- March 18, 2016
University of Manitoba Press invites you to celebrate the launch of Robert Zacharias’ collection on Mennonite writing through the lens of identity.
When: Friday March 18, 7:30 pm
Where: McNally Robinson Booksellers (1120 Grant Avenue), Winnipeg.
Cost: FREE
The event features editor Robert Zacharias and special guests Di Brandt and Royden Loewen. Light refreshments provided.
About the Book
For decades, the field of Mennonite literature has been dominated by the question of Mennonite identity. After Identity: Mennonite Writing in North America offers a cohesive platform for an reappraisal of Mennonite literature and literary criticism, as well as a reflection of current conversations in the field about Mennonite literary discourse and cultural identity.
After Identity features twelve interdisciplinary essays from scholars who see Mennonite writing transitioning beyond a tradition concerned primarily with defining itself and its cultural milieu. Contributors explore the histories and contexts—as well as the gaps—that have informed and diverted the perennial focus on identity in Mennonite literature, even as that identity is reread, reframed, and expanded. Together, the essays in this volume interrogate what is at stake in this ongoing preoccupation with identity and explore the potential for a move towards a truly post-identity literature.
About the Authors
Robert Zacharias is a Visiting Scholar in the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. He is Assistant Editor of the Journal of Mennonite Studies; co-editor, with Smaro Kamboureli, of Shifting the Ground of Canadian Literature, and author of Rewriting the Break Event: Mennonites and Migration in Canadian Literature.
Di Brandt is a poet, essayist, teacher, and critic living in Brandon, Manitoba. Turnstone Press recently published a new edition of questions i asked my mother (1987), winner of the Gerald Lampert Award and nominee for the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry and the Dillons Commonwealth Poetry Prize.
Royden Loewen is a professor of history and Chair of Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg. His books include Family, Church and Market: A Mennonite Community in the Old and New Worlds, and Horse-and-Buggy Genius: Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World.
