Rudy Wiebe
- University of Alberta
- University of Tübingen
- Canadian Mennonite University
Rudy Henry Wiebe OC (born 4 October 1934) is a Canadian author and professor emeritus in the department of English at the University of Alberta since 1992.[1][2] Rudy Wiebe was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in the year 2000.[3]
Early life
Wiebe was born at Speedwell, near Fairholme, Saskatchewan, in what would later become his family's chicken barn.[4] For thirteen years he lived in an isolated community of about 250 people, as part of the last generation of homesteaders to settle the Canadian west. He did not speak English until age six since Mennonites at that time customarily spoke Low German at home and standard German in church.[5] He attended the small school three miles from his farm and the Speedwell Mennonite Brethren Church. In 1947, he moved with his family to Coaldale, Alberta.[6]
He received his B.A. in 1956 from the University of Alberta and then studied under a Rotary International Fellowship at the University of Tübingen in West Germany, near Stuttgart.[7] In Germany, he studied literature and theology and travelled to England, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. In 1962, he received a Bachelor of Theology degree from Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg, now Canadian Mennonite University.
Career
While in Winnipeg, he worked as the editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald, a position he was asked to leave after the publication of his controversial debut novel Peace Shall Destroy Many (1962), the book that heralded a wave of Mennonite literature in the decades that followed.
Wiebe taught at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana from 1963 to 1967, [8] and taught at the University of Alberta in Edmonton for many decades after that.
In addition to Peace Shall Destroy Many, Wiebe's novels include First and Vital Candle (1966), The Blue Mountains of China (1970), The Temptations of Big Bear (1973), The Scorched-wood People (1977), The Mad Trapper (1980), My Lovely Enemy (1983), A Discovery of Strangers (1994), Sweeter Than All the World (2001), and Come Back (2014). He has also published collections of short stories, essays, and children's books. In 2006 he published a volume of memoirs about his childhood, entitled Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest. His work has explored the traditions and struggles of people in the Prairie provinces, both settlers, often Mennonite, and First Nations people.
Wiebe won the Governor General's Award for Fiction twice, for The Temptations of Big Bear (1973) and A Discovery of Strangers (1994). Thomas King says of The Temptations of Big Bear that "Wiebe captures the pathos and the emotion of Native people at a certain point in their history and he does it well ... Wiebe points out to us that Canada has not come to terms with Native peoples, that there is unfinished business to attend to."[9] Wiebe was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal in 1986. In 2000 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2003 Wiebe was a member of the jury for the Giller Prize. In 2023 Guernica Editions published, Rudy Wiebe: Essays on His Works edited by Bianca Lakoseljac which includes 20 articles devoted to Wiebe.
Personal life
In 1958 he married Tena Isaak, with whom he had three children.[10]
Awards
- 1973 Governor General's Award for Fiction for The Temptations of Big Bear
- 1994 Governor General's Award for Fiction for A Discovery of Strangers
- 2007 Charles Taylor Prize for Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest
- 2009 Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Alberta
Bibliography
Novels
- Peace Shall Destroy Many, McClelland & Stewart, 1962
- First and Vital Candle, Eerdmans, 1966
- The Blue Mountains of China, Eerdmans, 1970
- The Temptations of Big Bear, McClelland & Stewart, 1973
- The Scorched-Wood People, McClelland & Stewart, 1977
- The Mad Trapper, McClelland & Stewart, 1980
- My Lovely Enemy, McClelland & Stewart, 1983
- A Discovery of Strangers, A.A. Knopf Canada, 1994
- Sweeter Than All the World, Vintage Canada, 2002
- Come Back, Penguin Random House, 2015
Short stories
- Where is the Voice Coming from?, McClelland & Stewart, 1974
- Alberta, a Celebration (with Harry Savage and Tom Radford), Hurtig Publishers, 1979
- The Angel of the Tar Sands and Other Stories, McClelland & Stewart, 1982
- River of Stone: Fictions and Memories, Vintage Books, 1995
- Another Place, Not Here, Knopf Canada, 1996
- Collected Stories, 1955–2010, University of Alberta Press, 2010
Nonfiction
- War in the West: Voices of the North-West Rebellion (with Bob Beal), McClelland & Stewart, 1985
- Playing Dead: A Contemplation Concerning the Arctic, NeWest, 1989
- Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman (with Yvonne Johnson), Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 1999
- Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest, Vintage Canada, 2007
- Extraordinary Canadians: Big Bear. Toronto: Penguin Group Canada, 2008
Plays
- Far as the Eye can See: A Play, NeWest, 1977
Children's literature
- Chinook Christmas, Red Deer Press, 1993
- Hidden Buffalo, Red Deer Press, 2003
References
- ^ Rudy Wiebe's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- ^ Robertson, Heather (10 December 1977). "Western Mystic". Ottawa Citizen. p. 138.
- ^ "Rudy Wiebe honoured with CMU Pax Award". Canadian Mennonite Magazine. 17 April 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ "A Conversation with Rudy Wiebe". Image Journal. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Barlan, Jars (1982). Identifications: Ethnicity and the Writer in Canada. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Study Press. p. 80.
- ^ "Rudy Wiebe". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
- ^ "Rudy Wiebe". Canadian Writers, Athabasca University. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ "October 1999 Beck | Mennonite Quarterly Review | Goshen College". Mennonite Quarterly Review. 16 June 1999. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Product Description. Vintage Canada. 5 November 2010.
- ^ Kertzer, J.M. (1986). "Rudy Wiebe: Biocritical Essay". University of Calgary: Special Collections.
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- Bertram Brooker, Think of the Earth (1936)
- Laura Salverson, The Dark Weaver (1937)
- Gwethalyn Graham, Swiss Sonata (1938)
- Franklin D. McDowell, The Champlain Road (1939)
- Ringuet, Thirty Acres (1940)
- Alan Sullivan, Three Came to Ville Marie (1941)
- G. Herbert Sallans, Little Man (1942)
- Thomas Head Raddall, The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek (1943)
- Gwethalyn Graham, Earth and High Heaven (1944)
- Hugh MacLennan, Two Solitudes (1945)
- Winifred Bambrick, Continental Revue (1946)
- Gabrielle Roy, The Tin Flute (1947)
- Hugh MacLennan, The Precipice (1948)
- Philip Child, Mr. Ames Against Time (1949)
- Germaine Guèvremont, The Outlander (1950)
- Morley Callaghan, The Loved and the Lost (1951)
- David Walker, The Pillar (1952)
- David Walker, Digby (1953)
- Igor Gouzenko, The Fall of a Titan (1954)
- Lionel Shapiro, The Sixth of June (1955)
- Adele Wiseman, The Sacrifice (1956)
- Gabrielle Roy, Street of Riches (1957)
- Colin McDougall, Execution (1958)
- Hugh MacLennan, The Watch That Ends the Night (1959)
- Brian Moore, The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960)
- Malcolm Lowry, Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (1961)
- Kildare Dobbs, Running to Paradise (1962)
- Hugh Garner, Hugh Garner's Best Stories (1963)
- Douglas LePan, The Deserter (1964)
- [no award] (1965)
- Margaret Laurence, A Jest of God (1966)
- [no award] (1967)
- Alice Munro, Dance of the Happy Shades (1968)
- Robert Kroetsch, The Studhorse Man (1969)
- Dave Godfrey, The New Ancestors (1970)
- Mordecai Richler, St. Urbain's Horseman (1971)
- Robertson Davies, The Manticore (1972)
- Rudy Wiebe, The Temptations of Big Bear (1973)
- Margaret Laurence, The Diviners (1974)
- Brian Moore, The Great Victorian Collection (1975)
- Marian Engel, Bear (1976)
- Timothy Findley, The Wars (1977)
- Alice Munro, Who Do You Think You Are? (1978)
- Jack Hodgins, The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (1979)
- George Bowering, Burning Water (1980)
- Mavis Gallant, Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories (1981)
- Guy Vanderhaeghe, Man Descending (1982)
- Leon Rooke, Shakespeare's Dog (1983)
- Josef Škvorecký, The Engineer of Human Souls (1984)
- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
- Alice Munro, The Progress of Love (1986)
- M. T. Kelly, A Dream Like Mine (1987)
- David Adams Richards, Nights Below Station Street (1988)
- Paul Quarrington, Whale Music (1989)
- Nino Ricci, Lives of the Saints (1990)
- Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey (1991)
- Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (1992)
- Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries (1993)
- Rudy Wiebe, A Discovery of Strangers (1994)
- Greg Hollingshead, The Roaring Girl (1995)
- Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Englishman's Boy (1996)
- Jane Urquhart, The Underpainter (1997)
- Diane Schoemperlen, Forms of Devotion (1998)
- Matt Cohen, Elizabeth and After (1999)
- Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (2000)
- Richard B. Wright, Clara Callan (2001)
- Gloria Sawai, A Song for Nettie Johnson (2002)
- Douglas Glover, Elle (2003)
- Miriam Toews, A Complicated Kindness (2004)
- David Gilmour, A Perfect Night to Go to China (2005)
- Peter Behrens, The Law of Dreams (2006)
- Michael Ondaatje, Divisadero (2007)
- Nino Ricci, The Origin of Species (2008)
- Kate Pullinger, The Mistress of Nothing (2009)
- Dianne Warren, Cool Water (2010)
- Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers (2011)
- Linda Spalding, The Purchase (2012)
- Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries (2013)
- Thomas King, The Back of the Turtle (2014)
- Guy Vanderhaeghe, Daddy Lenin and Other Stories (2015)
- Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016)
- Joel Thomas Hynes, We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night (2017)
- Sarah Henstra, The Red Word (2018)
- Joan Thomas, Five Wives (2019)
- Michelle Good, Five Little Indians (2020)
- Norma Dunning, Tainna (2021)
- Sheila Heti, Pure Colour (2022)
- Anuja Varghese, Chrysalis (2023)