reading back through my blog is fun

I've been going back through my blog to add tags to my posts and I came across this, which was just sort of sitting there as a draft. I don't know why I never published it.

Mennonite Writer's Conference: draft 3/31/12 

This weekend I was able to attend 'Mennonite/s Writing VI: Solos and Harmonies,' a writing conference hosted at EMU. It was an amazing experience. 

Throughout the weekend there were all sorts of presentations, panel discussions, poetry readings, singings, and book signings. I have a ton of new and exciting thoughts in my head... 

One of the most interesting things for me was attending the banquet this evening. Not very many EMU students were in attendance (the table I was sitting at held most of us); the rest of the people at the banquet were professors from Bluffton, Bethel, Goshen, Conrad Grebel; retired professors; people associated with Mennonite Media; editors of things like The Mennonite; authors of poetry, novels and nonfiction. 

I have to admit that I didn't know all that many of the writers that were present this weekend, the exceptions being Rudy Wiebe, Jeff Gundy, and Julia Spicher Kasdorf. I learned quickly, though: about writers of my grandparents' generation, and my parents' generation, and the atmosphere of things now in the world of Mennonite publishing - the way things will be for my generation. 

At the banquet, 4 writers were honored, two men and two women, interspersed with discussion about Rudy Wiebe's first novel, Peace Will Destroy Many. It was absolutely fascinating for me to hear and think about the community that these authors lived in; the things they have spent their lives pushing back against. 

All of the authors honored were older Mennonites, and every single piece of writing talked about was published after Wiebe's Peace Will Destroy Many - which is a novel that created quite the controversy, if you aren't aware. His novel is about a Canadian Mennonite community and their struggle in how to think about conscientious objection to war as well as moral issues and communication within their church. The book changed a lot of things for Mennonite writers; here is a great resource by Wiebe about the reaction of the Mennonite church to his novel.

Actually, I think the reason I didn't publish it to my blog was that I wanted to write something more, about how the weekend felt rather than what I learned. It felt beautiful and hopeful to me, so many artists gathered from this faith tradition that I belong to, this faith tradition that has such a tenuous and anxious relationship to art. And the women - ah, I wish I had tried to finish writing this last year, because now I don't remember it as clearly as I'd like to. But the best thing, maybe, was this one older women - in her eighties, maybe? - who was recognized at the banquet. I believe she might have been the first Mennonite woman to have a book of fiction published? Maybe not, but anyway, she was given a microphone and rambled on and on about people she remembered, about what church was like for her as a child, about growing up and gaining a voice.

And also all the connections shimmering just under the surface of things; that was maybe the other best thing. Like my great-uncle's brother introducing Omar Eby, and like eavesdropping on Jeff Gundy, who somehow has a connection to a different great-uncle, and like hearing all the things about Rudy Wiebe, who I first heard about from my uncle who is the pastor of a church in Lancaster (where I first met Julia Kasdorf.)

And, you know, that sort of paragraph, right there? Is one of my favorite things about Mennonites.