Miriam Mandel

{{Short description|Canadian poet (1930–1982)}}

{{Infobox writer

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| birth_name = Miriam Minovitch

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|06|24}}

| birth_place = Rockglen, Saskatchewan

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1982|02|13|1930|06|24}}

| death_place = Edmonton, Alberta

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| language = English

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| citizenship = {{flagicon|Canada}} Canadian

| education = B.A.

| alma_mater = University of Saskatchewan

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| spouse = Eli Mandel

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| children = Evie, Charles

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| awards = Governor General's Award

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Miriam Mandel (June 24, 1930 – February 13, 1982) was a Canadian poet who won Canada's Governor General's Award.

Early life

Miriam Mandel was born in Rockglen, Saskatchewan.

She gained her B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1950. In 1949 she married Eli Mandel, and after her graduation the couple moved to Toronto where he worked on a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. After he received his doctorate in 1957, they moved to Edmonton, where he taught at the University of Alberta until 1967."Mandel, Eli," Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, URegina.ca, Web, Apr. 25, 2011. The couple had two children."[http://gent-family.com/Estevan/elimandelbio.html Elias (Eli) Wolf Mandel Biography]," Estevan, Saskatchewan, Gent-Family.com, Web, Apr. 25, 2011. In 1967 the couple divorced and Eli Mandel remarried.

Career

Shortly after their marriage broke up, Miriam Mandel began writing poetry.Marlene Alt, "[https://archive.today/20130203232051/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005064 Mandel, Miriam]," Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988), 1290. She won the Governor General's Award in 1973 for her first collection, Lions At Her Face."[http://specialcollections.ucalgary.ca/manuscript-collections/literary-and-art-archives-canadian/-miriam-mandel-fonds Mandel, Miriam, 1930-1982]," Special Collections, University of Calgary Library, UCalgary.ca, Web, Apr, 24, 2011. She later published two more collections of poetry.{{cite book|author=Frank Davey|title=When Tish Happens: The Unlikely Story of Canada's Most Influential Literary Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fjD6XOfpAZIC&pg=PT380|date=April 2011|publisher=ECW Press|isbn=978-1-55490-944-5|page=380}}

Miriam Mandel was a long-time sufferer from depression. Patrick Lane was inspired by her to write his 1983 poem "And of the Measure of Winter We Are Sure".Questions and Answers, "[http://www.canlit.ca/canlitpoets.php?page=poems&id=1084 And of the Measure of Winter We Are Sure] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117134740/http://canlit.ca/canlitpoets.php?page=poems&id=1084 |date=2011-01-17 }}," CanLit Poets, Canadian Literature,

Miriam Mandel died in Edmonton by suicide.{{cite book|author=Lola Lemire Tostevin|title=Subject to Criticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Y0fAQAAIAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Mercury Press|isbn=978-1-55128-025-7|pages=20–23}}

Novelist Sheila Watson edited Miriam Mandel's Collected Poems in 1984.{{cite book|author=George Melnyk|title=The Literary History of Alberta: From the end of the war to the end of the century|url=https://archive.org/details/literaryhistoryo0001meln|url-access=registration|year=1998|publisher=University of Alberta|isbn=978-0-88864-324-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/literaryhistoryo0001meln/page/74 74], 240}} The Miriam Mandel fonds is at the University of Calgary.

Bibliography

=Poetry=

  • Lions at Her Face. Edmonton: White Pelican Publications, 1973.
  • Station 14. Edmonton: NeWest Press, 1977. {{ISBN|0-920316-08-5}} {{ISBN|978-0920316085}}
  • Where Have You Been?. Edmonton: Longspoon Press, 1980. {{ISBN|0-919285-00-7}} {{ISBN|9780919285002}}
  • The Collected Poems of Miriam Mandel. Sheila Watson, ed. Edmonton: Longspoon Press, 1984."[http://www2.athabascau.ca/cll/writers/english/writers/swatson/biblio_by.php Bibliography of Works by Sheila Watson] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101106205045/http://www2.athabascau.ca/cll/writers/english/writers/swatson/biblio_by.php |date=2010-11-06 }}," English-Canadian Writers, AthabascaU.ca, Web, Apr. 22, 2011. {{ISBN|0-920316-50-6}} {{ISBN|978-0920316504}}

=Non-fiction=

  • Miriam Mandel et al. Herpes Handbook: A Guide For the Diagnosis and Management of Herpes Genitals. Toronto: R.E.A.C.H., 1981.
  • The Miriam Mandel Papers. Sandra Mortensen, compiler; Apollonia Steele and Jean F. Tener, ed. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1990."[https://www.ucalgary.ca/up/0-919813/0-919813-61-5.html The Miriam Mandel Papers]," University of Calgary Press," Web, Apr. 25, 2011. {{ISBN|0-919813-61-5}} ISSN 0831-4497

Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy University of Saskatchewan."[https://www.usask.ca/english/EnglishStudentBooks.htm Books by former English Department Students]," USask.ca, Web, Apr. 25, 2011.

References

{{Portal|Poetry|biography|Canada}}