Mennonite conference to mull memoirs

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This article was published 07/10/2017 (3248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Academics and authors from across North America, many with Winnipeg connections, will gather at the University of Winnipeg Oct. 19-22 to discuss the tradition of memoir and personal narrative in Mennonite writing.

The eighth annual Mennonite/s Writing conference, subtitled “Personal Narratives of Place and Displacement,” will examine narratives of faith and religion, intergenerational issues, the centennial of the Russian Revolution and the Mennonite writing about the Soviet experience, as well as scholarly questions about the memoir genre.

Current and former Winnipeg writers taking part in the event include Miriam Toews, Dora Dueck, Maurice Mierau, Di Brandt, Casey Plett, Mary Ann Loewen and David Elias.

The event, hosted by the Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies, is free. A Mennonite literature driving tour of Winnipeg is offered on the last day of the conference for $35.

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Giller Prize-winning author Linden MacIntyre (The Bishop’s Man) presents a mystery that links present-day Canada with 1982 Lebanon in his new novel, The Only Café.

In his new novel, a man begins to investigate the disappearance and death of his successful lawyer father after a mysterious guest shows up at the father’s tribute, held at the eponymous café. MacIntyre launches the novel at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Friday at 7 p.m.

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The young adult book world has another scandal on its hands — a first-time author whose publishing company appears to have bulk purchased books in order to land in the No. 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list.

YA writer and blogger Phil Stamper first raised doubts about the sudden appearance of Handbook For Mortals, by Lani Sarem.

Further investigation, chronicled on the website pajiba.com, brought forth sources claiming knowledge of bulk-buying. A week later, the Times took the book off the bestseller list.

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The only province to have a sales tax on books is set to reverse course in January after a year and a half of opposition from readers.

Newfoundland and Labrador brought in the 10 per cent tax in April 2016, at the same time the province cut library funding by $1 million. That cut led to the closing of more than half of the province’s libraries, mostly in rural areas.

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An American twist on the Joseph Boyden controversy saw an Alaskan writer nominated in August for the PEN Center Literary Awards in the young adult category, for his book Stealing Indians, only to see the nomination pulled when a 20-year-old controversy re-emerged.

John Smelcer’s claims to Alaskan Indigenous heritage have been disputed in the past, but a story in the L.A. Times after the nomination have brought the doubts to the fore. Investigations by the Times and the website The Stranger also suggest a pattern of fabrication — including a fake blurb by Norman Mailer and fake letter by the Dalai Lama for two earlier books.

Smelcer, whose adopted father was Indigenous and who is a member of an Alaskan Indigenous tribal organization, says on his website the accusations started in the 1990s with a jealous colleague and an abusive attack on his reputation by his father.

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Author and explorer Adam Shoalts takes an old-school approach to Canadian history during the country’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

His new book, A History of Canada in Ten Maps, combines storytelling, cartography, geography, archaeology and history to explore the stories behind early maps, including those made by the Vikings and Samuel de Champlain.

Shoalts, who spent much of this year on a five-month canoe trip in the Arctic, had an earlier bestseller with Alone Against the North, his story of his paddle down a river in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, the first such recorded voyage.

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