Person

Adilman, Mona Elaine

1924-1991

Mona Elaine Adilman was born on May 8, 1924, in Montreal, Quebec.

She was a Jewish-Canadian poet and editor. She received her B.A. from McGill University in 1945. Adilman was committed to social and environmental causes, warning Quebecers against the dangers of pesticides. She created and taught a course on Ecology and Literature at Concordia University and directed a Heritage Group called Save Montreal. She edited an anthology of writings from prison called “Spirits of the Age: Poets of Conscience” (1989). In 1951, Adilman married Dr. Morris Solomon (1922–2002), and they had one daughter, Shelley Solomon. Her daughter established the Mona Elaine Adilman Lectureship on the Environment in her mother's memory. A scholarship called the Mona Elaine Adilman Poetry Prize was established in 1992 in the Department of English at McGill University. The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies annually awards the Mona Elaine Adilman English Fiction and Poetry Award on a Jewish Theme as one of the J.I. Segal Awards. Adilman was the author of several collections of poems, e.g., "Cult of Concrete" (1977), "Piece Work" (1980) and "Candles in the Dark' (1990).

She died on October 5, 1991, in Montreal, Quebec.