, UK; Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh, UK

Editorial and literary work

• January - July 2006: Events Coordinator, Scream Literary Festival
• October 2005: Member of Visiting Committee for Canadian Educational Standards Institute evaluation of Havergal College's language and literature programming.
• February - July 2005: Events Coordinator/Sponsorship Coordinator, Scream Literary Festival.
• December - April 2005: Member of mainstage artistic jury for Scream in High Park.
• 2001: Judge of poetry category, National Magazine Awards
• 1998 - 2003: Co-coordinator, with Maria Erskine, of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair, a twice-yearly gathering of micropublishers, zine publishers, and text-based artists. I have been involved in some capacity with the Small Press Fair since it was founded in 1988.
• October 1998 - August 2000: Literary editor of Canadian Forum.
• 1991 - present: Editor of CRASH, a sporadically appearing litzine. CRASH has published early works of writers including Mark Anthony Jarman, Steven Heighton, rob mclennan and Tony Burgess.
• 1989 - 1990: Editor, Poetry Canada Review.
• 1987 - present: Managing Editor of Lowlife Publishing, a micropress which issues occasional poetry chapbooks. Lowlife has published the early work of authors including Lynn Crosbie, Patricia Seaman and Kathy Shaidle.
• 1987 - 1989: Associate editor at The Nerve, an indie music newspaper in Toronto.
• 1987 - 1990: Contributing editor at what magazine, a monthly magazine of drama, poetry, short fiction, reviews and criticism. what is now recognized as a short-lived but groundbreaking publication that introduced many important new writers and raised the level of critical discourse in Canada significantly.
• 1986 - 1987: Associate reviews editor at The Varsity, University of Toronto. Extensive copy-editing and proofreading, as well as some substantive editing.
• 1984 - 1987: Preliminary reader for Best Canadian Stories

Other Work

• January 2005 - present: Organizer of Out of the Cold/Out of the Heat meal programme, St Thomas's Church, Huron St.
• May 2003 - December 2004: Co-organizer, with Andrea Budgey, of OOTC/OOTH meal programme
• June 1998 - September 2001: Researcher/Media Liaison with Canadian Action for Indonesia and East Timor.
• May - October 1999: Canadian coordinator of the International Federation for East Timor Observer Project, the largest NGO mission observing the referendum in East Timor.
• May 1996 - June 1998: Freelance writing on popular culture for Catholic New Times and other periodicals; hired to produce popular education materials for the Canada-Asia Working Group; volunteer work with the East Timor Alert Network, the Anti-APEC Action Network, Toronto Action for Social Change, and Voice of Women.
• December 1994 - August 2002: Council Member, War Resisters' International; also coordinated Women's Working Group from 1993 to 1999
• March 1994 - December 1996: Reviews Editor for Peace News , London, England
• February 1994 - April 1996: Organising Secretary of the British Coalition for East Timor, London, England.
• January 1991 - December 1993: Editor of The ACTivist, a monthly peace and human rights newspaper published by ACT for Disarmament, Toronto.
• 1991 onwards: Conducted nonviolence trainings for various peace, environmental, and women's groups
• November 1990 - December 1993: Main officer staffer at ACT for Disarmament.
• 1987 - 1988: Typesetting manager, The Varsity
• 1985: Clerk at Letters Bookstore, Toronto, Canada
• 1983 - 1984: Clerk at The Book Store, Peterborough, Canada

Other Positions Held

• Board of Directors, PEN Canada, 2004-2005
• Member of Executive, Trinity-Spadina NDP, 2004-2006

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