Sheldon Oberman life and biography

Sheldon Oberman was a Canadian children's writer who lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Oberman started writing in the mid-seventies, inspired by bedtime stories he told his children. An important development in his career as a writer was the summer he spent at the Banff School of Fine Arts where he studied under W.O. Mitchell. Oberman published twelve books, including the award-winning Always Prayer Shawl (1999), The Shaman's Nephew (1999; short-listed for the Governor General's Award), The Island of the Minotaur, and "Solomon and the Ant and other Jewish Folktales" (2006), (published posthumously).

Oberman acted and directed in both film and stage plays, and toured North America as a professional storyteller. He wrote columns and freelance articles for the Winnipeg Free Press and published children's songs, stories and poems in a number of magazines, journals and anthologies.

He died of stomach cancer on March 26, 2004.

Works:

A Mirror of a People: Canadian Jewish Experience in Poetry and Prose - 1985
TV Sal and the Game Show from Outer Space - 1993
The Business with Elijah - 1993
The White Stone in the Castle Wall - 1994
The Always Prayer Shawl - 1999
By the Hanukkah Light - 1997
The Shaman's Nephew - 1999 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
The Wisdom Bird: A Tale of Solomon and Sheba - 2000

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