Building on its successful 2012 reading series, “Mennonite/s Writing: Celebrating the First 50 Years,” Conrad Grebel University College is pleased to present “New Mennonite/s Writing,” 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 Wednesday, February 4th, Di Brandt will read from a collection of poems in progress. The dynamic author of more than a dozen celebrated books of poetry, criticism, and fiction, Brandt currently teaches Canadian Literature and Creative Writing at Brandon University, and is the Manitoba Public Libraries Writer-in-Residence for 2014-2015.
Di Brandt has published more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction, literary criticism and creative essays. A former CRC Chair in Literature and Creative Writer, she now teaches Canadian Literature and Creative Writing at Brandon University, and is the Manitoba Public Libraries Writer-in-Residence for 2014-2015. In addition to the numerous awards she has won for her poetry (including the CAA National Poetry Prize and the Gerald Lampert Award), Brandt, with Barbara Godard, won the 2010 Gabrielle Roy Prize for “best book of literary criticism in Canada” for Wider Boundaries of Daring, and the Forward Gold Medal for Fiction with Annie Jacobsen and Jane Finlay-Young for Watermelon Syrup, in 2009.
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.