David Helwig is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 poet, novelist and essayist.

David Helwig was born in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, where he spent his early childhood years. When he was ten years old, his family moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a Canadian town located in Southern Ontario where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region of the southern part of the province of Ontario. It is located across the Niagara river from Youngstown, New York, USA...

, Ontario, where his father ran a small business repairing and refinishing furniture and buying and selling antiques. He earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 in 1960, and an M.A. from the University of Liverpool

University of Liverpool

The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...

 in 1962. He subsequently taught at Queen's University from 1962 to 1974. While he was at Queen's University, he also taught writing classes in Collins Bay Penitentiary, and co-wrote A Book about Billie with a former inmate.

He was subsequently a literary manager for CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

's drama department from 1974 to 1976, and then returned to Queen's as a part time instructor, while doing a great deal of freelance work. In 1980, he gave up teaching and became a full-time writer.

He currently lives in Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...

. On 23 January 2008, he was named as Prince Edward Island's third Poet Laureate, and on 1 July 2009 was named as a Member of the Order of Canada.

His daughter, Maggie Helwig

Maggie Helwig

Maggie Helwig is a Canadian poet, novelist and social justice activist.-Academic career:Her early education was at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Kingston, Ontario, graduating in 1979, then at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where she graduated with an honours B.A...

, is also a noted Canadian writer.

Poetry

• Figures in a Landscape, 1968
• The Sign of the Gunman, 1969
• The Best Name of Silence, 1972
• Atlantic Crossings, 1974
• Book of the Hours, 1979
• The Rain Falls Like Rain, 1982
• Catchpenny Poems, 1983
• The Hundred Old Names, 1989
• The Beloved, 1992
• A Random Gospel, 1996
• This Human Day, 2000
• Telling Stories, 2000
• The Day One, 2004
• The Sway of Otherwise, 2008

Fiction

• The Streets of Summer, 1969 (short stories
  Short story
  A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
  
  )
• The Day Before Tomorrow, 1971 (titled Message from a Spy in some printings)
• The Glass Knight, 1976
• Jennifer, 1979
• The King's Evil, 1981
• It Is Always Summer, 1982
• A Sound Like Laughter, 1983
• The Only Son, 1984
• The Bishop, 1986
• A Postcard from Rome, 1988
• Old Wars, 1989
• Of Desire, 1990
• Blueberry Cliffs, 1993
• Just Say the Words, 1994
• Close to the Fire, 1999
• The Time of Her Life, 2000
• The Stand-In, 2002
• Duet, 2004
• Saltsea, 2006
• Smuggling Donkeys, 2007

Other

• A Book About Billie, 1972
• Last Stories of Anton Chekhov, 1991 (as translator
  Translation
  Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
  
  )
• The Child of Someone, 1997
• Living Here, 2001
• The Names of Things, 2006
• Coming Through, 2007

External links

• David Helwig
• David Helwig's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia