Poetry Toronto

Maria Jacobs[1] is a Canadian publisher, writer, and, poet who along with fellow Canadian writer Heather Cadbsy was the head of Poetry Toronto magazine in the 1980s. The poetry magazine had distributed publications for about a decade. Born in the Netherlands in 1930, Maria's family was witness to the hardships of war, during which they housed and hid Jewish people in order to protect them from danger. Maria and husband Paul Moens ultimately relocated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada where she continues to reside in the Beaches. Though she never took her matrimonial last name, choosing instead to defy patriarchal beliefs and develop a last name of her own. Maria and Paul eventually had and raised five children together while developing their life in Canada.[2] in Toronto, Ontario. She also ran a coffee house (The Axle-tree Coffee House) which was a meeting place for the artistically inclined including both poets, and musicians.[3] She has written several books and poetry anthologies, and edited for various other works. She and Heather Cadsby[4] developed a publishing company in order for women in literature to have an outlet for publications called Wolsak and Wynn. She presently continues this endeavor and now runs the company solely. Together with writer Maria Jacobs, the two poets established Poetry Toronto Magazine in the 1980s, which is no longer in publication. They also developed and ran Wolsak and Wynn together, although Cadbsy is no longer involved directly in this endeavor. Wolsak and Wynn was called such, due to the two founders, Cadbsy and Jacobs putting together maiden names from females in their family tree. Heather is a graduate of McMaster University and has written and had published many anthologies of poetry and books.