For Immediate Release

October 22, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Canada's most prominent novelist to speak at Hesston College November 2

Hesston, Kan. -- Canadian novelist Rudy Wiebe will be featured at an 11a.m. Friday Forum, November 2, at Hesston College. The forum, held in the sanctuary of Hesston Mennonite Church, is free and open to the public.Wiebe will also speak in several classes."Wiebe is one of Canada's most prominent contemporary fiction writers,"said John Sharp, Hesston College's Centennial history writer and history professor. "As a Mennonite writer, Wiebe is without equal north and south of the 49th parallel. He has won Canada's most prestigious awards,including the Governor General's award for fiction in 1973. He is professor emeritus of English at the University of Winnipeg."One might think of Wiebe as the godfather of Mennonite novelists," Sharp said. Among his novels are the following: Mennonite themes: Peace Shall Destroy Many (1962), Blue Mountains of China (1970), My Lovely Enemy(1983), Sweeter Than All the World (2001); Native American themes: The Temptations of Big Bear (1973), The Scorched-Wood People (1977), First and Vital Candle (1966), A Discovery of Strangers (1994). In his most recent work, a non-fiction book titled Of This Earth, Wiebe tells the story of his first 12 years of life in remote Saskatchewan, where his Mennonite family struggled to start a farm out of stony bushland. Wiebe will also speak at Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., and Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kan. For more information, contact John Sharp, phone 620-327-8248; e-mail:JohnS@hesston.edu.

Reprinted with permission from:
Phil Richard
Director of Communications Hesston College
620-327-8115
philr@hesston.edu

"Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of God no matter what the conflict." -- author unknown