Gwendolyn MacEwen

Gwendolyn Margaret MacEwen (1 September 1941 – 29 November 1987) was a Canadian poet and novelist. A "sophisticated, wide-ranging and thoughtful writer," Gwendolyn MacEwen grew up in the High Park area of the city, and attended Western Technical-Commercial School.

"She was small and slight, with a round pale face, huge blue eyes usually rimmed in kohl (Type of eyeliner and cosmetic), and long dark straight hair."

She served as writer in residence at the University of Western Ontario in 1985, and the University of Toronto in 1986 and 1987.

MacEwen died in 1987,

Writing

"A sophisticated, wide-ranging and thoughtful writer," says The Canadian Encyclopedia, MacEwen "displayed a commanding interest in magic and history as well as an elaborate and penetrating dexterity in her versecraft."

Her two novels – Julian the Magician, dealing with the ambiguous relationship between the hermetic philosophies of the early Renaissance and Christianity; and King of Egypt, King of Dreams, which imaginatively reconstructed the life and religious reformation of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaton – blend fantasy and history.

Recognition MacEwen won the Governor General's Award in 1969 for her poetry collection The Shadow Maker.

Other awards and prizes MacEwen won include the CBC New Canadian Writing Contest for poetry in 1965; the A.J.M. Smith Poetry Award in 1973; the Borestone Mountain Poetry Award in 1983; the CBC Literary Competition, for short story in 1983; and the Du Maurier Awards, gold and silver for poetry, in 1983.

Her writing has been translated into many languages including Chinese, French, German, and Italian.

Her book of poems written in 1969 called The Shadow-Maker was set to music by Dutch/Canadian composer Rudi Martinus van Dijk in 1977. As a result, one of the highlights of the 1978-79 season of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra included the world premiere of Van Dijk's The Shadow-Maker under the direction of Mario Bernardi and featuring Canadian baritone Victor Braun. It was performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, October 1978. Gwendolyn MacEwan attended the Massey Hall performances and was deeply struck by the music's setting of her work. The biographer of MacEwan, Rosemary Sullivan, quotes the composer Van Dijk in her book: "What attracted me to the poetry was the substance behind the subject matter - namely the dream. The poetry attempts, it seems to me, to lift the veil of 'Maya' (illusion). Is our sensuous experience reality or illusion? MacEwan has something in common with Strindberg and D.H. Lawrence, as an explorer of these dark corners of the soul that most of us shut out conveniently, in order to create a safe but illusory reality." As Dutch musicologist Maarten Brandt wrote, "The bold and expressionistic side of Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg is found in van Dijk’s setting of Gwendolyn MacEwan's The Shadow-Maker for baritone and large orchestra, written in 1977. Yet, as in every single composition by van Dijk, tonal references are present here as well, demonstrating a kinship not only with Alban Berg, but also with Benjamin Britten, Hans Werner Henze, Michael Tippett and Frank Martin; all of them composers who have not simply exploited the resources available to them, but rather were grateful ‘inhabitants’ of a rich and saturated musical landscape."

Twenty years later a documentary film by Brenda Longfellow, Shadow Maker: Gwendolyn MacEwen, Poet, was made in 1998 and won the Genie Award for Best Short Documentary.

Gwendolyn MacEwen Parkette The former Walmer Road Parkette, in The Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, was renamed Gwendolyn MacEwen Parkette in her honor in 1994.

On 9 September 2006, a bronze bust of MacEwen by her friend, sculptor John McCombe Reynolds, was unveiled in the parkette.

The park had been a grassy traffic circle in the middle of Walmer Road at Lowther Avenue, but a $300,000 makeover in 2010, expanded the park and narrowed the surrounding roads. The unique redesigned greenspace reopened 21 July 2010, and writer Claudia Dey read one of MacEwen's poems.

Publications

Poetry Selah. Toronto: Aleph Press, 1961. The Drunken Clock. Toronto: Aleph Press, 1961. The Rising Fire. Toronto: Contact Press, 1963. Terror and Erebus (1965) A Breakfast for Barbarians . Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1966. The Shadow-Maker. Toronto: Macmillan, 1969. The Armies of the Moon . Toronto: Macmillan, 1972. Magic Animals: Selected Poems Old and New. Toronto: Macmillan, 1974. The Fire-Eaters. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1976. Trojan Women, 1981. The T. E. Lawrence Poems. Oakville: Mosaic Press, 1982. Earth-Light: Selected Poetry 1963-1982. Toronto: General Publishing, 1982. The Man with Three Violins 1986 HMS Press (Toronto) Afterworlds. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987. Atwood, Margaret and Barry Callaghan, eds. The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: The Early Years (Volume One). Toronto: Exile Editions, 1993. Atwood, Margaret and Barry Callaghan, eds. The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: The Later Years (Volume Two). Toronto: Exile Editions, 1993.

Fiction

Noman. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1972. Noman's Land: stories Coach House Press, 1985.

Non-fiction Mermaids and Ikons: A Greek Summer. Toronto: House of Anansi, 1978.

Children's books The Chocolate Moose. Toronto: N/C Press, 1979. The Honey Drum. Oakville: Mosaic Press, 1983. Dragon Sandwiches Black Moss Press, 1987.

Drama Trojan Women after the play by Euripides (includes poems Helen and Oristos by Yannis Ritsos, translated by MacEwen and Niko Tsingos). Toronto: Exile Editions. 2009 [1994, 1981]. 978-1-55096-123-2 The Birds after the play by Aristophanes. Toronto: Exile Editions. 1993 . 978-1-55096-065-5

Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy of Brock University.

Discography Open Secret. CBC Learning Systems, 1972. LP T-57191 Celebration: Famous Canadian Poets CD Canadian Poetry Association – 2001 (CD#3) ( with Raymond Souster )