MENNONITE/S WRITING: BEYOND
BORDERS
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Oct. 26
3:00-8:00
Registration:
Opening
Session—Founders Hall
7:00 General Welcome: Jeff Gundy
Introduction
of Kathleen Norris: Lee Snyder
Keynote Address: Kathleen Norris:
“Everyday Mystery: A Religious Life in the Real
World”
8:15 Plenary
Session 1: Founders Hall
Chair:
Hildi Froese Tiessen
9:30 Reception and
Book Signing: Marbeck Center Gallery
Friday, Oct. 27
8:00-5:00
Registration: Yoder Recital Hall Lobby
10-5:00 Mixed Media
Exhibit: Yoder Recital Hall Lobby
The Violence of Plowshares by Janet Kauffman
A
note on the exhibit from Janet Kauffman:
Turning
“swords to plowshares” is a familiar phrase to all opposed to the
violence of war. The vision of farming as a peaceful way of life, surrounded by
idyllic and pastoral landscapes, is a deeply-rooted dream in American –
and Mennonite – life. That dream has turned nightmare, where I live. This
exhibit draws on my experience in
8:30-10:00
Concurrent Session 1
Section
A: New Approaches to Martyrs Mirror (Kreider Board Room,
Chair:
Megan Schoen
Kirsten
Beachy, “Me and the Martyrs”
Gerald
Biesecker-Mast, “’Adieu, my beloved, and always persevere steadfastly,’:
Mennonite Love Letters in the Martyrs
Mirror”
Melissa
Friesen, “Faithful Performances: Anabaptist Women and the Performance of
Martyrdom in the Martyrs Mirror”
Section
B: Writing Lives and Life-Writing (Yoder Recital Hall)
Chair:
Paul Nisly
Brad
Born, “Crossing the Mennonite Family Farm’s Boundary: Gordon
Friesen’s Homegrown Grapes of Wrath”
Connie
Braun, “Silence, Memory and Imagination as Story: Canadian Mennonite Life
Writing”
David
Kline, “On Wendell Berry”
Raylene
Hinz-Penner, “Writing a Life: Border Crossing”
Section
C: Fiction Reading
(Musselman Library Reading Room)
Chair:
Phyllis Bixler
Judy
Clemens
Kirsten
Klassen
Evie
Yoder Miller
10:00 Break and
Refreshments: Yoder Recital Hall Lobby
10:30-11:15 Plenary
Session 2: Yoder Recital Hall
Kathleen
Norris: “Shaping A Life That Matters” (Brief presentation and Q & A)
11:15-12:15:
Plenary Session 3: Yoder Recital Hall
“State
of the Art?”
Chair:
David Wright
Jeff
Gundy, Ann Hostetler, Hildi Froese Tiessen
12:15-1:30 Lunch
Lunch
Group with Kathleen Norris: Presidents Room
Student
Lunch: Marbeck A & B
Lunch
Interest Groups: Marbeck Commons
1:30-3:00
Concurrent Session 2
Section
A: Canadian Mennonite Fiction (1): Rudy Wiebe et al. (Kreider Board Room)
Chair:
Paul Tiessen
Geraldine
Balzer, “A Postcolonial Reading of Rudy Wiebe’s Sweeter Than All the World”
Malin
Sigvardson, “Mennonite Migration in Rudy Wiebe: Wandering Without
Transgression”
Doug
Zook, “Reading Mennonite Literature on the (Psychoanalytic) Couch”
Section
B: Poets and Poetics (1)
(Yoder Recital Hall)
Chair:
Jane Hoogestraat
Wilbur
Birky, “Staring Down the Muzzle from Yamoto to
John
Fisher, “Toward Transformative
Mennonite Peace Poetry: Seamus Heaney and John Paul Lederach
Julia
Spicher Kasdorf, “An Essential Stranger: Nick Lindsay and Contemporary
Mennonite Poetry”
Yorifumi
Yaguchi: Poems and Commentary
Section
C: Cascadia Poets (Musselman
Library Reading Room)
Chair:
Michael King, Editor, Cascadia Publishing House
Cheryl
Denise
Debra
Gingerich
Ann
Hostetler
David
Wright
3:00 Break and
Refreshments: Yoder Recital Hall
3:30-5:00
Concurrent Session 3:
Section
A: Canadian Mennonite Fiction (3) (Kreider Board Room)
Chair:
Brad Born
Edna
Froese, “Transgresssion into Grace: Elias’s Sunday Afternoon”
Beth
Martin Birky, “Re)membering
Community: Sandra Birdsell's Katya and the Body of Believers”
Maryann Jantzen, “Caught in Translation:
Transcultural Strategies in Canadian Mennonite Writing”
Section B: Poets and Poetics (2) (Yoder Recital
Hall)
Chair:
Todd Davis, “’This Reckless
Journey’: Immanence and Transcendence in the Poetry of Jean Janzen”
Ami Regier, “Dubious Narrators and Community
in Process: Dubious Angels and Deerflies”
David Wright, “Dubious Crosses: The Necessity
of Unbelief in the Poetry of
Section C: Fiction Reading (Musselman
Library Reading Room)
Chair: Susan Carpenter
Gordon Houser
Kristen Mathies
Carrie Snyder
5:30 Dinner:
Marbeck Commons/on your own
7:00 Plenary
Session 4: Yoder Recital Hall
A
Conversation with Jean Janzen, John Ruth, and Rudy Wiebe
Moderator:
Julia Spicher Kasdorf
8:00 Plenary
Session 5: Yoder Recital Hall
Introductions:
David
Elias, G.C. Waldrep, Todd Davis,
Rhoda Janzen, J. L. Conrad, Keith Ratzlaff
9:30 Book
Signing/Reception: Yoder Recital Hall Lobby
10:00 Late Night
Concert: Bob’s Place
Music
by Brad Yoder
Saturday, Oct. 28
8:30-10:00
Concurrent Session 4
Section
A: Poets and Poetics (3) (Kreider Board Room)
Chair:
Beth Martin Birky
Debra
Gingerich, “Taking Advantage: Subculture in the Poetry of Judith Ortiz
Cofer, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, and Naomi Shihab Nye”
Bobby
Meyer-Lee, “A Defense of Ornament: Poetic Language, the Female Body, and
the Poetry of Julia Spicher Kasdorf”
Eva
Teague, “Writing Like a . . . : What Mennonites and Ecofeminists Can
Learn from Talking about Women”
Section
B: Working Across Genres (Stutzman
Lecture Hall, Centennial Hall 104)
Chair:
Gerald Biesecker-Mast
Trevor
Bechtel, “A Theologian’s Mus(e/ic)”
Phyllis
Bixler, "A Newsweek Collage Journal: Crossing Borders Verbal/Visual,
Personal/Public, Author/Reader, Presenter/Audience"
Lauren
Friesen, “Carel Van Mander (1548-1607): Anabaptist Playwright, Painter,
Educator, and Art Theorist”
Section
C: Poetry Reading (Musselman
Library Reading Room)
Chair:
Raylene Hinz-Penner
Carmen
Horst
Stephanie
Pyle
Rebecca
Rossiter
Jessica
Smucker Falcon
Esther
Stenson
10:00: Break and
Refreshments: Yoder Recital Hall Lobby
10:30-12:00
Concurrent Session 5:
Section
A: Writing Amish Women/Amish Women Writing (Stutzman Lecture Hall, Cent.
104)
Chair:
Marilyn Lehman
Vi
Dutcher, “’Hurry Back!’:
The Circle Letter as Communal Liaison in Anabaptist Female Literacy
Practice”
Beth
Graybill, “Writing Amish Women: The Fiction of Beverly Lewis”
Section
B: Canadian Mennonite Fiction (2): Miriam Toews et al. (Musselman Library Reading Room)
Chair:
Edna Froese
Susan
Kennedy, “Nonresistance and Conflict in A Complicated Kindness”
Magdalene
Redekop, “Nostalgia, Ethnicity, and the Language of Comedy: From Sarah Binks to A Complicated Kindness”
Paul
Tiessen, “’Thanks a lot, Menno’: Mennonite Performance and
Postmodern Spectatorship in Novels by Sandra Birdsell, Miriam Toews, and Dallas
Wiebe”
Section
C: Poetry
Chair:
Fran Martens Friesen
Fran
Martens Friesen
Earl
Martin
Janet
Reedy
12:15-1:30 Lunch:
Marbeck Commons/on your own
1:30-3:00 Plenary
Session 6: Yoder Recital Hall
Introducing
Half in the Sun: Anthology of Mennonite
Writing
Editors: Elsie K. Neufeld, Robert Martens, Leonard Neufeldt.
Co-editors: Maryann Jantzen, Louise Price.
3:00 Break and
Refreshments: Yoder Recital Hall Lobby
3:30-5:00
Concurrent Session 6
Section
A: Innovations in Form and Substance (Stutzman Lecture Hall)
Chair:
Ami Regier
Jane
Hoogestraat, “Three Anthologies about Gay and Lesbian Mennonite
Experience as a Call for Dialogue Across Borders”
Michael
King, “At the End of Mennonite Writing: A Pastor’s and
Publisher’s Perspective”
Rebekah
Trollinger, “’Holy Frustrations’ in Mennonite Kitchens”
Section
B: Mennonite Memoirs (Kreider
Board Room)
Chair:
Cindy Bandish
Ryan
Ahlgrim, “Saint Sylvester”
J.
Daniel Hess, “The Making of Non-Fiction Story”
Levi
Miller, “Confessions of poorly echoing the vanished Mennonite bishop and
offending the Mennonite artists and their liberal friends”
Section C: Poetry Reading (Musselman Library
Reading Room)
Chair: G. C. Waldrep
Nathan Bartel
Melanie Cameron
Matt
Guynn
Joanne Lehman
James Pannabecker
Section D: Student Session (Centennial Hall
205)
Chair: Lamar Nisly
Jesse Nathan
Hannah
Klaassen, “Recognizing Significance: Sacred Places and Their Notability
for Mennonites and Beyond”
Heidi
Martin, nonfiction
Mandy
Tirey, poetry
6:30 Banquet:
Marbeck Commons
Special
Music: Carol Ann Weaver and Rebecca Campbell
Tributes: Jean
Janzen by Julia Spicher Kasdorf
Sarah Klassen by Hildi Froese Tiessen
Nick Lindsay by Jeff Gundy
9:00 Concert: Yoder Recital Hall
Carol
Ann Weaver and Rebecca Campbell
10:00 Late Night
Open
Sunday, Oct. 29
9:30
Worship/Celebration: Yoder Recital Hall
Worship
Leader: Jeff Gundy
Meditation
by Scott Holland
Music:
Carol Ann Weaver and Rebecca Campbell
10:30 Concluding Panel
Discussion: Yoder Recital Hall
Di
Brandt, Todd Davis, Rhoda Janzen, Jessica Smucker Falcon, Paul Tiessen
Jeff
Gundy (moderator)