In Print
New in December, 2024, my hybrid memoir, Tree and Fruit: A Writer's Life and Work (Toronto, Twoffish Press)
Tree and Fruit is the account of a writer and artist’s restless creativity into old age. Now in her eighties, Marvyne relates with wit and a keen eye the many facets of the life she has created. Born in 1942, she was the first child and grandchild in a close but atypical Jewish family in Winnipeg’s north end. Coming of age against the backdrop of changing social norms and societal values, the author paints a vivid and textured picture of her early years. In early 1960s Toronto, living with her actor father and meeting people in the arts, she becomes an independent single woman with her own brand of feminism as she pursues a life of value and integrity. Searching and optimistic, Marvyne Jenoff’s personal history and a collection of her previously published favourite stories and essays: fruit that could have come only from that tree. Available in Kindle and in soft cover through Amazon or through the author. |
New in March 2022: My poetry book, Climbing the Rain, Silver Bow Publishing. A video of readings from Climbing the Rain, accompanied by my visual art, was produced for the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto. See it here.
From the back cover: "The joyous, insightful poems in Climbing the Rain are a culmination of Marvyne Jenoff's sixty year literary career. Odd notions, minute occurrences, wry observations, and some perceptive musings on a love relationship--all are expressed in exuberant wordplay. This collection will certainly delight and deeply move the reader." Available in soft cover and e-book through bookstores, Silver Bow Publishing, Amazon, or directly through me. |
Anthology Publication
Marvyne's work is included in Hologram: an Homage to P.K.Page, in memory of this well-known Canadian poet and visual artist. Edited by Yvonne Blomer and D.C. Reid, the book was published in the fall, 2023 by Caitlin Press. This beautiful book includes poems and brief reminiscences by poets across the country and intersperses colour reproductions of some of Page’s visual art. Marvyne’s poem, "It’s There,” referencing her paintings based on hands, also appears in Climbing the Rain, her latest book of poetry, 2022.
Marvyne's work is included in Hologram: an Homage to P.K.Page, in memory of this well-known Canadian poet and visual artist. Edited by Yvonne Blomer and D.C. Reid, the book was published in the fall, 2023 by Caitlin Press. This beautiful book includes poems and brief reminiscences by poets across the country and intersperses colour reproductions of some of Page’s visual art. Marvyne’s poem, "It’s There,” referencing her paintings based on hands, also appears in Climbing the Rain, her latest book of poetry, 2022.
Poem published online in the League of Canadian Poets' Poetry Pause, November 18, 2022 (archived), also in Climbing the Rain:
Fish Tank
Suppose, as I fell,
my head had hit the fish tank:
broken-off glass corner
deep in the side of my skull
familiar, like migraine
soothed by the slightly-warm
fish-temperature water
rivering onto the pale carpet
over the shards of glass and over me,
the water spilling carnivals of fish
to tumble over my thick blood
and flex themselves for freedom.
The spotted, striped, spectacularly-finned
--O, let me see their colours while I can--
fish off to find their ocean,
my ocean finding me.
Fish Tank
Suppose, as I fell,
my head had hit the fish tank:
broken-off glass corner
deep in the side of my skull
familiar, like migraine
soothed by the slightly-warm
fish-temperature water
rivering onto the pale carpet
over the shards of glass and over me,
the water spilling carnivals of fish
to tumble over my thick blood
and flex themselves for freedom.
The spotted, striped, spectacularly-finned
--O, let me see their colours while I can--
fish off to find their ocean,
my ocean finding me.