Irene N. Watts

Irene Naemi Watts (née Kirstein, May 24, 1931 – November 21, 2023) was a German-born Canadian writer and educator. Watts earned degrees in English literature and modern history at Cardiff University. She married, had four children and taught elementary school. In 1968, she came with her family to Canada.

Career Irene taught at the Ermineskin reserve in Hobbema, Alberta for a year In Halifax, she started the Young Neptune touring company and helped Tom Kerr establish the Neptune Theatre School. Watts was the founding director of the Vancouver International Children's Festival. In 2001, she was named a life member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Her play Lillie, about Home Children in Canada, received first prize at the International Playwright's Forum of the International Theatre Institute.

Selected works

Good-Bye Marianne (1998), received the Geoffrey Bilson Award, also adapted for the stage as a one act play Tapestry of Hope An anthology of Holocaust Writing for Young People (2003), compiled with Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, received the Yad Vashem award for Holocaust studies The Golem of Prague (2009) Munsch at Play, Eight stage Adaptations for Young performers (2010) Munsch at Play Act 2: Eight More Stage Adaptions (2010) No Moon, young adult novel (2010), finalist for the American Library Association Book of the Year, named one of the ten best young adult historical novels by Booklist magazine Escape from Berlin (2013), a compilation of the young adult novels Good-Bye Marianne, Remember Me, and Finding Sophie