Discipline: Literature

Adele Wiseman

Discipline: Literature
MacDowell Fellowships: 1960
More: jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wiseman-adele
Adele Wiseman (1928–1992) was a Canadian author. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she received a B.A. in English literature and psychology from the University of Manitoba in 1949. Her parents were Russian Jews who emigrated from the Ukraine to Canada, in part, to escape the pogroms that accompanied the Russian Civil War. In 1956, Wiseman published her first novel, The Sacrifice, which won the Governor General's Award, Canada's most prestigious literary prize. Her novel, Crackpot, was published in 1974. Both novels deal with Jewish immigrant heritage, the struggle to survive the Depression and World War II, and the challenges the next generation faced in acculturating to Canadian society. Wiseman also published plays, children's stories, essays, and other non-fiction. Her book, Old Woman at Play, examines and meditates on the creative process while paying tribute to Wiseman's mother and the dolls she made. Wiseman was lifelong friends with Margaret Laurence who was another Canadian author from Manitoba. She was an active and accessible Writer-in-Residence at the University of Windsor in her final years. At a campus rally against the First Gulf War, she read passionately a new poem denouncing war.

Studios

Garland

Adele Wiseman worked in the Garland studio.

Marian MacDowell and friends originally named this studio in memory of Anna Baetz, the nurse who helped care for Edward MacDowell in the waning years of his life. With generous support from the Garland family, the studio was renovated in 2013 and renamed the Peter and Mary Garland Studio. The inward opening, diamond-pane windows were replaced…

Learn more