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Gwen Molnar

Author/Performer

7216-114A Street
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 1N2
Phone: (780) 435-1952
Email: ggmolnar@shaw.ca
Web: www.gwenmolnar.com

Born: October 30, 1926. Edmonton, Alberta
Family: George D. Molnar

Biography

Poet, painter and writer of children's fiction, Edmonton-born Gwen Molnar served in the Canadian Navy (WRCNS), graduated from the University of Alberta, was Film Librarian for the National Film Board’s Alberta office and for 23 years lived in Rochester, Minnesota where her husband, George, was a Mayo Clinic consultant. Gwen worked as a medical proof-reader at Mayo’s before their Jane and Charles were born.

Gwen is the author of two poetry collections for children, I Said to Sam, and Animal Rap and Far Out Fables, three Sebastian first chapter books and an early chapter book, No Presents Please and has been published in several children’s magazines and in six anthologies. Her work has been read on the CBC, animated on Fred Penner's Place, and read on Sherri Lewis’ Lamb Chops Show. Gwen's paintings hang in many public and private collections.

Published Works

Print

Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son Scooter, Humpty Dumpty in Mary Had a Little Jam, Meadowbrook Press, 2004
The Tale of the Worms in A Vocal Invitation to Readers Theatre, UOTTER READ-IT, 2001
People of the Deer Remembered, in anthology Walking Barefoot, Rowan Press, 2001
Sebastian’s Collection Connection, Hodgepog, Vancouver, 2001
Going Up?, Chirp Magazine, 2000
No Presents Please, Roussan Publishers Inc. Montreal, 2000
Sebastian’s Promise, Book Collective, (Hodgepog Imprint), Edmonton, 1999
Summer With Sebastian, Book Collective, (Hodgepog Imprint), Edmonton, 1997
Animal Rap and Far-Out Fables, Beach Holme Publishers, Vancouver, 1996
Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son Scooter, in New Rhymes for Playtime, Simon and Schuster, 1995
Clancy’s Birthday Treehouse, Chickadee Magazine, October 1994
I Said to Sam, reprinted in 18 Southam Newspapers on Story Time Page, June 1994
Diddle, Diddle Dumpling, My Son Scooter and Humpty Dumpty in The New Adventures of Mother Goose, Meadowbrook Press, 1993
Where it’s At and Choices in, There Will Always be a Sky, Houghton Mifflin (Canada), 1993
The Lunch Bunch, Chickadee Magazine, October, 1991
Going Up? Chickadee Magazine, January, 1990
I Said to Sam, BIG BOOK, Scholastic-TAB Publications Ltd., New York, Toronto,London, Auckland, Sydney, 1987
I Said to Sam, Scholastic-TAB Publications Ltd., New York, Toronto, London,Auckland, Sydney, 1987
Inside Out in Window of Dreams, Anthology of New Canadian Writing for Children, Methuen (Canada), 1986
Country Summer and City Summer, Chickadee Magazine, Summer 1986
Hotshot Dan McCall, Buzz Magazine, March 1986
The Tale of the Worms Quarry Magazine, Special Issue, New Writing for and about Children, Winter, 1985

Television

Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son Scooter, on New Adventures of Mother Goose, Syndicated Television Special with Sally Struthers 1995
Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son Scooter and Humpty Dumpty, Sherri Lewis’ Lamb Chops Show, P.B.S., 1994
Going Up? and Where it’s At animated on Fred Penner’s Place, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, October 1986

Radio

“Hagfish” and “Rock Talk” read on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Morningside, 1985, 1986

Performances

Selected poems read on CJSR (University of Alberta Radio Station), May 2004

Exhibitions

Prints on display at Ruckus Gallery, Whyte Avenue, Edmonton

Awards

Exporting Alberta Award 2000, Canadian Authors Association, for Sebastian’s Promise
Runner Up, Alberta Writers Guild Award for Children’s Literature, 1997, for Animal Rap and Far-Out Fables
First Prize, Canadian Author’s Association Poetry Contest, 1995, for Around the World for a Shortcut

Other Memberships

Writers Union of Can, League of Can Poets, Can Authors Assn., Children’s Literature Round Table, Jane Austen Soc, Latitude 53 Artists Assn. Edmonton

Available For

I do school presentations for the "Young Alberta Book Festival Society" and will do such visits for the CAA Alberta’s new "Writer in the Schools Program" starting this March. I'd be willing to do other presentations in Edmonton.