Armin Wiebe
803 Jessie Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3M 0Z6
204-488-0441
arminw@mts.net
www.arminwiebe.ca

Teaching
• 1996 - 2008 Creative Writing instructor, Creative Communications Program, Red River College
• 1983-1989 Mezi Community School, Lac La Martre, NWT
• 1981-1982 Granville Lake School, Granville Lake, MB
• 1976-1981 Poplar Point and Iberville Hutterite Colonies, MB
• 1974-1975 Stonewall Collegiate, Stonewall, MB
• 1970-1974 Ashern Central School, Ashern, MB

Writer-in-Residence and Workshops

• 2009 The Landscapes in Your Voice: Riffing off Purdy—a workshop by Armin Wiebe and Kate Bitney

• 2008 Fall Semester Writer-in-Residence at Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture, University of Manitoba
• 1994-95 served as Manitoba's first rural Writer-in-Residence at the Parkland Regional Library in Dauphin. During this residency I was consulted by numerous writers in a variety of genres and I helped establish writers' groups in Dauphin and Roblin which were still in operation some five years later. I conducted introductory creative writing workshops in Dauphin, Roblin, McCreary, Hamiota and Birtle.
• 1992-93 selected as Canada Council Writer-in-Residence for the Saskatoon Public Library (during 9 months I was consulted by over a hundred writers and conducted 2 workshops for teenage writers)
• 1989-90 Arts Enrichment Program at Strathcona School in Winnipeg.Selected Writing Workshops Experience
• November 2007 Words Alive Festival in Brandon
• November 2006 3-day workshop with teachers and elders creating supporting materials for my novel Tatsea in Yellowknife and Bechoko, NWT
• August 2006 Getting Started workshop at WordsNorth in Yellowknife
• January 1994 Writing workshop with Dogrib teachers-in-training in Bechoko, NWT
• March 1992 Spring Break Writing Workshop for teenagers at Winnipeg Public Library

Artist-in-the Schools
• 1990 - 1998 Week-long residencies in a variety of schools at all levels, ranging from urban highschools to Hutterite colonies, First Nations schools to rural and northern schools.
Education & Training
• 2008 Currently working under the guidance of playwright Bruce McManus in developing a stage play
• 1998 University of Winnipeg Writers' Series Screenwriting with Nancy Trites Bodkin
• 1996 Prairie Theatre Exchange Playwrighting with Kim McCaw and Brian Drader
• 1994 University of Winnipeg Writers' Series Writing for Children and Young Adults with Margaret Buffie
• 1979 B.Ed. (English), University of Manitoba (includes creative writing courses with Ed Kleiman and Robert Kroetsch)
• 1974 Introduction to Theatre with Reg Skene at University of Winnipeg
• 1970 Certificate in Education, University of Manitoba
• 1969 B.A. (English, History) University of Winnipeg
Professional Memberships
• The Writers' Union of Canada
(currently on National Council as Regional Representative for Manitoba and Saskatchewan)
• The Manitoba Writers' Guild
(served on the board on two different occasions)
• Manitoba Association of Playwrights
Publishing
• 1999 - present Mennonite Literary Society, publishers of Rhubarb
• 1998 - 2001 Turnstone Press Editorial Board
• 1993 - 2000 Zygote Magazine Board
• 1989 - 1994 Prairie Fire Press, Inc. Board
Book Editing
• 2006, 2007 Edited two anthologies of student writing: On a good day… and Feels like red…
• 1999 Substantive edit for Heather Burles's travel book Smouldering Incense, Hammered Brass: A Syrian Interlude for Turnstone Press.
• 1984 Editor for the Lac La Martre Reader Project, in which staff at Mezi School created readers based on the oral tradition of this Dogrib community.

PUBLISHED/PRODUCED WORK
Novels:
Tatsea, 2003 (Turnstone Press)
The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst, 1995 (Turnstone Press)
Murder in Gutenthal: A Schneppa Kjnals Mystery, 1991 (Turnstone Press)
The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, 1984 (Turnstone Press)
Short fiction in anthologies:
‘Moonlight Rehearsal’, a/crosssections: New Manitoba Writing, 2007 (Manitoba Writers’ Guild)
‘Winnipeg in the Cellar’, The Imagined City: A Literary History of Winnipeg, 2005 (Turnstone )
‘Boss in the House’, Great Stories From The Prairies, 2000 (Red Deer)
‘Scheckbengel Romance’, What Mennonites are Thinking, 1999 (Good Books)
‘Oata, Oata’, Making a Difference, 1996 (Oxford)
‘And Besides God Made Poison Ivy’, Due West: 30 Great Stories from Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, 1996 (Turnstone, Coteau, NeWest)
‘I Have a Vision’, Let the Earth Take Note, 1994 (Milton Acorn Festival)
‘Mouse Lake’, Hearts Wild, 1993 (Turnstone)
‘Heista Kopp in Love’, 200% Cracked Wheat, 1992 (Coteau)
‘Boss in the House’, Made in Manitoba, 1990 (Turnstone)
‘Mouse Lake’, The Journey Prize Anthology, 1989 (McClelland & Stewart)
‘Oata, Oata’, Liars and Rascals, 1989 (U. of Waterloo Press)
‘Practising’, Liars and Rascals, 1989 (U. of Waterloo Press)
‘These Troubled Times’, Section Lines: A Manitoba Anthology, 1988 (Turnstone)
‘Schneppa Kjnals’, Good Humour Man. 1987 (Queenston)
‘Kicking Against the Pricks’, Manitoba Stories, 1981 (Queenston)
Short fiction in periodicals:

"The Call of the Fedora", Prairie Fire, Spring 2009
‘The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz’, Prairie Fire, Spring 2005
‘When the Piano Came’, Rhubarb, Spring 2003
‘The Little Kollouch’, Prairie Fire, Spring 2002
‘Suaruh Suschkje Learns to Laugh’, Preservings (Hanover Steinbach Historical Society), December 1999
‘A Woman Who Married Yamozha’, Journal of Mennonite Studies, Volume 17, 1999
‘February 3’, Prairie Fire, Summer 1997
‘Thank You for That, Mr. Runnels’, Prairie Fire, Winter 1996
‘Jars’, Zygote, Fall 1993
‘The Mosquito Harvest’, the magazine Community Arts, Summer 1992
‘Good Citizen Yasch’, Prairie Fire, Fall 1991
‘Would My Son, Doft, Buy Some’, Mennonite Mirror, May 1991
‘A Schneppa Kjnals Delirium’, Prairie Fire, July 1990
‘The Well Woman’, The New Quarterly, May 1990
‘Mouse Lake’, Prairie Fire, Fall 1988
‘Sunday Night Christian Endeavor’, Prairie Fire, Spring, 1984
‘Audee Nobah Naze’, NeWest Review, November, 1983
‘Oata, Oata’, The Fiddlehead, October, 1983
‘The Rightmaker’, Canadian Ethnic Studies, 1982
‘Twa Corbies’, Writers' News Manitoba, December, 1981
‘The Rightmaker’, Writers' News Manitoba, July, 1981
‘Cities of Refuge’, Mennonite Mirror, April, 1981
‘Flypaper’, Grain, Fall, 1977
‘The Courage to Cry, Canadian Short Story Magazine, Fall, 1976
‘Molecular Theory’, Alive, March, 1973
Broadcasts & Recordings
The Salvation of Yasch Siemens read by the author before a live audience at Heaven Art & Book Café on Corydon Avenue in Winnipeg over two evenings and an afternoon in February, 1999. Recorded by Clive Holden of Cyclops Press. Selected tracks available at arminwiebe.ca
'Boss in the House', CBC Radio: Between the Covers, Fall 2001

Plays

The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz. Directed staged reading performance of Act I during Carol Shields Festival of New Works at Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg, May 2008.

Pitch to Me, Yasch Siemens, produced by Manitoba Association of Playwrights as part of Short Shots 1995.

Articles
'A Writer Meets His Readers', Rhubarb, Summer 2007
'Encounter', The Beaver, October/November 2004
'Three Winnipeg Novels from the Trudeau Era', Prairie Fire, Summer 1999

Children's Stories:

Stories of Yamozha Levels 1, 2 & 3, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Ekwo and Diga, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Diga and the Baby Caribou, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Baby Caribou in Winter, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Too Big for Mother, LLM Reader Project, 1984
A Broken Stick, LLM Reader Project, 1984
The Velvet Caribou Antlers, LLM Reader Project, 1984
When I Still Remember: Poetry from the Elders of Lac La Martre, (Editor) LLM Reader Project, 1984
Sliding Down the Community Hall, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Go Away Dog, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Big Wheels in the Snow, LLM Reader Project, 1984
What Will I Buy at the Co-op Today?, LLM Reader Project, 1984
The Old Man and the Cree, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Granny's Pet, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Rita's Gray Hair, LLM Reader Project, 1984
The Lac La Martre Fish Plant, LLM Reader Project, 1984
A Caribou Hunt With No Bullets, LLM Reader Project, 1984
Online Publications
How Raven Lost His Beak, http://www.tlicho.ca/gonaowoways/ HowRaven Lost HisBeak.htm
The Creation of the Barrenlands & the Couple inside the Mountain, http://www.tlicho.ca/gonaowo-ways/TheCreationoftheBarrenlandsandthe CoupleInsidetheMountain.htm

Stories Translated into the Tlicho (Dogrib) Language
Dàani Hozii Holi eyits'o Dàani Weyits'atla Wegodii Holi (The creation of the barren lands and the couple inside the mountain), Armin Wiebe, Vital Thomas, Angus Beaulieu, Dogrib Divisional Board of Education, 1996
Yamoozha Wegogi: Enithle Nake, Armin Wiebe, Mary Siemens, Francis Zoe, Dogrib Divisional Board of Education, 2000
Daani Tatso Weehda Dilodeewo (How Raven Lost His Beak), Armin Wiebe, Mary Siemens, David Chocolate, Francis Zoe, Dogrib Divisional Board of Education, 1997
Awards, Prizes & Nominations
Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction for Tatsea, 2004
McNally-Robinson Book of the Year Award for Tatsea, 2004
Prairie Fire Short Fiction Contest, for 'The Little Kollouch' 2002
Shortlisted, Western Magazine Awards for 'The Little Kollouch', 2003
Dallas Taylor Prize for Creative Writing University of Manitoba, 1978
Shortlisted, McNally-Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year for Murder in Gutenthal, 1991
Shortlisted, McNally-Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year for The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst, 1995
Shortlisted, Western Magazine Awards for 'Mouse Lake', 1990
Shortlisted, Journey Prize Anthology, for 'Mouse Lake', 1989
Shortlisted, Books in Canada First Novel Award for The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, 1985
Shortlisted, Stephen Leacock Award for Humour for The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, 1985

Selected Critical Writing about Armin Wiebe's Work
The Salvation of Yasch Siemens
Frank Michael Strauss, 'The Salvation of Yasch Siemens: A Second Reading', Journal of Mennonite Studies Vol. 7, 1989
Henry Wiebe, 'Myth, Ritual, and Language in Armin Wiebe's The Salvation of Yasch Siemens', The New Quarterly Vol. X, No. 1+2, Spring/Summer 1990.
E.F. Dyck, 'The Rhetoric of the Plain Style in Mennonite Writing', The New Quarterly Vol. X, No. 1+2, Spring/Summer 1990.
Magdalene Redekop, 'The Pickling of the Mennonite Madonna', Acts of Concealment: Mennonite/s Writing in Canada, edited by Hildi Froese Thiessen and Peter Hinchcliffe, Waterloo: University of Waterloo Press, 1992 ISBN 0-88898-106-6
Fay Lando, 'Review', Canadian Book Review Annual, 1985
Al Reimer, 'The Funny-Sad World of Yasch Siemens', Mennonite Mirror, May, 1984
Ron Friesen, 'Review' NeWest Review, September, 1984
Robert Kreider, 'Review', Mennonite Life, September, 1984
Ron Robinson, 'Less fertilizer, more weeding', Winnipeg Sun, April 22, 1984
Di Brandt, 'Review', Mennonite Historian, June, 1984
Paul Wilson, 'Review', Books in Canada, June/July, 1984
David Williamson, 'Comic novel totally satisfying', Winnipeg Free Press, April 21, 1984
Brian Geary, 'Wiebe novel deserves its popularity', Pembina Times,
John Parr, 'Delightfully funny first novel comes as a treat', Toronto Star, May 12, 1984
Margaret Loewen Reimer, 'Low German novel is a cultural treasure', Mennonite Reporter, November 12, 1984
Dominique Kaiser, 'Individual and Community: Ideology in Canadian Prairie Novels', Us/Them: Translation, Transcription and Identity in Post-Colonial Literary Cultures, Gordon Collier ed. Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - Atlanta, GA 1992

Murder in Gutenthal

Di Brandt, 'Beyond patriarchy and wilderness', Prairie Book World Vol. 2 No. 2 Winter 1991
Birk Sproxton, 'Shaking Loose in the Flatlands', Border Crossings, Vol. 11, No. 1, Winter 1992
Maurice Mierau, 'Review' in Prairie Fire, Vol. 12, No. 4 Winter, 1991-92
Edna Froese, 'Skinning the Onion', NeWest Review, Aug/Sept 1992
Janis Svilpis, 'Review', Canadian Book Review Annual, 1992
Elizabeth Anthony, 'Review', Books in Canada, April, 1992
Margaret Mackey, 'Review', Canadian Materials, March 1992
Nancy Wigston, 'Review', Quill & Quire, December , 1991

The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst
Rita Donovan, 'The Nation's Salvage Yard', Books in Canada, November, 1995
Edna Froese, 'A Canadian Apocolypse', NeWest Review, April/May 1996
Bill Robertson, '...takes readers on wild ride', Saskatoon StarPhoenix, April 20, 1996
Karen Morrison, 'Why this man isn't quite smiling', Western People, March 7, 1996
Christine Hanlon, 'Review', Zygote, Winter, 1996
Lynnette D'anna, 'Review', Prairie Fire, Winter 1995-96
Edgar Schmidt, 'Wiebe ventures into national politics', Mennonite Reporter, January 8, 1996
Todd Besant, 'Wiebe satire twists Canada', Uptown, August 24-30, 1995
Dallas Wiebe, 'Review', Mennonite Life, December 1996
Glen Bergen, 'Review', Journal of Mennonite Studies, Vol. 15, 1997
Michael Mirolla, 'Utopian Fables and Adult Fairy Tales', Event, Vol. 25, No. 3
Bryan N.S. Gooch, 'Politics and Peace', Canadian Literature, Vol. 154, Autumn 1997
Matt Hartman, 'Review', Canadian Book Review Annual, 1996
Tatsea
Paul Krahn, 'Universal Themes and No Flat German', Rhubarb, #10, Fall 2004
Sarah Klassen, 'Review', Prairie Fire Review of Books, www.prairiefire.mb.ca
Kathleen Venema, 'Review', Journal of Mennonite Studies, Vol. 23, 2005
Patty Osborne, 'Review', Geist, Issue 54
Battarbee Keith. 2008. “Imaginative outreach: two fictional representations of native-white contact: Armin Wiebe’s Tatsea and Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road.’ In Avril C. & Paul R. (eds.) At Home in the World: Essays and Poems in Honour of Britta Olinder. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 13-22.
Doctoral Dissertations discussing Wiebe's work
Surplus at the Border: Mennonite Minor Literature in English in Canada (Rudy Wiebe, Armin Wiebe, Patrick Friesen, Di Brandt, Sandra Birdsell), Reimer, Leigh Douglas, 1996 University of Manitoba, (Turnstone Press, 2002)
To Write or to Belong: The Dilemma of Canadian Mennonite Story-Tellers (Writing, Belonging), Froese, Edna, 1996, University of Saskatchewan.
Fragmented Identity: A Comparative Study of German Jewish and Canadian Mennonite Literature after World War II, Schroeder, Elfrieda Neufeld, 2001, University of Waterloo
Separation from the world: postcolonial aspects of Mennonite/s writing in Western Canada by Amy D. Kroeker. Thesis (M.A.)--The University of Manitoba, 2001.