The first novelist from Mennonite heritage in Canada to publish with a mainstream press is Rudy Wiebe, who has since gone on to win the Governor General's Award twice during his career. Peace Shall Destroy Many (1962) created a stir in the Canadian Mennonite Brethren community, something Wiebe had not anticipated.
Most recently, Wiebe published a memoir, Of this Earth (2006), about his boyhood growing up in a community very much like the fictional Wapiti of Peace Shall Destroy Many. In both the fictional and the real community the Mennonite settlers worked extremely hard to eke out a living from the poor soil in Northern Saskatchewan. However, Wapiti was not marked by the strong ideological conflicts that are the focus of the story in Peace Shall Destroy Many. Wiebe's recollections of his childhood in the Mennonite community are positive. In this article he reflects on both the controversy of his early fiction and his memoir. Wiebe rejects the idea that the Mennonite artist must leave the community in order to create. Although the Mennonite Brethren were disturbed by his first fiction, he has remained a member of the denomination throughout his life.
This image of Rudy Wiebe, reading from his memoir at Princeton University is from http://www.princeton.edu/canadian/photo_gallery/
RUDY WIEBE PUBLICATIONS
Novels
Peace Shall Destroy Many. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1962;Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, 1964.
First and Vital Candle. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, and GrandRapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, 1966.
The Blue Mountains of China. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, andGrand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, 1970.
The Temptations of Big Bear. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1973; Athens, Ohio University Press, 2000.
The Scorched-Wood People. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
The Mad Trapper. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
My Lovely Enemy. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1983.
A Discovery of Strangers. Toronto, Knopf, 1994.
Sweeter Than All the World. Toronto, Vintage Canada, 2002.
Short Stories
Where Is the Voice Coming From? Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1974.
Personal Fictions, with others, edited by Michael Ondaatje. Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1977.
Alberta: A Celebration, edited by Tom Radford. Edmonton, Alberta, Hurtig, 1979.
The Angel of the Tar Sands and Other Stories. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1982.
River of Stone: Fictions and Memories. Toronto, Vintage Books, 1995.
Play
Far as the Eye Can See, with Theatre Passe Muraille. Edmonton, Alberta, NeWest Press, 1977.
Collected Stories. Edmonton, University of Alberta Press, 2010.
Nonfiction
Of this Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest. Knopf Canada, 2006.
Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman. Toronto, Knopf Canada, 1998; Athens, Ohio, Swallow Press, 2000.
Other
A Voice in the Land: Essays by and about Rudy Wiebe, edited by W.J. Keith. Edmonton, Alberta, NeWest Press, 1981.
Playing Dead: A Contemplation Concerning the Arctic. Edmonton, Alberta, NeWest Press, 1989.
Silence: The Word and the Sacred (essays). Waterloo, Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1989.
Chinook Christmas (for children), illustrated by David More. RedDeer College Press, 1993.
Editor, The Story-Makers: A Selection of Modern Short Stories. Toronto, Macmillan, 1970.
Editor, Stories from Western Canada: A Selection. Toronto, Macmillan, 1972.
Editor, with Andreas Schroeder, Stories from Pacific and Arctic Canada: A Selection. Toronto, Macmillan, 1974.
Editor, Double Vision: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Stories in
English. Toronto, Macmillan, 1976.
Editor, Getting Here: Stories. Edmonton, Alberta, NeWest Press, 1977.
Editor, with Aritha van Herk, More Stories from Western Canada. Toronto, Macmillan, 1980.
Editor, with Aritha van Herk and Leah Flater, West of Fiction. Edmonton, Alberton, NeWest Press, 1982.
Editor, with Bob Beal, War in the West: Voices of the 1885 Rebellion. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1985.
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Manuscript Collection:
University of Calgary Library, Alberta.
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