Building on its successful 2012 reading series, “Mennonite/s Writing: Celebrating the First 50 Years,” Conrad Grebel University College is pleased to present “Mennonite/s Writing 2014-2015,” a seven session reading series showcasing new work by some of the most prominent authors in the field, including: Rudy Wiebe, Jeff Gundy, Miriam Toews, Patrick Friesen, Di Brandt, David Bergen, and Carrie Snyder.
On Friday, November 14th, U.S. poet and essayist Jeff Gundy will read from his new book of poetry, Circling Defiance, as the second night of this year’s Bechtel Lectures. A key writer in the growing field of “theo-poetics” and an established figure in Mennonite studies, Gundy’s new book extends his ongoing exploration of human nature and the natural world in his signature mix of humour and insight.
Jeff Gundy has published six books of poetry and three of prose; Spoken among the Trees (Akron, 2007) won the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Award, and Walker in the Fog: On Mennonite Writing (Cascadia, 2005), received the Dale Brown Award for Anabaptist and Pietist Scholarship. This year, he published his most recent book of poems (Somewhere Near Defiance, Anhinga Press) and collection of essays (Songs from an Empty Cage: Poetry, Mystery, Anabaptism, and the World, Cascadia). He teaches at Bluffton University in Ohio and was a 2008 Fulbright lecturer at the University of Salzburg.
The series will be hosted by Robert Zacharias, Assistant Editor of The Journal of Mennonite Studies and Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the English Department at the University of Waterloo. He is author of Rewriting the Break Event: Mennonites and Migration in Canadian Literature, and editor of After Identity: Mennonite/s Writing in North America, forthcoming from Penn State UP.
The New Mennonite/s Writing series at Conrad Grebel, which promises seven evenings of compelling literature with some of Canada’s most celebrated authors, is an exciting opportunity for readers and book clubs alike.
Everyone is welcome; admission is free.