Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from one of the early prominent leaders of the Dutch Anabaptist movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radical Reformation, Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders, with the early teachings of the Mennonites founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus, which the original Anabaptist followers held with great conviction, despite persecution by various Roman Catholic and Mainline Protestant states. Formal Mennonite beliefs were codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith in 1632, which affirmed "the baptism of believers only, the washing of the feet as a symbol of servanthood, church discipline, the shunning of the excommunicated, the non-swearing of oaths, marriage within the same church", strict pacifistic physical nonresistance, anti-Catholicism and in general, more emphasis on "true Christianity" involving "being Christian and obeying Christ" however they interpret it from the Holy Bible.
Di Brandt often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018.
Sandra Louise Birdsell, CM is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Métis and Mennonite heritage from Morris, Manitoba.
Catherine Hunter is a Canadian poet, novelist, editor, professor, and critic.
Rudy Henry Wiebe is a Canadian author and professor emeritus in the department of English at the University of Alberta since 1992. Rudy Wiebe was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in the year 2000.
Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer and author of nine books, including A Complicated Kindness (2004), All My Puny Sorrows (2014), and Women Talking (2018). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for her body of work. Toews is also a three-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a two-time winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Sarah Klassen is a Canadian writer living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Klassen's first volume of poetry, Journey to Yalta, was awarded the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 1989. Klassen is the recipient of Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry and Klassen's novel, The Wittenbergs, was awarded the Margaret McWilliams Award for popular history.
Paul Nicholas Mason is an English-born Canadian novelist, playwright, and actor.
Armin Wiebe is a Canadian writer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, best known for his humorous novels about Mennonites. Wiebe is regarded as one of the pioneers of humorous Mennonite writing in English and is known for his incorporation of Plautdietsch words within his English texts.
Turnstone Press is a Canadian literary publisher founded in 1976 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the oldest in Manitoba and among the most respected independent publishers in Canada.
Mennonite Brethren Centenary Bible College (MBCBC), Shamshabad, founded in 1920, is a ministerial training institution of the Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Churches in India, a Protestant Church Society headquartered in Jadcherla and is affiliated to the nation's first University, the Senate of Serampore College (University) {a University under Section 2 (f) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956}with degree-granting authority validated by a Danish charter and ratified by the Government of West Bengal.
John Peter Thiessen was a Canadian Russian Mennonite teacher, translator, and writer from Manitoba. Alongside Arnold Dyck and Reuben Epp, he was an important contributor to the development of Mennonite Low German literature as well as one of the language's most prominent lexicographers.
Peace Shall Destroy Many is the first novel by Canadian author Rudy Wiebe. The novel surrounds the lives of pacifist Mennonites in Saskatchewan during World War II. The book generated considerable controversy in the Canadian Mennonite community when it was first published, forcing Wiebe to resign his position as editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald. The book is considered the first novel about Canadian Mennonites written in English and spurred on a wave of Mennonite literature in the decades after its publication.
Andrew Unger is a Canadian novelist and satirist. He is the author of the satirical news website The Unger Review, as well as the novel Once Removed and the collection The Best of the Bonnet.
Mennonite literature emerged in the mid-to-late 20th century as both a literary movement and a distinct genre. Mennonite literature refers to literary works created by or about Mennonites.
Elmer E. 'Al' Reimer (1927-2015) was a Mennonite writer from Steinbach, Manitoba. Reimer was an important literary critic and writer in the emergence of southern Manitoba Mennonite literature during the 1970s and 80s. Born in Landmark, Manitoba, Reimer grew up in Steinbach and received his PhD at Yale University. He taught English literature at University of Winnipeg for many years.
Audrey Poetker is a Canadian poet and translator from New Bothwell, Manitoba.
Once Removed is a novel by Canadian author Andrew Unger published in 2020. Published by Turnstone Press, the book is a satire set in the fictional town of Edenfeld, Manitoba and tells the story of Timothy Heppner, a ghostwriter trying to preserve the history of his small Mennonite town.
Summer of My Amazing Luck is the first novel by the Canadian author Miriam Toews published in 1996 by Turnstone Press.
