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.
Two-time Governor General’s Award winner Rudy Wiebe will read from his newly released novel Come Back. Wiebe’s powerful new book follows Hal Wiens—a character first introduced as a teenager in Wiebe’s 1962 novel Peace Shall Destroy Many, now a retired professor in Edmonton—as he grapples with the ongoing legacy of his son’s suicide.
Rudy Wiebe is the author of nine novels, five short-story collections, and ten non-fiction books, Rudy Wiebe has won numerous awards, including two Canada Governor General’s Awards for Fiction, the Charles Taylor Prize, and the Order of Canada. His first novel, Peace Shall Destroy Many, is often identified as the first novel in contemporary Mennonite literature in English. His tenth novel, Come Back, has just been published by Knopf Canada.
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.