Quick Facts
Biography
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. The couple had two children. In 1967 the couple divorced and Eli Mandel remarried.
Career
Shortly after their marriage broke up, Miriam Mandel began writing poetry. She won the Governor General's Award in 1973 for her first collection, Lions At Her Face. She later published two more collections of poetry.
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".
Miriam Mandel died in Edmonton by suicide.
Novelist Sheila Watson edited Miriam Mandel's Collected Poems in 1984. The Miriam Mandel fonds is at the University of Calgary.