Join us at for a poetry reading a dialogue with Di Brandt, author most recently of The Sweetest Dance on Early, and Sarah Ens, author of Flyway. Hosted by Heather Milne (Department of English) and Ben Nobbs-Thiessen (Chair in Mennonite Studies).
This event is free and open to the public. Coffee and cookies will be served, and books from Turnstone Press will be available for sale.
Sponsored by the Department of English and the Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies.
About Di Brandt and The Sweetest Dance on Earth
Since her debut in 1987 with questions I asked my mother, Di Brandt has remained curious, still asking questions and pushing poetic bounds. Now for the first time, the best work of this Griffin Award winning poet has been gathered together in one place. Distilled into one collection is Di Brandt’s insatiable desire to understand, question and show the world in a new light. From her feminist work to her eco-poetics, readers will get a chance to see the breathtaking career of one of Canada’s most influential poets.
Di Brandt has published more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction, creative essays and literary criticism, and has received numerous prestigious awards in several genres. She has held prestigious appointments at several Canadian universities, and has given literary readings and lectures at festivals, conferences and other venues around the world. She was honoured to serve as Winnipeg’s inaugural poet laureate for 2018-2019.
About Sarah Ens and Flyway
Sarah Ens’s meditation on the impact of human and ecological trauma explores the cost of survival for three generations of women living between empires. Writing from within the disappearing tallgrass prairie, Sarah Ens follows connections between the Russian Mennonite diaspora and the disrupted migratory patterns of grassland birds. Drawing on family history, eco-poetics, and the rich tradition of the Canadian long poem, Flyway migrates along pathways of geography and the heart to grapple with complexities of home.
Sarah Ens is a writer and editor based in Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg, MB). Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications throughout North America. Her debut collection of poetry, The World Is Mostly Sky was shortlisted for the 2021 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the 2022 Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Sarah holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and an MFA in Writing from the University of Saskatchewan. Flyway is her second book of poetry.