Ellen Seligman

Ellen Jane Seligman (died March 25, 2016) was an American editor and publisher. She was a member of the Order of Ontario, the highest honour in the Canadian province of Ontario, and twice won the Canadian Booksellers Association Editor of the Year Award.[1]

Seligman was born in New York City and attended the University of Wisconsin, where she received a Bachelor of Arts. She moved to Canada in 1976, where she eventually took a job with McClelland and Stewart as a senior editor and became their editorial director of fiction by 1987.[2][3] During this time she worked with authors such as Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Rohinton Mistry, Michael Ondaatje, Jane Urquhart and Alice Munro, and in 2012 became the vice-president of McClelland and Stewart.[1][3] At the time of her death Seligman was seen as one of Canada's top literary editors.[2][4] In 2009 Seligman became the president of PEN Canada, a position she held until 2011.[5]

Seligman died in Toronto on March 25, 2016 and was survived by partner James Polk, sister Margaret Seligman and her extended family.