“Writing is like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E. L. Doctorow
Well over 100 literary journals and anthologies have published Mitchell Toews’ fiction since 2015. He is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a finalist in The Writers’ Union of Canada’s 2021 Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers, on the shortlist for the 2022 J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction, and his creative nonfiction, “The Mighty Hartski” was longlisted for the 2022 Canada-wide CNF contest sponsored by Humber Literary Review/Creative Nonfiction Collective Society (CNFC). Mitch’s work also made lists (long and short) in several PULP Literature contests and received a gratifying “2nd Runner-up” in the 2022 Raven short story contest.
Mitch’s collection of short stories, “Pinching Zwieback: Made-up stories from the darp” is slated to arrive in the FALL of 2023. From At Bay Press, Winnipeg. Watch this space and facebook.com/mitch.toews (there amid the many unfiltered rants and unedited gushes) for news on this fiction collection!
“What’s your book about?” It’s a themed fiction collection with recurrent characters and settings. In the autofiction tradition, the book takes a look at Mennonite folk in small towns and the plots, failures, strife, and small victories they experience. The Zehen family, friend Lenny Gerbrandt, and an unrelated Jantsieder named Diedrich Deutsch are the main characters. The collection unfolds in not-quite chronological order from the fifties through to present day to tell a larger story. Many topics are explored including both the controversial and those fondly recalled.
The truth behind the fiction, the truth behind the friction.
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Mitchell Toews lives and writes lakeside in Manitoba. His short fiction and creative nonfiction appears in print and online, in places near and far. You may follow him on the trails or out on the water or ice, or more conveniently here at Mitchellaneous.com, or on Twitter or https://bit.ly/MitchMastodon or https://www.facebook.com/mitch.toews/
Mitch is an emerging writer. A lifelong love of books and storytelling put him on this path long ago and his career in advertising and communications provided writing basics and a feel for the reality of writing: deadlines, criticism, and publishing. He started writing short stories in 2013 and devoted himself to the craft full-time in 2016. Formal instruction has come from university and public library Writers in Residence like Carolyn Gray, Lauren Carter, Lindsay Wong, Katherena Vermette, Duncan Mercredi, Frances Koncan, Ariel Gordon, and Anna Leventhal. He is also active with the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and its many programs. Less formal, but highly rewarding and inspiring is his critique circle which features a strong and diverse group of writers.
Member: Manitoba Writers’ Guild, The Writers’ Union of Canada
What’s bright in the headlights these days?
In addition to editing “Pinching Zwieback,”—20 stories in all—I’m also full-up with piles of regular stuff: short stories, CNF, blog posts, readings, critique circles, courses, and consultations — the full pot of writer’s soup.
My debut novel MS, “Mulholland and Hardbar” is still under construction, following the expert evaluation in 2022 of author Armin Wiebe, courtesy of The Writers’ Union of Canada and their Mentorship Microgrants program.
It’s a gritty coming-of-age story driven by its ambiguous characters. “A story wound tight as a noose.“
How would I describe it as a movie? I’d say, “Fargo, with Mennonite accents…” As a book? Shades of “On the Road,” the woodsy flavour of “Never Cry Wolf,” a youthful protagonist in the manner of “The Nick Adams Stories,” the desire, temptation, and surrender of “Heart of Darkness.”
More?
- If it was music? Aaron Copland, with Mike Skinner riffs blasting through it at unexpected moments.
- If it was an animal? A sleeping dog, suddenly awake and chasing a fleeing rabbit at full speed. A rabbit armed with a pistol.
- A dinghy? A lapstrake Chester yawl rowboat with two men in it, on a big lake. It’s a calm night at the magic hour before dark. Cigarette smoke rises and their quiet words come across the water as if carried to you. The sound of a cocked hammer intrudes and everything is silent.
- A breakfast? Panfried potatoes and onions, a little burnt. Sourdough bread dipped into sunny-side egg yolk. You add salt and pepper and the bearded cook says, ‘There’s someone who likes a little egg with their pepper.”
- A pick-up truck? A 1974 4WD International Harvester, with a Detroit diesel engine jammed under the hood and deep, rusty scratch marks all along the roof and sides and an overflowing load of stolen gear and food and booze spilling out of the box.
—Mitchell Toews, Jessica Lake
P.S. — The hard stuff. The diagram below is my personal roadmap for how I can best produce autofiction about family, love, and hope.
Mitchell Toews 