The term sonnet refers to a fixed verse poetic form, traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set rhyming scheme. It derives from the Italian word sonetto. Originating in 13th-century Sicily, the sonnet was in time taken up in many European-language areas, mainly to express romantic love at first, although eventually any subject was considered acceptable. Many formal variations were also introduced, including abandonment of the quatorzain limit – and even of rhyme altogether in modern times.
Irving Peter Layton, OC was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography (2001), Layton fought Puritanism throughout his life:
Layton's work had provided the bolt of lightning that was needed to split open the thin skin of conservatism and complacency in the poetry scene of the preceding century, allowing modern poetry to expose previously unseen richness and depth.
Miriam Waddington was a Canadian poet, short story writer and translator. She was part of a Montreal literary circle that included F. R. Scott, Irving Layton and Louis Dudek.
Abraham Sutzkever was an acclaimed Yiddish poet. The New York Times wrote that Sutzkever was "the greatest poet of the Holocaust."
Robert Arthur Douglas Ford, was a Canadian poet, translator and diplomat.
Abraham Moses Klein was a Canadian poet, journalist, novelist, short story writer and lawyer. He has been called "one of Canada's greatest poets and a leading figure in Jewish-Canadian culture."
Yocheved Bat-Miriam was an Israeli poet. Bat-Miriam was Born in Belorussia to a Hasidic family. She studied pedagogy in Kharkov and at the universities of Odessa and Moscow. During this period, she participated in the revolutionary literary activities of the “Hebrew Octoberists”, a Communist literary group, and one of her earliest poem-cycles, a paean to revolutionary Russia entitled Erez (Land) was published in the group's anthology in 1926. She is unusual among Hebrew poets in expressing nostalgia for the landscapes of the country of her birth. Yocheved migrated to British Palestine, later to be called Israel, in 1928. Her first book of poetry, Merahok was published in 1929. In 1948, her son Nahum (Zuzik) Hazaz from the writer Haim Hazaz died in the 1947–1949 Palestine war. Since then she never wrote a poem again.
Stuart Ross is a Canadian fiction writer, poet, editor, and creative-writing instructor.
Meir Wieseltier was an Israeli poet and translator.
John Asfour was a Lebanese–Canadian poet, writer, and teacher. At the age of 13, a grenade exploded in his face, blinding him during the Lebanese crisis of 1958.
Zachariah Wells is a Canadian poet, critic, essayist and editor.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
The Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were a Canadian program of literary awards, managed, produced and presented annually by the Koffler Centre of the Arts to works judged to be the year's best works of literature by Jewish Canadian writers or on Jewish cultural and historical topics.
Sabine Huynh is a Vietnamese-born French writer, poet, translator, and literary critic.
J. I. Segal, born Yaakov Yitzchak Skolar, was a Canadian Yiddish poet and journalist. He was a pioneer in the creation of Canadian Yiddish literary journals, and was the foremost proponent of literary modernism in Yiddish Canada. His lyric poetry combines religious and folk tradition, modernist American literary practice, and Canadian landscape and atmosphere.
Zechariah Choneh Bergner, better known by his pen name Melech Ravitch, was a Yiddish poet and essayist. Ravitch was one of the world's leading Yiddish literary figures both before and after the Holocaust. His poetry and essays appeared in the international Yiddish press and in anthologies, as well as in translation.
Kenneth Sherman is a Canadian poet and essayist. He has written ten books of poetry. His 2017 memoir, Wait Time, was nominated for the RBC Taylor Prize for non-fiction.
