AustLit

Barbara Canin is the daughter of orthodox Jews from Lithuania (mother) and Latvia (father who fought in the Red Army during WWI). Her parents migrated to South Africa in 1926 and she went to school and university in Cape Town, graduating with a bachelor's degree in music in 1956. Canin then sailed to London where she was married to Leonard Berlin. After living in Holland, Israel and UK the family emigrated and arrived in Australia with their three children on the Iberia. Canin gave private piano lessons and played for ballet schools and accompanied her daughter, a violinist, and son, a cellist,in various concerts and recitals around Sydney 1975-1980. In 1986 Canin went to London for two years where she studied linguistics and language and the case-histories of Freud. Returning to Sydney, she wrote poetry, plays, articles and short stories and taught classes in creative writing for U3A and WEA. She later moved to Melbourne. Canin taught creative writing for U3A at the Stonnington Centre for Adult Education on a voluntary basis, 1998-2012.