Big news! My new book JUST SATIRE: COMEDY AND COMMENTARY IN AN AGE OF CHAOS is coming soon. It’s my first work of nonfiction and I’m excited to share it with you!

I wrote an essay on the struggle to publicly recognize Miriam Toews in her hometown of Steinbach. “A Prophet in Her Hometown” is in the latest issue of Geist.

Book reviews are usually reserved for new publications. But this essay by Casey Plett on Sandra Birdsell’s The Russlander demonstrates precisely why it’s good to return to an older book on occasion. A must read. reviewcanada.ca/magazine/202...

I’ll be presenting along with MaryLou Driedger and Erin Unger at this writer’s workshop. Hope to see you there!

Check out our new merch store, just in time for Christmas.

It was great to chat with Joelle Kidd about her new book Jesusland last night. Pick up a copy if you haven’t already. It’s a fascinating look into Christian pop culture. Highly recommended.

I’ll be chatting with Joelle Kidd about her new book Jesusland at McNally Robinson this Friday evening. Such a great book! Hope to see you there. www.mcnallyrobinson.com/event-18787/...

The Mennonite relationship with government. #Mennonite #history

It was fun to chat with Heather Hiscox this morning. Thanks!

Never trust AI. Here are some famous Mennonite politicians it came up with. It made up Victor Martens out of thin air. Totally fake.

It’s nice to see the Miriam Toews plaque gets a shout out in the Guardian www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Hey, if that’s the worst they’re saying about me on the West Reserve, that’s not too bad. 😂 I’m honoured to be immortalized in the poem “Secret Sayings of the West Reserve” (page 172) in Shaun Friesen’s new volume Towards The Light.

Housebarns we visited this week near Swift Current. Preservation of historic buildings, such as these Mennonite housebarns, is a major theme of my novel Once Removed, so it was great to see several examples still in existence in Saskatchewan.

MacAndrew Unger? What is going on in Swift Current?

Brittany Penner’s new memoir is out now. I’m looking forward to the McNally Robinson book launch on Sept. 5!

I can’t believe I just discovered this now. A very interesting essay by Rob Zacharias on intertextuality in Mennonite literature (April 2023, Mennonite Quarterly Review). My novel Once Removed is discussed at length.

No way!

Miriam Toews was just awarded the Order of Canada! A well-deserved honour for an inspiring writer and treasure of Canadian literature.

Great book selection at the Mennonite/s Writing conference.

"I still remember the look on the woman’s face when my mom and I showed up at our local Dairy Queen to commission a birthday cake emblazoned with the Reform Party logo."

Head in the clouds.

Some must read poetry from Abigail Carl-Klassen.

I'm excited to hear that Marshall McLuhan's childhood home in Winnipeg has just been purchased by a nonprofit who intend to renovate the building and turn it into a museum. A welcome addition! Read about it in the Winnipeg Free Press.

At the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal today, I learned about House Europe, an organization trying to prevent the demolition of historic building and encourage renovation instead. This aligns a lot with some of the themes I explore in my novel Once Removed.

I can relate. 🤣 I'm working on 2 new books, by the way. Don't ask me about a timeline, though.

Poetry tonight in Steinbach!

Erin says of the jazz album I’m listening to: “It sounds like a duck got into a fight with a piano.”

Last night I attended the Winnipeg premiere of Matthew Rankin’s new film Universal Language. Go see it. Such a great film!

This reel went massively viral on Facebook. I labeled it Mennonite because it’s funny, but what’s remarkable is how people are commenting “that’s not a Mennonite church!” on the basis of the clothing or style of worship. It looks exactly like Mennonite churches I know. Not everyone is plain dress.

The view outside my window looks like a Rothko.

It was a fun evening last night at the MHV@The Public event. Great music and stories. Thanks to everyone who showed up. A standing room only crowd.

I stumbled upon this quote on the Olenderski (Torun, Poland) museum website: “At first, these were the settlers from the Netherlands and Friesland – members of the Protestant Mennonite group. With time, the term Olender has lost its ethnic meaning … “ cont’d …

What a privilege to meet the great Marcel Dzama this afternoon.

There’s a certain irony in this whole Mennonite hockey slur thing, in that, as funny as it is, both the term Mennonite and the term Anabaptist originated a pejorative labels given to us by folks who didn’t like us.

I’ve noticed the exact same thing. Facebook, where I have most of my Unger Review followers, basically doesn’t allow political satire anymore. And they don’t like links. I don’t have writers to pay like @thebeaverton.bsky.social does but I empathize thebeaverton.com/2024/10/the-...

Several satire sites. go.bsky.app/UyVoGtF

Just a start. Please suggest others to add. go.bsky.app/JmCJEvD

Menno Lit Writers starter pack. Let me know if you’d like to join (or be removed 😂).

MHV @ The Public coming up on November 30. Erin and I will be chatting about our trip to the Vistula Delta in Poland. Mitchell Toews will chat about the Tourist Hotel. Plus music by Paul Bergman. You won’t want to miss this unique event. mennoniteheritagevillage.com/event/mhv-th...

Seems excessive. 🤣