Eleonore Schönmaier

Photo by Bruce MacLennan

Eleonore Schönmaier's writing has won a number of awards. Her poetry collection Treading Fast Rivers (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999) was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry in Canada, and was widely praised in reviews. Her collection of fiction is Passion Fruit Tea (Roseway Publishing, 1994).

Her writing has been published in magazines internationally, and has been broadcast on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio shows such as The Arts Today. She has taught advanced fiction courses at St. Mary's University, creative writing at Mount Saint Vincent University, and has worked as a writing mentor for the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia. Her writing has also been translated into Dutch.

Currently she is at work on a collection of poetry, a collection of fiction, and a series of black and white photographs of writers' hands. Her home is on Nova Scotia's south shore. 

Publications

Treading Fast Rivers. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-88629-361-8.
     Click here for WFNS' description of Treading Fast Rivers.

The natural world is prominent, almost dreamlike in Treading Fast Rivers, and starkly beautiful. Treading Fast Rivers is strong poetry." - Shane Neilson, Prairie Fire, Autumn 2000.

"Schönmaier's poetic world is a deftly-realized visual landscape: allowing her to examine-with clear-eyed perceptiveness- the territory of the heart. [Schönmaier] is alert to the sensual possibilities of the world. These poems delight in the richness of experience." - Anne Simpson, Atlantic Books Today, Spring 2000.

"Her poems open windows not so much onto but in their subjects: they describe a kind of reverence." - Susan Gillis, League of Canadian Poets, Autumn 2000.

"She has begun to make beauty: wonderfully unforgettable." - M. Travis Lane, Fiddlehead, Winter 2000.

"This author's writing is delightful: from concrete poetry to couplets." - Andrea Sharman, Canadian Literature, Autumn 2000

Passion Fruit Tea. Roseway Publishing, 1994. ISBN: 0-9698407-0-5.

Anthologies

To Find Us: Words and Images of Halifax. HRM, 2004. ISBN: 0-9687262-3-2.

Words Out There: Women Poets in Atlantic Canada, Roseway Publishing Company, 1999, ISBN: 1-896496-09-1.

Vintage 1999, Ronsdale Press, 1999, ISBN: 0-921870-70-1.

Vintage 97-98, Quarry Press, 1998, ISBN: 1-55082-224-1.

Awards

Alfred G. Bailey Award for best poetry manuscript,  2009

Earle Birney Prize for Poetry, 2008.

Winston Collins Descant Prize for Best Canadian poem, finalist, 2007.

First Prize, Literary Competition, Poetry, 2007.
Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick

Sheldon Currie Fiction Award, second prize, 2005.

Fundacion Valpariso Fellowship, Spain, 2005.

Banff Writing Studio Scholarship, 2002.

Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, Best First Book of Poetry, Finalist.

2000 Hawthornden Fellowship, Scotland, 2000.

You can send mail to Eleonore Schönmaier
c/o Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia