- Sheldon Oberman
Sheldon Oberman (
May 20 ,1949 -March 26 ,2004 ) was an award-winning Canadianchildren's writer who lived in Winnipeg,Manitoba .Born in Winnipeg, Oberman (known to friends as Obie) grew up in the city's North End. After graduating from St. Johns High School, he studied literature first at the
University of Winnipeg and then at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Oberman lived and travelled through Canada,Europe and theMiddle East before he returned to Winnipeg in 1973, where he received his teaching degree. In 1975, he started working as an English and Drama teacher at Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate, a job he held for nearly 30 years.Oberman started writing in the mid-seventies, inspired by bedtime stories he told his children. An important development in his career as a writer was the summer he spent at the
Banff School of Fine Arts where he studied underW.O. Mitchell . Oberman published twelve books, including the award-winning "Always Prayer Shawl" (1999), "The Shaman's Nephew" (1999; short-listed for the Governor General's Award), "The Island of the Minotaur", and "Solomon and the Ant and other Jewish Folktales" (2006), (published posthumously).Oberman acted and directed in both film and stage plays, and toured
North America as a professionalstoryteller . He wrote columns and freelance articles for the "Winnipeg Free Press " and published children's songs, stories and poems in a number of magazines, journals and anthologies.He died of
stomach cancer on March 26, 2004.elected bibliography
*"A Mirror of a People: Canadian Jewish Experience in Poetry and Prose" (1985)
*"TV Sal and the Game Show from Outer Space" (1993)
*"The Business with Elijah" (1993)
*"The White Stone in the Castle Wall" (1994)
*"The Always Prayer Shawl" (1999)
*"By the Hanukkah Light" (1997)
*"The Shaman's Nephew" (1999)
*"The Wisdom Bird: A Tale of Solomon and Sheba" (2000)
*"Island of the Minotaur: Greek Myths of Ancient Crete" (2003)
*"Solomon and the Ant and other Jewish Folktales" (2006)External links
* [http://www.sheldonoberman.com/index.shtml Official Website]
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