CMW Community

A one-day bus tour of literary Manitoba, with writers reading in the very
landscapes their work inscribes, is one of the special features of the fifth
international conference on Mennonite/s Writing, to take place at the
University of Winnipeg on October 1-4, 2009. Rudy Wiebe, Di Brandt, David
Bergen, and Patrick Friesen, along with Armin Wiebe, David Elias, Sarah
Klassen, David Waltner-Toews, Maurice Mierau, John Weier, Al Reimer and
others - all have lived and worked in this prairie landscape. Almost all
have roots in the Mennonite communities of Winnipeg and/or southern
Manitoba. All will read from their work.

This Winnipeg conference, with readings on Thursday and Friday evenings and
Friday and Saturday afternoons, will also present the work of literary
scholars from across this continent and abroad. On Friday and Saturday they
will offer commentaries on individual works of fiction and poetry, and will
address more general subjects such as the influence of place in Mennonite/s
writing and the nature of Mennonite literature's diverse audiences. They
will also offer commentary on such themes as love, martyrdom, community, and
personal narrative among Mennonites and within "Mennonite" writing.

The conference is free and open to the public. All sessions will take place
in the University of Winnipeg's Convocation Hall. Conference sponsors
include the University of Winnipeg, Conrad Grebel University College at the
University of Waterloo, the Canada Council for the Arts, D.F. Plett
Historical Foundation, the Writers Union of Canada, the League of Canadian
Poets, and Canadian Mennonite University.

For more information, please visit:
http://mennonitestudies.uwinnipeg.ca/events/writing/writingprogram.php
Conference co-chairs: Royden Loewen, Chair in Mennonite Studies
r.loewen@uwinnipeg
and Hildi Froese Tiessen, Conrad Grebel University College
htiessen@uwaterloo.ca