A Conversation with Joy Kogawa
By Interview Issue 95
Joy Kogawa, born in British Columbia in 1935, has authored poetry, novels, children’s fiction, and a memoir. Her first books were poetry collections—The Splintered Moon, A Choice of Dreams, and Jericho Road—published between 1967 and 1977. During World War II, when Kogawa was six, the Canadian government confiscated her family’s home, and they were sent…
Read MoreA Conversation with Rudy Wiebe
By Interview Issue 90
Rudy Wiebe was born in 1934 in Speedwell, a small Mennonite community in northern Saskatchewan. His parents had fled Russia in 1930 and became part of the last generation of homesteaders to settle the Canadian West. In 1947 Wiebe’s family moved to southern Alberta. Wiebe studied literature at the University of Alberta and the University…
Read MoreRedemptive Grit: The Ordinary Artistry of Gerald Folkerts
By Essay Issue 62
DUTCH-CANADIAN, of Midwestern Winnipeg, an ordinary follower of Jesus Christ. This is perhaps the most succinct way to situate the artist Gerald Folkerts. Readers may ask, “Can any artistic good come out of Winnipeg?” Come closer. Take a look. Winnipeg, Manitoba, is not like Bible-belt Alberta, but is hard-working Mennonite farming country. Under God-blue skies,…
Read MorePrayer for the Spirits of Montreal
By Essay Issue 62
For Armand and Ros de Mestral 1 Like many great cities Montreal is on a river. But the Saint Lawrence is not what divides it. We stay in the heights. I don’t have to leave the garret atop this three-story house on Thornhill in order to transcend. The view contains immensity, sun easy on the…
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