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December 2002
vol. 57 no. 4
This issue begins with our continuing tradition of an annual December showcase of contemporary arts. Featuring writers wrestling with the angels of certainty and uncertainty, heresy and truth, lived fictions and grace, consulting editor Raylene Hinz-Penner introduces a selection of works from participants in the recent Mennonite/s Writing conference at Goshen College, and interviews Ann Hostetler on the subject of a forthcoming anthology of Mennonite poetry. Following this sampler of writings, we offer the first
article in a cooperative publication venture with Mennonite Historical
Bulletin. The final article on the school in Wadsworth, Ohio, is timely in
view of the recent removal of the Wadsworth bell to Associated Mennonite
Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.
Stretching Us: A Report from the 2002 Mennonite/s Writing Conference
by Raylene Hinz-Penner
At "Mennonite/s Writing: An International Conference" held at Goshen
College, October 24-27, 2002, and planned by co-chairs Ervin Beck of Goshen
College and Hildi Froese Tiessen of Conrad Grebel University College, those
couple of hundred of us in attendance kept telling each other that such a
gathering of writers would not soon happen again. Big-name Canadians
came–Rudy Wiebe, the grand dean of Mennonite writing, was honored for his
contributions to Mennonite literature forty years after Peace Shall Destroy
Many–and other Canadian writers we in the U.S. had longed to hear: Di
Brandt, Patrick Friesen, Sandra Birdsell, David Waltner-Toews, Sarah
Klassen. It felt a bit like one had entered a waterfall of one's own accord
by enrolling for the weekend, what with the ongoing showers of some nineteen
plenary session readings, including the U.S. "names" too, all gathered at
one place, and reading, reading, reading: Julia Kasdorf on stage with her
baby reading poems of motherhood; Jeff Gundy, his jocular, heretical self;
Dallas Wiebe reading poems of the cross written out of the pain over this
year's loss of his wife, Virginia; Keith Ratzlaff, his normal strange,
chuckling, lyrical/whimsical self, noticing, always noticing; David Wright,
reining in a bit his normal bombastic over-the-edge screaming self; Jean
Janzen, still her dignified, hymn-loving, sensual, worshipping poet-self,
and thus, chosen for Sunday morning, to finish things off. The Japanese
lyricist, Yorifumi Yaguchi, was celebrated and read to us his delicate
poems which grow out of a tradition so clearly apart from the western world
out of which most readers came.
It was a rich, rich weekend if you care about voices which hover around the
"Mennonite" world of writing. The greatest delights, of course, were the
surprises. One almost always gets a surprise from the sagacious likes of a
Dallas Wiebe or a Jeff Gundy–and we were not disappointed. We are
including new work by Dallas and a wonderfully stimulating paper of credos
and propositions for Anabaptist writers by the humorous and smart Jeff
Gundy, who is never afraid to say what should be said. Jeff's paper, titled
"Heresy and the Individual Talent," opens with a Bly quote, "The Christ
Child was not obedient to his parents"–his essay is relevant for the
season, and these times. For me, the joy of the writers' event was also in
the stimulation and excitement of "new" voices, even if only new to me. I
listened one evening to 25 new voices reading at an open microphone. I was privileged to
read in a plenary session with Maurice Mierau, intense, smart,
heart-powered, and I rushed to buy his new book, Ending with Music; we
feature some of his poems here. I sat up straight when I heard the
crackling fiction style of Rosemary Nixon; included here, samples of her
work.
Next year, there will be a Mennonite anthology published by Ann Hostetler,
new professor of literature at Goshen. She has worked the past eight years
on this collection and achieved publication with the University of Iowa
Press.
That process has been a kind of pilgrimage for her. Read about it in her
thoughtful interview. We've included some of her new poems, too. You can
hear her read them on-line. I'm grateful this holiday season for the way in
which the "Mennonites writing" are stretching us beyond typical boundaries.
by Jeff Gundy
| Jeff Gundy has been publishing in Mennonite Life since he taught at Hesston
College many years ago. Since 1984 he has been teaching English at Bluffton
College. Publications include three books of poetry, Rhapsody with Dark
Matter: Poems; Flatlands; and Inquiries: Poems; a genealogical narrative
in voices, A Community of Memory: My Days with George and Clara, and to be
released in March 2003, Scattering Point: The World in a Mennonite Eye, a
creative nonfiction described as "part memoir, part family history, part
meditation on history and the present"–this last work hovers around the
question of what it should mean to "live in the world but not of it." | |
by Dallas Wiebe
| Dallas Wiebe, Mennonite pioneer in creative writing in the U. S., published
widely in leading journals for many years, edited the Cincinnati Poetry
Review, won a Pushcart and an award from the Paris Review. Major
publications include a novel, Skyblue the Badass, two collections of
short stories, The Transparent Eye-ball and Going to the Mountain, a book of
poems, The Kansas Poems. More recently, he published a "Mennonite novel,"
Our Asian Journey, based on his research into the story of the Russian
Mennonite trek to Central Asia. | |
edited by Dallas Wiebe
poems by Maurice Mierau
| Maurice Mierau's first book is a collection of poetry, Ending with Music, from which the poems in this issue are reprinted. The book can be ordered directly from Maurice. Maurice lives in Winnipeg, and grew up in Kansas, Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada. He is currently writing a memoir about living in Jamaica where his parents worked for MCC in the early 1970s. He is obsessed with Mennonite history, jazz, old Hollywood movies, science fiction, and basketball. Maurice maintains a web site. | |
by Rosemary Nixon
| Rosemary Nixon has published two short fiction collections. The first, Mostly Country (NeWest Press 1990) was shortlisted for the Howard O'Hagen Book of the Year Award. Her second, The Cock's Egg (NeWest Press 1994), won the Howard O'Hagen Book of the Year Award. She has recently completed a third book of fiction, a novel, Entanglements, which is presently out with an agent. Nixon has published in literary magazines across Canada. She was the 1996-97 Canadian writer-in-residence for the Markin Flanagan Distinguished Writers Programme at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. | |
by Ann Hostetler
| Ann Hostetler is a poet and professor at Goshen College. | |
by Raylene Hinz-Penner
As part of the on-going process of integrating the historical activities of the former General Conference Mennonite Church and (Old) Mennonite Church into the new Mennonite Church USA, we begin with this issue a cooperative effort in publication with the Mennonite Historical Bulletin. The Bulletin was the periodical of the (Old) Mennonite Historical Committee and continues as a publication of the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee. Mennonite Life was and is published by Bethel College (not by the General Conference or its historical committees), but has been closely associated with the Mennonite Library and Archives and General Conference historical activities. Starting with the December 2002 issue of Mennonite Life and the January 2003 issue of Mennonite Historical Bulletin, we plan to publish one joint article per issue in an effort to make each of our readerships more aware of historical publications in the current context.
The first joint article is about Rachel Weaver Kreider and her involvement in protests against ROTC at Ohio State University in 1935-36. Theron Schlabach, Goshen historian, found the documents for the article in the Guy F. Hershberger collection at the Mennonite Church USA Archives in Goshen. Jim Juhnke, co-editor of Mennonite Life, wrote the article after several interviews with Kreider, his mother-in-law. This is one of the earliest examples of Mennonite women's activist participation in the wider American peace movement.
by James C. Juhnke
| James C. Juhnke is an editor of Mennonite Life and is enjoying his first year of retirement from teaching U. S. history at Bethel College. | |
Maynard Shelly
| Maynard Shelly, North Newton, Kansas, former editor of The Mennonite, is writing a history of the West Swamp Mennonite Church, Quakertown, Pennsylvania, whose ministers and members were actively involved in the founding and running of the Wadsworth (Ohio) Institute (1866-1878). This article is extracted from his chapter covering not only the founding of the school but also events in the congregation. | |
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