Seymour Mayne

He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Doris Minkin and Henry Mayne. His father arrived in Canada as a refugee after World War I and his mother entered Canada just days before World War II broke out in Europe.

His latest books include Cusp: Word Sonnets (2014), September Rain (2005), and various editions in a number of languages of his innovative collection, Ricochet: Word Sonnets (2004). As a fervent innovator of the word sonnet, he has given readings and lectured widely in Canada and internationally on this unique new "miniature" form.

Over the years, his short stories have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies. The Old Blue Couch: Canadian Stories [El Viejo Sofá Azul: Cuentos Canadienses], a selection of his short fiction in Spanish translation, was published in Argentina in 2004. His literary works continue to receive much critical and scholarly attention internationally.

His writings have been translated into many languages, including French, German, Hebrew, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. In addition, six collections of his poetry have been rendered into Hebrew, including a major volume of his selected poems, Fly Off into the Strongest Light [Leensok letoch haor hachi chazak: Mevchar shirim] (2009).

As a scholar and editor, he has edited many anthologies and critical texts in Canadian literature, including Essential Words: An Anthology of Jewish Canadian Poetry, a comprehensive and pioneer work in the field which includes writing by such key figures as A.M. Klein, Miriam Waddington, and Phyllis Gotlieb. He has also co-edited the award-winning anthologies, Jerusalem: An Anthology of Jewish Canadian Poetry and A Rich Garland: Poems for A.M. Klein. Recent collections and anthologies he co-edited include Foreplay: An Anthology of Word Sonnets and the bilingual Pluriel: Une anthologie, des voix/An Anthology of Diverse Voices.

Five-time winner of the Canadian Jewish Book Award, he is also the recipient of the J.I. Segal Prize and the ALTA (American Literary Translators Association) Poetry Translation Award for his renditions from the Yiddish. He also received the Louis Rosenberg Canadian Jewish Studies Distinguished Service Award given to an individual who has made significant contributions to Canadian Jewish Studies in one or more fields.

Alongside his creative writing career, Mayne has been teaching at the University of Ottawa since 1973 where he is Professor of Canadian Literature, Creative Writing, and Canadian Studies, and also directs the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program whose establishment he oversaw in 2006. He continues to serve as the Vered Program’s coordinator and most ardent promoter. He also taught at the University of British Columbia, Concordia University in Montreal, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain.

Mayne has received numerous awards for his academic work, including The Capital Educator’s Award (2003), an initiative of the Ottawa Center for Research and Innovation awarded to educators who have made a difference in the lives of their students by acting as role models, instilling confidence and nurturing leadership; The Excellence in Education Prize (2005), and lastly he was named Professor of the Year in the Faculty of Arts (2010).

A longtime resident of Canada’s capital, Ottawa, Mayne has helped sustain the city's literary and artistic community over the past three and a half decades. He has given hundreds of lectures and readings at universities and other institutions across Canada, the United States, and abroad. His dedication to learning and writing has also materialized in the promotion of creative writing within the Department of English at the University of Ottawa. He has supervised the publication of a series of more than twenty anthologies drawing on the work of student writers. In his years as an educator, Mayne has acted as a mentor to dozens of aspiring writers.

• “A Canadian in Bucharest, Impressions and Inspirations: Interview with Seymour Mayne,” with Andrei Zbirnea, translated by Isabela Flocea and Margento, SemneBune: Insemnari Culturale, September 15, 2014, Part I. Part II.
• An Evening with Seymour Mayne, June 4, 1978
• Feldman, Alexandre Daniel de S., “Sonetos de uma palavra, de Seymour Mayne: fragmentos e expansos poéticas,” Arquivo Maaravi: Revista Digital de Estudios Judaicos da UFMG (Vol. 7, No. 3), 1-12.
• Literary Archives and Papers Major Collection: Seymour Mayne Fonds, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
• Mikalson, Kaarina, "You Are Hurtful": Seymour Mayne's Post-War Elegy to the Spanish Civil War
• Nicolau, Felix, "Negotiating Languages. An Introduction to the Writings of Seymour Mayne," Philologica Jassyensia XIV, No. 1 (27), 2018.
• Oughton, John, "After the Holocaust," Feature Review of The Impossible Promised Land, Books in Canada XI, 3 (March 1982), 15-16.
• Persia, Daniel, "Wind and Wood and Word Sonnets: Toward a Multilingual Tradition in Translation," Asymptote (November 13, 2019).
• Review of “Hail” at PoetryReviews.ca
• Review of Ricochet at PoetryReviews.ca
• Review of September Rain in Vallum
• Review of The Old Blue Couch at The Bull Calf
• Rothenberg, Jerome, “Hail: 15 Word Sonnets,” with Editor’s Note, “Poems and poetics,” Jacket2 (February 8, 2014).
• Seymour Mayne entry in International Who's Who 2004
• Seymour Mayne entry in International Who's Who in Poetry 2005
• Seymour Mayne entry in the Dictionary of Literary Biography
• Three Dimensions: A triple book launch at Library and Archives Canada (October 24, 2019)
• Wind and Wood: Word Sonnets by Seymour Mayne Quadrilingual Edition Book Presentation at the University of Ottawa (September 19, 2019)