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The Origin of Feces: A top nonfiction pick
July 8, 2013David Waltner-Toews's The Origin of Feces: What Excrement Tells Us About Evolution, Ecology, and a Sustainable Society (ECW Press, May 2013) has earned critical acclaim from Publisher's Weekly and Huffington Post. Now Globe Books has named the book a top nonfiction read this summer.
The Origin of Feces may sound like a bathroom read, and although there are plenty of puns, this book comes with a serious message. Critics have drawn comparisons to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.
Book description:
"An entertaining and enlightening exploration of why waste matters, this cultural … -
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Sofia Samatar's 'A Stranger in Olondria' published
June 23, 2013In April 2013, Small Beer Press released Sofia Samatar's first book, A Stranger in Olondria.
The critically acclaimed novel follows Jevick, a pepper-merchant's son, on his ghost-riddled adventure to the distant land of Olondria.
Samatar, an American of Somali and Swiss German Mennonite background, wrote A Stranger in Olondria while teaching English in South Sudan.
“Samatar’s sensual descriptions create a rich, strange landscape, allowing a lavish adventure to unfold that is haunting and unforgettable.”
—Library Journal (*starred review*)“It’s the rare first novel with no unnecessary parts – and, in terms of its elegant language, its …
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New poetry by Joanne Lehman
June 19, 2013Finishing Line Press has released the chapbook Driving in the Fog, the second book of poetry by Joanne Lehman.
This engaging poetry collection embraces ambiguity and poses more questions than answers.
Though many of the poems are set in rural northeastern Ohio, Lehman doesn't limit herself to that landscape; she also includes personal narratives and imaginative retellings of biblical stories.
“ …Lehman’s linguistic tones deepen like winter seeds in the fields of central Ohio. . ; the speaker of these poems travels through wintry landscapes, and interrogates, like Job, the nature of suffering, the fruits of aging, separation, and …
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Biography of folk poet written by Melvin D. Epp
June 16, 2013The Petals of a Kansas Sunflower features the poetry of Marie Harder Epp, a village poet from a Kansas Mennonite community. Her son, Melvin D. Epp, translated her works from German to English for this volume. He presents the poetry within her engaging personal story as well as the larger Anabaptist historical context.
"Epp weaves a fascinating montage of stories, photos, and personal reminiscences that frame the collected poems of his mother, a remarkable and strong woman who, as a farm wife on the Kansas prairies, reared eight children and still found time to reflect on the rugged beauty and …
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First novel by Jessica Penner released
June 16, 2013Foxhead Books has published Jessica Dawn Penner's debut novel, Shaken in the Water. Set in Kansas in the early 1900s, Penner's compelling story follows the life of Agnes, a Mennonite woman born with "a birthmark known in Low German as Tieja Kjoaw, the Tiger's Scar." Reviewer Rudy Wiebe comments, "The reality of the world Jessica Penner creates in 'Shaken in the Water' is never quite what it appears to be: love can so swiftly shift-shape into hatred, rage into compassion, understanding into rejection and longing. But for the reader there is always the Voice calling, 'Herein!'—'Come in!'"
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New book of poems by Todd Davis
June 13, 2013In the Kingdom of the Ditch, Todd Davis's fourth book of poems, has just been published by Michigan State University Press. Davis has also published a chapbook, Household of Water, Moon, and Snow: The Thoreau Poems, parts of which are included in this volume. In this review, Larry Smith calls these poems "lyric meditations on the way life and the world turns," comparing Davis to poets Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry.
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2014 Cincinnati Mennonite Arts Weekend Presenters Announced
April 14, 2013Ah, spring. Don’t you wish you could bottle up that invigorating feeling the season inspires and crack it open on one of those bleak, waning days of winter? Well, it turns out—you can!
Next February, try this: Come to Cincinnati for the 2014 Mennonite Arts Weekend and enjoy a refreshing dose of creative inspiration.
You won’t want to miss the exciting lineup of artist-presenters, which includes:
The Steel Wheels—American Roots folk music
Eric Kaufmann—ceramic artist
Randall Stoltzfus—painter
Angie Clemens—music educator/song leader
Jean Janzen—poet
Kristina Glick—jewelry artist/metalsmith
Karen Thiessen—textile and mixed-media artist
Sarah Boyts Yoder—mixed-media painter
Judy Clemens—writer/novelist
Marilyn Houser Hamm—song … -
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Critical Essays from Mennonite/s Writing VI in MQR
February 10, 2013The most recent issue of The Mennonite Quarterly Review, January 2013, contains critical and scholarly essays from Mennonite/s Writing VI, the conference held at EMU in March 2012, by Ervin Beck, John J. Fisher, Ann Hostetler, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Jesse Nathan, Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Tiessen, as well as tributes to Ervin Beck, Omar Eby, Al Reimer, Elaine Sommers Rich, and Katie Funk Wiebe. For a table of contents and a link to the article by Julia Spicher Kasdorf, go to http://www.goshen.edu/mqr/pastissues/Jan13.html.
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Jane Rohrer featured in The American Poetry Review
January 17, 2013Jane Rohrer, author of Life after Death (Sheep Meadow Press, 2002), is featured in the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of The American Poetry Revew. A special supplement of twelve poems appears in this issue.
A poem by Todd Davis also appears in this issue of APR.
Congratulations to two fine Mennonite poets.
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Call For Creative Nonfiction-- Ruminate
January 1, 2013Ruminate Magazine is a premier literary magazine compatible with the mission and vision of CMW. Therefore we offer the following call for submissions.