Maria Jacobs

Maria Jacobs was born as Marja Schröder in the Netherlands. She lived in Amersfoort, a medium-size city in the heart of the country. Her family became actively involved in the concealment and care of Jews sought by the Germans in occupied Holland.

In the mid-fifties she came to North America with her young husband Peter Moens. Since then she has lived in New York and Toronto, borne three sons and two daughters, and obtained a BA in mathematics and an MA in English.

After this, for many years, she ran The Axle-tree Coffee House in downtown Toronto, where poets and musicians met. She published a magazine, Poetry Toronto, for about a decade, wrote three books of poetry, and edited several anthologies. She was a member of the team of readers which screened the entries for the CBC Literary Competition conducted by Robert Weaver for over twenty years.

With her friend and fellow-poet Heather Cadsby, she founded the publishing house of Wolsak and Wynn in 1982, of which she is presently the publisher and sole proprietor. She lives in the Beaches area of Toronto with two handsome cats, Soot and Il Tigretto.

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