Gwendolyn MacEwen was one of Canada's best-known mythopoeic writers in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Her startling themes of myth, magic, alchemy, and dream, as well as the setting of many works in exotic lands and cultures and her incantatory, invocatory language, earned praise as her work fascinated and challenged her readers to rethink the boundaries of Canadian literature. She wrote in a wide variety of genres and won several awards for her writing. Science fiction and fantasy comprise only a small portion of her work, but provided her short lyric poems, especially, with themes and imagery throughout her career.

Gwendolyn Margaret McEwen was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 1 September 1941, the second daughter of Alick and Elsie (Mitchell) McEwen, and attended public schools in Toronto and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her interest in science fiction and magic began in childhood: she loved superhero comic books and at age twelve invented...