Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Lazechko-Haas, Myra
Parallel form(s) of name
- Maara Haas
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
[1920]-2012
History
Myra Lazechko Haas (Maara Haas) won her first award for writing at the age of 15 - a Laura Secord first prize award from the Independent Order of the Daughters of the Empire for her essay "Let No Man Dare to Call Me Foreigner". She was a graduate of Journalism from the University of California- Berkeley. Her first novel "The Street Where I Live" was published in 1976. Myra's literary work was published in The Canadian Review of Literature, The Indian Record, The Washington Post and The Canadian Dimension. She enjoyed speaking on her writing tours and made special appearances in schools to teach creative writing classes/workshops. Myra was a national board member of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, a representative for the Status of Women, and an honorary member of the Canadian Women's Institute representing rural women in Manitoba. Her second book, "On Stage with Maara Haas" (1986), was comprised of short stories and poems. It was also narrated on cassette tape. Myra also provided narrations for films from the National Film Board of Canada and on CBC radio: The Hair Pin Story in Passing Parade; Box Cars and The Green-Roses Kerchief and 12 episodes of In Search of Multicultural Women in Identities; The Year of the Drought in Manitoba Short Stories; and a Western Living interview about her adventures through the Northwest Territories. Myra also performed at the Manitoba Theatre Centre and had a film role in a CTV production, Gentle Sinners (1983). She passed away in 2012.