CMW Community

Mennonite/s Writing: Manitoba and Beyond
Winnipeg, October 1 - 4, 2009

Featuring a literary tour of southern Manitoba, and readings by: David Bergen, Sandra Birdsell, Di Brandt, David Elias, Patrick Friesen, Sarah Klassen, David Waltner-Toews, Armin Wiebe, Rudy Wiebe and others to be confirmed.

Writers who have grown up within the Mennonite communities of Manitoba have made a huge contribution to Canadian literature over the course of the last half century. Among those recently nominated for national literary awards are novelists David Bergen, Sandra Birdsell, Miriam Toews, Rudy Wiebe and poets Di Brandt and Patrick Friesen. These and other Mennonite writers well known in the worlds of Canadian literature and beyond (among them Sarah Klassen, David Waltner-Toews, Armin Wiebe, David Elias) have roots in various parts of Manitoba. Most of these writers were first published by Manitoba’s premier literary publisher, Turnstone Press. Several were founding members of the Manitoba Writers Guild. Many first received attention in Winnipeg’s literary magazine, Prairie Fire. Their work is read around the world.

“Mennonite/s Writing: Manitoba and Beyond,” the fifth international conference on Mennonite/s Writing since 1990, invites proposals for scholarly papers on the work of individual “Mennonite” writers and on Mennonite writers’ inscription(s) of Winnipeg or Manitoba landscapes. Papers on other subjects related to Mennonite/s writing across North America will also be considered.

The conference will begin with a public reading on Thursday evening, October 1, 2009 and conclude Sunday October 4, with a day-long literary bus tour featuring sites inscribed and/or inhabited by Manitoba’s writers of Mennonite heritage.

Deadline for submissions: February 25, 2009.

Please send a 300-word proposal for a conference paper of no more than 20 minutes in a WordPerfect or Word file to BOTH conference organizers:

• Royden Loewen, Chair in Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg: r.loewen@uwinnipeg.ca
• Hildi Froese Tiessen, Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo: htiessen@uwaterloo.ca

Your three-hundred-word proposal should feature a clear statement of the central theme or argument of your paper. Please include, also, a 150-word biographical statement and a list of relevant bibliographical sources. Provide your name, academic affiliation (if applicable), and contact email address.

A selection of the papers presented at the conference will be published in the Journal of Mennonite Studies.

Conference information will be posted from time to time. Google “Mennonite Studies”—or consult the web-sites of the two hosting institutions:

• Chair of Mennonite Studies, University of Winnipeg
• Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo