Image: Author Mitchell Toews reads at the annual Prosetry event at Jessica Lake, in the Winnipeg River basin of eastern Manitoba.

Book launches, book chats, readings, panel discussions, and writing sessions coming up as Mitchell Toews’ debut collection of short stories is mixed, proofed, punched, cut, pinched, and baked.

Pinching Zwieback: Made-up Stories from the Darp (Updates and schedule changes provided asap)

Nov 2 Mennonite Heritage Museum, Abbotsford “Books and Borscht” meal at noon, book chat at 1 P.M.

Nov 8 McNally Robinson Booksellers Grant Park, Winnipeg Mitch will read from “Pinching Zwieback” and will join Ariel Gordon (co-author-poet, with Brenda Schmidt) who will introduce “Siteseeing,” a book in which, “The poets wrote about the natural world and people making their way through it all.”  The evening will be hosted by Sue Sorensen (another At Bay Press author) and Sue will read for Brenda who cannot be in attendance this evening. 7 P.M.

Nov 9 St. John’s Heritage Church & Arts Centre, Lac du Bonnet with Ariel Gordon (“Siteseeing”), Mitch and At Bay Press publisher, Matt Joudrey. Local musicians will complement the readings: singer-songwriters Bernadette Carlson, Lefty Auger (Daryl Reimer), and Paul McIntosh. 7 P.M. This event will rock.

Nov 15 Mennonite Heritage Village, Local Authors Night in Steinbach with Host Nita Wiebe, and Elma Koop, Mary Lou Driedger, Noreen Janzen, and Mitch. 7 P.M.

Nov 18 The Public Brewhouse, Steinbach with EmCee Andrew Unger and co-hosts Dave Driedger and John “Hans” Neufeld for beer (or tasty non-alcoholic alternatives) and book chat. 7 P.M. (Arrive early—limited seating.)

Nov 21 Public Library, Altona 7 P.M. Book launch.

Nov 22 Public Library, Pinawa 7 P.M. Book launch.

Nov 23 Public Library, Winkler 7 P.M. Book launch.

Nov 28 Public Library, Morden 7 P.M. Book launch.

Dec 3 Fireside Book Market, Park Theatre, Winnipeg with authors and publishers from four local presses for a fall fest of book sales, signings, and lots of book chatter. 10 A.M.—6 P.M.

Dec 13 The Listening Room Open Mic, Lac du Bonnet 7 P.M. Mitch will sign-up on the Open Mic list and read a few selections from Pinching Zwieback in the historic St. John’s Heritage Church & Arts Centre. (Books for sale, here at one of Mitch’s “happy places.”)

.
Dates TBA in the Public Libraries in Kenora (2023) and Lac du Bonnet (Spring 2024)

https://atbaypress.com/books/detail/pinching-zwieback

On child birthdays we toss the kids in the air, make wishes and offer a “pinch to grow an inch.” Pinching Zwieback is a gathering of pinches as a young man, dough in the hands of powerful albeit diminished women that rises in the oven of cultural expectation to a better understanding of his place in the world beyond the kitchen of his creation… Life is reaching for the light, which never falters even as the human characters flicker and fade.—Poet Laureate, feminist, and author Linda Rogers Van Krugel

~ ~ ~

Mitch Toews speaks from the margins of small-town society, claiming a space for the underdog and the undervalued. His characters must go through all manner of tests and challenges, but in the end–love wins. —Ralph Friesen, author of Between Earth & Sky: Steinbach’s First 50 Years and Dad, God, and Me.

~ ~ ~

Moves like a tide through visceral daily experiences—quintessentially Canadian, some heart wrenching, each powerfully evocative.”—Alanna Rusnak, Blank Spaces Magazine.

~ ~ ~

Mitchell Toews’ stories range from Tom Sawyer-like tales of boyhood squabbles to the heartbreak of family dysfunction to the cruelty of small-town hypocrisy. Hilarious and tragic in turn, Toews explores facets of Mennonite life that other Mennonite writers have not touched.—Armin Wiebe, author of The Salvation of Yasch Siemens and Grandmother and many more.