| Maggie Helwig | |
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| Born | 1961 Wallasey, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet, social activist |
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www.maggiehelwig.com |
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Maggie Helwig (born 1961) is a Canadian poet, novelist and social justice activist.
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Her early education was at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI) in Kingston, Ontario, graduating in 1979,[1] then at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where she graduated with an honours B.A. in 1983.
After reading for an MDiv and serving as co-Head of Divinty at Trinity College, Toronto, she was ordained to the transitional diaconate in the Anglican Church of Canada at St. Paul's, Bloor Street, Toronto on 1 May 2011.
Helwig's second novel, Between Mountains is a love story about a London-based Canadian journalist and a Serbian Albanian interpreter from Paris that endure the hardships that occurred during the war. The novel juxtaposes love and war within the characters while bringing about justice and truth.[2]
Her third novel, Girls Fall Down, 2008, was shortlisted for the 2009 Toronto Book Awards.[3] Jason McBride, writing in Toronto Life, described it as being "smart, suspenseful and compassionate."[4] Finally, in a book review by Greg Doran, the novel is described as the narrator having a significant relationship with the 'urban environment and the human spirit.'[5]
She has also co-edited many anthologies of Canadian fiction and poetry, with collaborators including Bronwen Wallace, Douglas Glover, Mark Anthony Jarman and her father, David Helwig.[6]
Helwig has been involved in social activist groups such as TAPOL, the East Timor Alert Network, and the International Federation for East Timor which campaigned against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. She has also worked with the Women in Black network, particularly during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.[7]