The Mennonite Literary Society, publishers of Rhubarb magazine, launch their 32nd issue with Mennonite Sex as its theme on March 26th, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. in the Prairie Ink Restaurant, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Winnipeg. Edited by Di Brandt (poetry) Andreas Schroeder (non-fiction) and Armin Wiebe (Fiction and Drama) the issue features writers addressing (some gingerly, others more aggressively) the Mennonite taboo of sex.
The art work of Gathie Falk, Grace Nickel, and Clint Neufeld are featured in the full colour insert. The issue features an interview with New York Times Best Selling author Rhoda Janzen of Mennonite in the Little Black Dress and Does this Church Make Me Look Fat? and is the second of Rhubarb’s three taboo issues in 2013. The first, Rhubarb 31 (also available at the launch) had Money as its theme, and the upcoming Rhubarb #33 will conclude the series with Power and Politics. Magazines and subscriptions will be available at the launch, as will books by some of the writers included in the issue.
The event will feature readings by Di Brandt from the issue and some of her own writing, and Katherena Vermette, one of the poets, included in the issue alongside Patrick Friesen, Julia Spicher Kasdorf and other prominent and emerging writers. While it was the poets who responded most heartily with poems of love and eros, there are unforgettable stories whether fiction, drama or nonfiction including “Queer Sex at Bible College,” by Jan Guenther Braun in Rhubarb #32. Don’t miss this one in a lifetime opportunity for Mennonite Sex, and get the issue hot off the Friesens presses before it is mailed in plain brown wrappers to our growing readership.