Marianne Ackerman
Marianne Ackerman is a novelist, playwright and journalist. Born in Belleville, Ontario, she studied political science at Carleton University before leaving for Paris to study at the Sorbonne. In 1981, she received an M.A. in drama from the University of Toronto. After moving to Montreal as a free-lance writer in the early 80s, she joined The Gazette, twice winning the Nathan Cohen Award for theatre criticism. In 1989, she crossed the line to co-found Theatre 1774 with Clare Schapiro, for which she wrote L’Affaire Tartuffe, Woman by a Window, Celeste (Nuage Editions) and Blue Valentine. Her collaboration with Karen Young and four Canadian writers, Sliding in All Directions, won a Masque as Best Anglophone Production. In 1997, she resumed an old love affair with France, settling in Provence, where she wrote her first novel, the best-selling Jump (about a woman who flees Montreal theatre). Now back in Montreal, she has just published a second novel, Matters of Hart (about an exile’s return). She hosts a writers’ workshop each summer in Provence, a collaboration with Montreal playwright Kent Stetson.
