Half In The Sun: Anthology of Mennonite Writing

In recent years Mennonites have become one of the most visible ethnic literary communities in Canada. With the publication of Half in the Sun, BC writers of Mennonite heritage claim their place in this community. The authors represented in Half in the Sun are West Coast writers who share a history rooted in a dark region littered with stories of repeated migration, Soviet terror, displacement and resettlement. Several factors contribute to the broad range of this first-of-its-kind anthology: its multi-genre nature; the intentional mix of new, recently emerging, established and prize-winning writers; and the fact that a number of the authors are Prairie transplants whose work continues to be influenced by ties to that region's geography, politics and local cultures. This anthology ends the collective invisibility of British Columbia's Mennonite writers in a very decisive way": To create an anthology is to build an ark out of words: Half in the Sun is both a home for memory and a means of navigating risky waters. The impress of Mennonite history and culture is strong in these poems and stories, and yet there is abundant room, on this ark, for all of us in the abiding community of readers.": —Janice Kulyk Keefer