Mennonite Literature

Tombstone Blues

• Awards and Honours:

  Short-listed for the 2014 Aurora Awards

  Short-listed for the 2014 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award

• Reviews:

  Ginther layers his rejuvenated Nine Worlds with a crackling good narrative and action set pieces that practically cry out for a Guillermo del Toro adaptation (I''m seeing Josh Brolin as a good choice for Ted).

  —Corey Redekop

  The book's action set-pieces could anchor a Peter Jackson movie, but it's the personal side that adds depth.

  —Helen Michaud, AE - The Canadian Science Fiction Review

  Ginther's mythos, bringing Norse gods and magical creatures within Manitoba's borders, is complexly woven...

  —Chris Rutkowski, Winnipeg Free Press

  Ginther has a Bardic authorial voice that aids in weaving a tale of stunning imagery and fast-paced action.

  —Kerry Unruh, Rhubarb Magazine

Wittenbergs, The

• Awards and Honours:
  • Winner of the 2013 Margaret McWilliams Award for Popular History
  • Shortlisted, 2013 High Plains Book Award for Woman Writer
  • Shortlisted, 2013 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award
  • Shortlisted, 2013 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
  • Shortlisted, 2013 Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher
• Reviews:
  • In The Wittenbergs, [Sarah Klassen] uses graceful prose and a fluid story structure to explore themes of guilt, atonement, responsibility, belonging and, above all, finding meaning in a Mennonite heritage. —Kathryne Cardwell, Winnipeg Free Press
  • Klassen, a widely-published poet and short fiction writer, has crafted a multi-generational family saga set in Winnipeg right before the Gulf War and the fall of the Soviet Union, that also deftly dips into family memories of Ukraine during the Russian Revolution.… Her writing is powerful, incredibly lyrical, and the characters hard to shake, even after the The Wittenbergs is said and done and put back on the shelf. —Elin Thordarson, The Winnipeg Review
  • Klassen masterfully weaves a story of a past family history with a more recent time. —Mennonite Historian
  • As one might expect in a novel by a poet, descriptions are sensual and minimal. —Rhubarb magazine
  • The novel is a kind of compilation of literary, biblical, and musical influences and inheritences; at times it almost seems to sing itself. —Journal of Mennonite Studies
  • Klassen has made her name as an award-winning poet; this is her first effort as a novelist. Her poetic impulse makes The Wittenbergs a lovely reading experience, with striking images... —Melanie Springer Mock, The Mennonite Quarterly Review
  • Delicately written, the novel weaves threads of hope into the lives of its characters. —Reece Steinberg, Canadian Literature
  • With acuity and detail, Klassen captures the various ways one can be both burdened and unbound by the vicissitudes of fortune and of history. —Herizons
  • Klassen's exquisite storytelling provokes us to care about this family, and we long to learn of their fate. —Billings Gazette

• Praise:

  What a marvel of a character Sarah Klassen has created in Mia Wittenberg, an open-hearted teenager who holds a troubled family’'s past and present in her steady gaze.

  Joan Thomas, author of Curiosity

Where Calling Birds Gather

What You Get at Home

Thunder Road

• Awards and Honours:

  Winner of the 2013 Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher

  Winner of the 2013 Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction

  Short-listed for the 2013 Prix Aurora Award for Best Canadian Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel in English

• Reviews:

  An excellent first novel, Thunder Road is ultimately a creative fantasy about a human thrust into the role of a peacemaker between mythological forces....Imagine True Blood crossed with Thor and Beowulf.

  —Chris Rutkowski, Winnipeg Free Press

  ...In Thunder Road, Chadwick Ginther opens a doorway to the mythical in the modern world, letting his reader almost believe that at the edges of our reality, in the most mundane of places, there lurks the remnants and lingering presence of the Otherworld...

  —Derek Newman-Stille, Speculating Canada

  Unique and brilliantly crafted, Thunder Road leaves the reader salivating for the next book in this trilogy and the next instalment in the life of Ted Callan.

  —The Winnipeg Review

  ...the action in the story is fast-paced and, at times, almost heart stopping. There were many times I found myself holding my breath, wondering what was going to happen next.

  —Susan Rocan, mywithershins.com

  In Chadwick Ginther’s world, the prairies are alive with the sounds, smells, and appearances of Norse mythology.

  —Stacks and Ranges Blog Review Quote

   Ginther handles both the mythic and human aspects of Thunder Road with considerable skill. ...Thunder Road is a fast-paced, thoughtful novel, and news that it’s the first in a trilogy is welcome indeed.

  —Robert J. Wiersema, Quill & Quire

  "[In Thunder Road,] reality jostles with the supernatural, and sometimes the arcane can seem remarkably at ease on a changed planet. Without a trace of antagonistic empires, vast armies, or the schemes of eldritch sorcery, [Ginther writes] fantasy that resonates the deepest when it strikes close to home."

  —Locus Review

  A solid entry into the Modern Mythology subgenre of contemporary fantasy.

  —Paul Weimer

  I put down Mockingjay to read this one.

  —Lindsay Kitson

  [Thunder Road] blends Norse mythology into the Canadian landscape as smoothly and naturally as Joss Whedon married the Hellmouth to Southern California.

  —Helen Michaud, The Canadian Science Fiction Review

  If you liked Neil Gaimon's AMERICAN GODS, you'll adore this (frankly, I think it's better, sorry Neil).

  —Lauren B. Davis

  Excitedly inventive and extremely well paced and researched...

  —Daniel Alvarez

• Praise:

  Chadwick Ginther is a major new talent. His stunning debut novel grabs you by the throat and shakes you mercilessly; his prose is vivid and sharp and his settings are gritty and terrifyingly real. This is serious fantasy for grownups.

  —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Triggers

  Thunder Road is a gritty, two-fisted action fantasy jammed with Norse mythology and the unique atmosphere of the Canadian prairies. The imagination and attention to detail make this book a compelling and exciting read. By the time I finished I needed a stiff drink, a smoke and a shower. Chadwick Ginther is one of those authors that gets under your skin. I’m looking forward to his next book.

  —J.A. Pitts, author of Forged in Fire

Monstrance

• Praise:
  • … urgent wonder sits at the core of [Sarah Klsassen's] newest collection, … when others are sleeping, Sarah Klassen is wide awake. —Becca J.R. Lachman, The Mennonite Quarterly Review

Walking to Mojácar

apologetic

Fear Not

Sewing Room, The

king's(mere)

Stand the Sacred Tree

Tatsea

Surplus at the Border

Peony Season, The

Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst, The

Montreal Cats

Jerusalem, beloved

Blasphemer's Wheel

Sitting Opposite My Brother