Rudy Henry Wiebe (born 4 October 1934) is a Canadian author and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

in the department of English at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

since 1992.Rudy Wiebe
s entry in

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

Rudy Wiebe was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

in the year 2000.

Early life

Wiebe was born at Speedwell, near

Fairholme, Saskatchewan Fairholme is a hamlet in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Gov ...

, in what would later become his family's chicken barn. 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

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the R ...

s at that time customarily spoke

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle ...

at home and

standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (not to be confused with High German dialects, more precisely Upper German dialects) (german: Standardhochdeutsch, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the standardized variety ...

in church. He attended the small school three miles from his farm and the Speedwell

Mennonite Brethren Church The Mennonite Brethren Church is an evangelical Mennonite Anabaptist movement with congregations. History The conference was established among Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites in 1860. During the 1850s, some Mennonites were influenced ...

. In 1947, he moved with his family to Coaldale, Alberta. He received his B.A. in 1956 from the

and then studied under a Rotary International Fellowship at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

in West Germany, near

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

. In Germany, he studied

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

and travelled to England, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. In 1962, he received a Bachelor of Theology degree from Mennonite Brethren Bible College in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

, 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 Mennonite literature emerged in the mid-to-late 20th century as both a literary movement and a distinct genre. Mennonite literature refers to literary works created by or about Mennonites. Definition Mennonite literature, in the modern sense, usu ...

in the decades that followed. Wiebe taught at

Goshen College Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the High ...

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...

from 1963 to 1967, and taught at the

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

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 The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

, both settlers, often

, and

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

people. Wiebe won the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by th ...

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." Wiebe was awarded the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

Lorne Pierce Medal The Lorne Pierce Medal is awarded every two years by the Royal Society of Canada to recognize achievement of special significance and conspicuous merit in imaginative or critical literature written in either English or French. The medal was first aw ...

in 1986. In 2000 he was made an Officer of the

. In 2003 Wiebe was a member of the jury for the

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition b ...

Personal life

In 1958 he married Tena Isaak, with whom he had two children.

Awards

* 1973

for Fiction for ''The Temptations of Big Bear'' * 1994

for Fiction for ''A Discovery of Strangers'' * 2007

Charles Taylor Prize The RBC Taylor Prize (2000–2020), formerly known as the Charles Taylor Prize, is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It is named for Charles P. B. Taylor, a ...

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 McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Random House of Canada, Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. ...

, 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 * ''Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman'' (with Yvonne Johnson), Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 1999 * ''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 * ''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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiebe, Rudy 1934 births Canadian male novelists Canadian memoirists Officers of the Order of Canada Canadian Mennonites University of Alberta faculty Mennonite writers Writers from Edmonton Writers from Saskatchewan Writers from Winnipeg Governor General's Award-winning fiction writers Living people Canadian male non-fiction writers