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Marian Engel, OC, née Marian Ruth Passmore (May 24, 1933 — February 16, 1985) was a Canadian novelist.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, she was educated at McMaster University and McGill University, where she wrote her Masters thesis on the English Canadian novel, under the supervision of Hugh MacLennan. She taught briefly at McGill and at the University of Montana.

She married Howard Engel in 1962, and began to raise a family and pursue a writing career. The couple had two children and divorced in 1977.

Her first published novel, No Clouds of Glory, was published in 1968. Engel's most famous and controversial novel was Bear (1976), a tale of erotic love between a librarian and a bear which won the Governor General's Award. She also wrote a number of children's books.

In 1982 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

After Engel's death in 1985, the Writer's Development Trust of Canada instituted the Marian Engel Award, which is presented annually to a woman writer in mid-career.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marian Engel", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0