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.
To reserve a place on the 'Literary Bus Tour' please mail a cheque for $50.00 to Royden Loewen, Chair in Mennonite Studies, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada, R3B 2E9.
For more information, please visit the Mennonite/s Writing: Manitoba & Beyond event webpage.
The conference co-chairs are Royden Loewen, Chair in Mennonite Studies
and Hildi Froese Tiessen, Conrad Grebel University College.