Mitchell Toews is a Canadian author of literary fiction focusing on themes of fairness, rural life, intergenerational bonds, and Mennonite heritage. Nominated by Pulp Literature for a 2025 Writers’ Trust McClelland Stewart Journey Prize, he is a 4X Pushcart Prize-nominated writer known for gritty, character-driven storytelling. Mitch is the author of “Pinching Zwieback” (At Bay Press, 2023) and a novel, “Mulholland and Hardbar,” forthcoming in 2026.
The Business of Saving Souls — Literally Stories (UK)
The Log Boom — River Poets Journal Anthology (US)
Encampment — Tiny Seed Journal (US)
Regrets de Foie Gras — Literally Stories (UK)
The Grittiness of Mango Chiffon — Agnes and True (CA)
My Life as a Corkscrew — Blank Spaces (CA)
Piece of My Heart — Pulp Literature (CA)
Away Game — Quail Bell Magazine (US)
Interview — Maysam Kandej Talks (Iran)
My Life as a Corkscrew — Just Voices Anthology (CA)
The Sunshine Girl — Cowboy Jamboree (US)
Died Rich — Fiction on the Web (UK)
Baloney, Hot Mustard and Metal Filings — WordCity Monthly (Intl)
Our German Relative — WordCity Monthly (Intl)
2021
10 publications in total
Interview — Blank Spaces (CA)
So Are They All — Literally Stories (UK)
Fast and Steep — CommuterLit (CA)
The Grittiness of Mango Chiffon — Literally Stories (UK)
Fast and Steep — Fiction on the Web (UK)
Featured Artist — Winnipeg River Arts Council (CA)
The Log Boom — WordCity Monthly (Intl)
In the Dim Light Beyond the Fence — The Twin Bill (US)
Sweet Caporal — Rivanna Review (US)
Fast and Steep — Fenechty Anthology (UK)
2022
Hundred Miles an Hour — Rivanna Review (US)
Piece of My Heart — Miramichi Flash (CA)
Downtown Diner — Cowboy Jamboree (US)
Winter Eve at Walker Creek Park & Shade Tree Haven — Guernica Editions Anthology (Intl)
I Am Otter — Lintusen Press Anthology (CA)
Sanctuary Quandary — WordCity Monthly (Intl)
New War — Old Technology — The Fieldstone Review (CA)
No Strings — Bell Press Anthology (CA)
The Spring Kid — Macrina Magazine (US/Intl)
A Cultivated Halloween — CommuterLit (CA)
Sweet Caporal — WordCity Literary Journal (Intl)
The Sewing Machine — Rivanna Review (US)
2023
7 publications in total, plus the 20 stories contained in the “Pinching Zwieback” collection (At Bay Press) and reprints in Sam Kandej’s online blog in Iran
The Margin of the River & I Am Otter — D.A. Cairns Anthology (AU)
Piece of My Heart — Literally Stories (UK)
All Our Swains Commend Her — Pulp Literature (CA)
Pass It to Freddie — The Other Journal (US)
Angel and the Craigflower Bus — Hawkshaw Press Noir Anthology (US)
Piece of My Heart — Mennotoba (CA)
Multiple reprints — toews.ir (Iran)
The Seven Songs — Rivanna Review (US)
2024
2 publications in total, plus reprints in Sam Kandej’s online blog in Iran
The Sunshine Girl — Prine Primed Anthology, Cowboy Jamboree (US)
Multiple reprints — toews.ir (Iran)
Essay — “Why I Wrote This Book” Miramichi Reader (CA)
2025
16 publications in total, plus one scheduled for 2026
The Seven Songs — Fiction on the Web (UK)
Our German Relative — 7th-Circle Pyrite (US)
Bouncing Baby Boy — Lothlorien Poetry Journal (FR)
The Preacher’s Wife — Rivanna Review (US)
Shade Tree Diplomacy — Literary Heist (CA)
The Margin of the River — Literally Stories (UK)
All Our Swains Commend Her — Chiron Review (US)
Pass It to Freddie — CommuterLit (CA)
Schutzengel — 7th-Circle Pyrite (US)
Blank Spaces Interview (CA)
This Older Dude… — Manitoba Writers’ Guild Tagore Competition (CA)
Night Bandits — SBLAAM (US)
Shade Tree Haven — Grit Quarterly (US)
Ahead, Go — CommuterLit (CA)
The Light Pool — Pulp Literature (CA)
Review of Pitfall by Terry Kirk — Literary Heist (CA) December 2025
Second Helping at Conchita’s Diner — Pulp Literature (CA) March 2026
Not a diaspora, not a forced march — just a subtle shift.
The new site provides me with a single platform to share my work and, in 2026, to host my debut novel and any subsequent projects. Everything is here: links to buy books or read published stories, a calendar of events, reviews, and more.
Thanks for reading. I’ll keep posting, and I hope you’ll keep stopping by. As before, my big mouth snookery pairs well with caffeine and is best taken with a grain of salt.
Quiet writing in a noisy era
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October 24, 2023: The official launch day for Pinching Zwieback, Mitchell Toews debut collection of short stories from At Bay Press. Release Date is November 7, 2023. Mitchell and wife Janice live on Jessica Lake, in the boreal forest on Treaty 1 & 3 territory, the home of the MétisNation.
Where to Purchase: “Pinching Zwieback” ISBN 9781998779055 by Mitchell Toews (At Bay Press, Wpg) may be purchased at:
From At Bay Press: “Individual orders are placed through our website by adding books to your cart and then checking out with our secure online payment. Orders may also be placed over the phone by calling 204-489-6658 and payment will be taken over the phone. You may send an email with any questions or concerns to atbaypress@gmail.com.”
Requesting “Pinching Zwieback” by Mitchell Toews (At Bay Press, Wpg, 2023) at your favourite bookstore or library is also a simple way to get a copy!
Be sure to look out for author and publisher events and check with Mitch or Matt on how to receive signed copies or for information concerning special situations like review or interview requests.
“Imbued with the turbulence of an ancestral river, the joy of a toboggan careening down an icy run, and the despair of dreams broken on a distant hockey rink, Mitchell Toews’ stories ask universal questions, about belonging, conforming and dissenting, all the while rooted in the snowdrifts and sun-drenched fields of a small prairie town. The answers emerge hot from the oven, fragrant like the zwieback buns of the title: we find ourselves in our family, and memories, and forgiveness, as familiar and soothing as the worn leather of a much-loved baseball glove.”—Zilla Jones, Journey Prize winner and finalist for the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award
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After eight years in creative writing, 120 prose pieces placed in periodicals and anthologies (and over 650 rejections 😊) Mitch is launching his first book, a collection of short fiction published by At Bay Press of Winnipeg.
So who is this guy, Mitchell Toews?
Mitchell James Toews is the great-great-grandson of Mennonite Delegate C.P. Toews from Molotschna, Russia; the grandson of C.F. (“Roy,” “Schusta”) and Rosa Toews of Steinbach; grandson also to former “Jantsieda” (residents from the “other side” of the Red River) Diedrich and Marie Harder of Steinbach; and son of the Steinbach Bakery family: Norman “Chuck” and Jessie Toews. He is married to Janice Kasper of Steinbach and they have two married daughters.
Among his stop-overs and occupations: a year (1973/74) at UVIC in Victoria, two years at U of W in Winnipeg and (much later) a Master’s Certificate in Marketing Communication from York U. Mitch founded—with his father and uncle Earl Taves—and operated a small overhead door manufacturing company. In 1996, the now solely-owned business, Hanover Doors, was sold by Janice and Mitch and Mitch’s advertising and marketing career began. In 2016 after time well-spent with companies like Smith, Neufeld, Jodoin Law (Steinbach), Loewen Windows (Steinbach), Yarrow Sash & Door (Winnipeg), and Lynden Door (Abbotsford), Mitch devoted himself entirely to creative writing—a lifelong and much-delayed passion.
Janice and Mitch live in their 1950 lakeside cabin at Jessica Lake in the Manitoba territory that is part of Treaty 1 & 3 land and home to the Métis Nation, just north of the Fiftieth Parallel in the Winnipeg River basin. Their daughters Megan and Tere live in British Columbia and trips to see the families, particularly grandkids Ty, Hazel, James, and Floyd are as frequent as circumstances permit.
Mitch is an avid windsurfer, rower, and cross-country skier and the lifelong rigours of climbing ladders and swinging hammers, along with baseball, volleyball, basketball, and golf all contributed in past days to the current sorry state of his joints.
Book Synopsis
Pinching Zwieback comprises stories that recount events and conflicts from the “Mennosphere”—inwardly oriented communities that can generate wonderful characters and practical, often beautiful, solutions to life’s confusion. Other times, a solution may be elusive.
Hartplatz is the imaginary home for many of the recurrent characters. (Also Winkler, Aldergrove or fictive places like them—a small town pastiche.) These are rural Canadian junctures where vectors intersect: faith and doubt; pacifism in a world at war; honour and temptation; fervour and absurdity; the temptations of the wide welt, and of course, humour. Often gritty, it’s K-mart fiction or maybe better yet: schmaundtfat fiction. (A Low German glossary is provided!)
“God causes it to rain on Chevs and Fords alike,” as Diedrich, the main character in three* of the 20 stories puts it. It’s in this context that the characters resist, pitting their will against that of their foe—the foe they seek to love.
*Other main characters include Matt Zehen, his mother and father, Hart and Justy Zehen, Matt’s grandmother Rosa, and Matt’s close friend, Lenny Gerbrandt. A family tree provides a guide to the cast for readers.
Where to PurchasePinching Zwieback
“Pinching Zwieback: Made-up Stories from the Darp” 2023 ISBN 9781998779055 by Mitchell Toews (At Bay Press, Wpg). Publication Date October 24, Release Date November 7, Launch Date Nov 8. Contact us for assistance: check with Mitch or Matt on where to buy and also about how to receive signed copies or for information concerning special situations, author appearances, writing workshops, and more.
Requesting “Pinching Zwieback” by Mitchell Toews (At Bay Press, Wpg) at your favourite bookstore or library will get you a copy. Coming soon to libraries in Kenora, ON and Manitoba locations in Brandon, Lac du Bonnet, Pinawa, Altona, Winkler, and Morden. More to follow.
“Pinching Zwieback” 5″X8″257-page quality paperbacks may be purchased:
From At Bay Press: “Individual orders are placed through our website by adding books to your cart and then checking out with our secure online payment. Orders may also be placed over the phone by calling 204-489-6658 and payment will be taken over the phone. You may send an email with any questions or concerns to atbaypress@gmail.com.”
A first REVIEW of “Pinching Zwieback” by the eminent Canadian author, Poet Laureate, and literary leader, Linda Rogers van Krugel of Victoria will be placed shortly. Several other reviews, from Canada and the U.S., are underway.
Early Praise
“Pinching Zwieback Observations” from Canadian literary notables Zilla Jones, Ralph Friesen, Alanna Rusnack, Armin Wiebe and more.
FollowMitch & Pinching Zwieback
Follow Mitch’s FaceBook page and this blog (Mitchellaneous.com) for unboring updates, news, and other crumbs and chicken feed as “Pinching Zwieback” struts in wider and wider circles around the coop.
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“What I thought the most while reading this one for the first time was: ‘This must have taken so long to write!’ Every sentence is packed with detail and not a word is spared. A highly skilled piece of writing with a lot to say about the way we live and how we treat one another. Can’t believe such a short piece of writing left me with such memorable characters and so much to think about!” — Raven Contest Judge Leo X Robertson
Part of my writing routine is to enter literary contests. It’s an imperfect venue but offers some advantages in the immense ocean of strung-together words that English-speaking creative writing is today, in the internet age. Plus, there are unique benefits to prizes, like… well, prizes!
Before I began publically calling myself a writer (and changed my signature from Mitch to Mitchell because it sounded sooo much more writerly) I had a hot streak going. I entered every “Send us a 100-word essay on what makes our spindrift calibrators the best in the market and win a free JUICER!” contest: that kind of thing. My pinnacle was winning a new Animal wristwatch when my piece about losing my last Animal watch in Jessica Lake took top honours.
Another unique benefit of story contests is the vanity aspect. Self-confidence, joh? Just like getting your essay pinned up on the bulletin board by Miss Hildebrand in Grade Four (see my C-V for details), I find an undeniable allure in “grabbing some podium.” (A phrase which sounds like something you’d get thrown out of a strip bar for doing.)
Anyway, as the universe’s lone marketing advocate for Mitchell J. Toews, Writer and Animal Watch Loser, I hereby announce that the aforementioned writer, MJT, has grabbed some PULP podium. (Again, I admit there’s something off about that would-be idiom. I’ll workshop it with the gang down at Animal.)
The podium—corvid podium, no less—is as follows:
The PULP Literature 2023 Raven Short Story Contest
Catriona Sandilands with ‘Revolutions’ WINNER Alison Stevenson with ‘Foam’ 1st RUNNER UP Mitchell Toews with ‘All Our Swains Commend Her’ 2nd RUNNER UP Kevin Sandefur with ‘Marty’ Honourable Mention
Still here? You must be procrastinating about something. (I am one who knows.) Well, to enable your delay tactics, here is a list of my Greatest Hits from the literary contest and prize bandstand:
“So Are They All”— short story, Second Place in the Adult Fiction category of the Write on the LakeContest, (Ca) 2016 ISSN: 1710-1239
“Fall from Grace”— short story, Honourable Mention in The Writers’ Workshop of AshevilleMemoirs Contest, (US) 2016
“The Phage Match” —short story,Finalist in Broken Pencil’s (Ca) annual Deathmatch Contest, 2016
“Cave on a Cul-de-sac” — short story, Winner in The Hayward Fault Line—Doorknobs & Bodypaint Issue 93 Triannual Themed Flash Contest, (US) 2018
“I am Otter” — short story, CommuterLit (Ca), Runner-up in for Flash Fiction Feature, 2018
“Sweet Caporal at Dawn” — short story, nominated by Blank Spaces for a PUSHCART PRIZE, 2019
“Piece of My Heart” — a 750-word or less flash fiction was named “Editors’ Choice” in the 2020 Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest from Pulp Literature Press (Ca)
“The Margin of the River” — short story, nominated by Blank Spaces for a PUSHCART PRIZE, 2020
“Fetch” — short story, one of 11 finalists in a national field of over 800 entries: The Writers’ Union of Canada’s Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers, (Ca), 2021
“Sweet Caporal” has been nominated by Rivanna Review, Charlottesville, Va. for a PUSHCART PRIZE, 2021
“The Rabid,” finalist in the 2022 PULP Literature Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest, (Ca)
The 2022 J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction (US). This open competition drew over 400 submissions from around the world from writers in all stages of career development. “The Spring Kid,” was one of 28 longlist finalists and later advanced to the shortlist.
“The Mighty Hartski”: 2022 longlist for the Humber Literary Review/Creative Nonfiction Collective Society (CNFC) Canada-wide CNF contest
“Winter in the Sandilands” was named to the longlist for the 2022 PULP Literature Hummingbird Flash Fiction Contest, (Ca) Mitchell’s story, “Luck!” was on the shortlist in this same contest.
Several of these award-winners (highlighted in the list above) will be part of the forthcoming 2023 short story collection from At Bay Press,“Pinching Zwieback: Made-up stories from the Darp”
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Thanks, danke seea, to the Humber Literary Reviewand the Creative Nonfiction Collective for placing my story, “The Mighty Hartski” on the longlist for this year’s contest. A blintering, stellar array of writers and me, happy to be in this stacked stack.
Shortlist in early June. The winner will be announced at the CNFC annual conference. Bonne Chance to all the finalists.
“Rommedriewe!”
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Dappled Things has announced the finalists for its 2022 J.F. Powers Prize for Fiction, and I am one of the 28 authors selected.
“Well, now,” I said to myself, “I sometimes do interviews with other writers. Why not do one with me? An auto-interview?”
So here it is, with inspiration from interview subjects near and far, young and old, Catholic and Mennonite…
What drew you to this contest?
That is an excellent question. You are not only handsome but wise. Okay, here’s what Dappled Things say about the content they seek for the periodical.
“People fascinate us; sin bores us. Beauty amazes us; surface concerns leave us cold. Experience intoxicates us; world-weariness makes us yawn.”
That appealed to my sense of loftiness. Of aiming high. So that’s what I did — with the story and with the submission.
Were you, a Mennonite, concerned by the fact that the publication and the J.F. Powers contest are sponsored by an organization that is “Wholeheartedly Catholic?” Did this fact change your approach to the story?
Not concerned, as much as intrigued. In my experience in South Eastern Manitoba where disparate small towns dot the farmland, there are many predominantly Mennonite, Lutheran, Catholic, and Ukrainian places. Despite coming from distinctly homogenous communities, each with its own dominant religion, people somehow always end up mingling. Whether it is through work, play, school or — inevitably — romance, intersections are created and blending results. Not right away, but over time. I saw this many times in my own family and beyond.
In this way, my story about a mixed Catholic and Mennonite family with a close sibling relationship between two of the children seemed to be a natural fit for the ethos of Dappled Things and the J.F. Powers Prize.
Did it change my approach? No. In fact, the merging of two, I would say, strong faiths, plus the fact that the early “Mennists” grew out of the Catholic religion makes the religious undercurrent in the story a strengthening factor and one that adds an interesting complexity.
Does religion play a major role in your story?
No. Religion is there, the same way the Manitoba prairie is there, to offer context and grounding. In fact, I can’t see how the story could have “got out of its own way” if religion would have been the central theme. I wanted the characters’ inner humanity and the always present tension between our selfish desires and our innate generosity and compassion towards others to be the core conflict. Describing where that generosity comes from is not part of my authorial responsibility. I’m just there to tell a clear story and let the reader find in it what they may.
So… you have a chance?
Nah. Like a platter of Niejoahsch’kuake1 in the church basement on Christmas Eve, I will be long gone after the first wave. The writers in this prize are the Iowa Writers’ Workshop types, The Paris Review essayists, the ones who put the “Masters” in MFA.
And yet?
Yes, and yet if I read my story, I know there is always hope.
1 New Year fritters. Deep-fried, dusted with icing sugar, sinfully good.
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[…] From Wikipedia: The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best “poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot” published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to submit works they have featured. Anthologies of the selected works have been published annually since 1976. It is supported and staffed by volunteers.
My story, “Sweet Caporal” about a morning of fishing on Big Whiteshell Lake has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Editor Robert Boucheron on behalf of the quarterly literary journal, Rivanna Review, of Charlottesville, Va.
This is my third Pushcart nomination, the first from a U.S. periodical. It is the second time a version of “Sweet Caporal” has been nominated.
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HEADINGS: BIO, EDUCATION, ASSOCIATIONS/MEMBERSHIPS, PUBLISHED WORKS, CONTESTS-PRIZES-AWARDS, FUNDING, READINGS, WORK IN PROGRESS, FRIENDS & FOLLOWERS, PANELS, ARTIST’S STATEMENT
BIO
Mitchell Toews is a Canadian author whose work has been nominated for the McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize (Pulp Literature, 2025) and four Pushcart Prizes. His debut collection Pinching Zwieback (At Bay Press, 2023) explores fairness, faith, and voice in rural and immigrant communities. His fiction has appeared in more than fifty journals across North America and Europe. Find him in the wild air or, less strenuously, at https://mitchtoewsauthor.com/
EDUCATION
University of Victoria (1974-75) University of Winnipeg (1975-77, dangerously close to a B.A. in Sociology) Masters Certificate in Marketing Communication Management, York University (2001) “So You Want To Write Indigenous Characters…” Manitoba Writers’ Guild (2019) “Inside the Writer’s World: Writing Climate Change” Winnipeg Public Library Joan Thomas/Ariel Gordon (2023) “Approaching Multilingual Fiction” with Matthew Tétreault (2023)
ASSOCIATIONS/MEMBERSHIPS
Member — The Writers’ Union of Canada Mid-Career Artist — as designated by Manitoba Arts Council Past Member — Winnipeg Public Library’s Prose Writing Circle, led by Winnipeg Public Library Writer in Residence Carolyn Gray (2019-2020) Past Member — The Sunday Writers Group, led by Donna Besel (Lac du Bonnet, MB) Past Member — Write Clicks, a Winnipeg River/Winnipeg city alliance: a critique circle formed in 2021 Member — Winnipeg River Arts Council Member — Manitoba Writers’ Guild
Elbows up, eh?
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
I have workshopped one-on-one with Armin Wiebe, MaryLou Driedger, Carolyn Gray, Lauren Carter, Lindsay Wong, Katherena Vermette, Frances Koncan, Ariel Gordon, Nora Decter and Anna Leventhal. My short stories have been edited by dozens of periodical and anthology editors including Bruce Meyer, Donna Besel, Michael Mirolla, James Fisher, Rob McLennan and other well-regarded individuals from the UK, the US, and Australia. Influential courses include, “So You Want To Write Indigenous Characters…” Manitoba Writers’ Guild (2019), “Climate Change in Fiction” MAC (2021), “Crafting POV in Fiction” (2021), “Character Workshop with Lauren Carter” (2021), “Mastering Dialogue with Sharon Bala” (2022), “Inside the Writer’s World: Writing Climate Change” Winnipeg Public Library Joan Thomas/Ariel Gordon (2023), “Approaching Multilingual Fiction,” with Matthew Tétreault (2023).
PUBLISHED WORKS
Summary:
144 short stories, flash fiction, essays, excerpts, poems, and interviews published in periodicals, anthologies, and contests. More than 850 submissions overall.
Pieces accepted in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, and several other countries.
Four stories translated into Spanish.
A collection of short stories, “Pinching Zwieback” launched in the fall of 2023. (At Bay Press, Winnipeg). The collection was accepted by the first publisher to which it was submitted.
An interview and several short stories are being translated into Farsi for publication in Iran.
A debut novel is underway with a spring 2026 launch date.
Details:
2016:16 short stories/flash fiction/interviews/essays/poems/podcasts | 9 🍁, 6 UK, 1 US
Note: 2017 short stories Include: Best of Fiction on the Web: 1996-2017ISBN: 9780992693916 (ISBN10: 9780992693, ISBN13:9780992693) and The Machinery: Fauna ISBN: 9781544723266.
2018:16short stories/flash fiction/interviews/essays/poems/podcasts | 6 🍁, 4 UK, 5 US
“I am Otter” — short story, CommuterLit (Ca) 🍁
“Fall From Grace”, short story, Literally Stories (UK) (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023)
“Of a Forest Silent” — short story, Alsina Publishing LingoBites (UK – English and Spanish)
“City Lights” — short story, Literally Stories (UK)
“The Bottom of the Sky” — short story, Fiction on the Web (UK)
“In the Dim Light Beyond the Fence” — short story, riverbabble (US) (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023)
“Nothing to Lose” — short story, riverbabble (US) (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023)
“Shade Tree Haven” — short story, Doorknobs & Bodypaint (US)
“Sweet Caporal at Dawn” — short story, Blank Spaces (Ca), paid print 🍁
“Sweet Caporal at Dawn” — short story, Just Words, Volume 2Anthology (Ca), print ISBN: 9781775279273 (ISBN10:1775279278) 🍁
“Away Game” — short story, Pulp Literature (Ca), paid print 🍁
“Groota Pieter” — short story, River Poets Journal, Special Themed Edition, “The Immigrants” Anthology (US), print (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023)
“Five Questions for Mitchell Toews” — interview, Mennotoba (Ca) 🍁
“The Narrowing” — short story, Scarlet Leaf Review (Ca) (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023) 🍁
“Wide Winter River” — podcast, Not Ready for Prime Time (US)
2019:16 short stories/flash fiction/interviews/essays/poems/podcasts | 3 🍁, 2 UK, 1 Australia, 3 Iran, 7 US
“The Fifty Dollar Sewing Machine” — short story, Literally Stories (UK)
“The Toboggan Run” — short story, The MOON magazine (US) (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023)
“Peacemongers” — short story, The MOON magazine: “Out of This World” Anthology The Best Short Stories from the MOON (US), Volume 1, printISBN: 9781078315326 (ISBN10: 1078315329, ISBN13: 978-1078315326) (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023)
“Cave on a Cul-de-sac” — short story, The Hayward Fault Line, Doorknobs & Bodypaint (US) Issue 93
“Din and the Wash Bear” — short story, The Hayward Fault Line, Doorknobs & Bodypaint (US) Issue 95
“Died Rich” — short story, Fabula Argentea (US), Issue #27, paid (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023)
“I am Otter” — short story, Short Tales – Flash Fiction Stories (Iran)
“Away Game” — short story, Short Tales – Flash Fiction Stories (Iran)
“4Q Interview with Author Mitchell Toews” — interview and excerpt from WIP novel, “Mulholland and Hardbar”, South Branch Scribbler (Ca) 🍁
“Concealment” — short story, Me First Magazine (US)
“Hundred Miles an Hour” — short story, Rivanna Review, (US), paid print, March 2022
“Piece of My Heart” — short story, Miramichi Flash, (Ca), Spring/Summer 2022 🍁
“Downtown Diner” — short story, Cowboy Jamboree, (US), Bruce D’J Pancake Issue
“Winter Eve at Walker Creek Park” and “Shade Tree Haven” — Guernica Editions’ “This Will Only Take a Minute: 100 Canadian Flashes,” (Intl), a collective anthology edited by Bruce Meyer and Michael Mirolla, August 2022 ISBN: 9781771837514 (softcover) Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220195986 🍁
“I am Otter” — short story, Lintusen Press “Small Shifts: Short Stories of Fantastical Transformation” edited by Shawn L. Bird, (Ca), anthology, royalties print, July 2022 https://books2read.com/Prose-by-ToewsISBN: 9781989642351 (ISBN10: 1989642357 ISBN13 9781989642351) 🍁
“Sanctuary Quandary” — short story, WordCity Monthly (Intl), July 2022
“New War — Old Technology” — flash fiction, The Fieldstone Review (Ca), Fall 2022 🍁
“No Strings” — short story, Bell Press “Framework of the Human Body” edited by Catherine Mwitta, (Ca) anthology, paid advance/royalties print, 2022. ISBN: 978-1-7387167-1-5 🍁
“The Spring Kid” — short story, Macrina Magazine, (US, Intl), Summer 2022
“A Cultivated Halloween” — short story, CommuterLit (Ca), October 2022 🍁
“Sweet Caporal” — poem, WordCity Literary Journal (Ca-Intl) November 2022
“The Sewing Machine” — short story, Rivanna Review (US), paid print, December 2022
2023: 16 short stories/flash fiction/interviews/essays/poems/podcasts | 2 🍁,1 UK, 2 Aus, 3 US, 8 Iran
“The Margin of the River” and “I Am Otter” — short stories (2), D.A. Cairns “I Used to be an Animal Lover: An extraordinary and eclectic collection of short stories.” (Au), anthology, royalties print, 2023. ISBN AU: -13. 979-8391845034
“Piece of My Heart” — short story, Literally Stories (UK), January 26, 2023
“All Our Swains Commend Her” — short story, PULP Literature (Ca). Spring, 2023 🍁
“Pass It to Freddie” — short story, The Other Journal (US), Spring, 2023
“Angel and the Craigflower Bus” — short story, Hawkshaw Press, “Hardboiled and Loaded with Sin: A Noir Anthology” edited by Dianne Pearce (US), anthology, print. Fall 2023. ISBN: 9781957224046
“Piece of My Heart” — flash fiction, Mennotoba (Ca), May 8, 2023 🍁
“The Sunshine Girl” is included in a paperback anthology by Cowboy Jamboree Press called “Prine Primed.” It’s a collection of “John Prine-themed essays and Prine-inspired/flavoured short fiction.” Anthology edited by Adam Van Winkle (US)ISBN: 9798883341105 2024 (This story appears with the permission of At Bay Press, publisher of the 2023 short story collection, “Pinching Zwieback,” in which “The Sunshine Girl” is included.
“The Seven Songs,” short story, first published by Fictive Dream in 2017, appears in Fiction on the Web (UK), February 10, 2025. Reader comment: […] “a huge payoff…I’m glad I read it” […]
“Our German Relative,” short story, first published by Red Fez (now defunct) in 2016, is featured in the February 15, 2025, online issue of the literary site 7th-Circle Pyrite (US). Editor Keiraj M. Gillis: […] “achieves uncommonly seen balance, the simultaneous navigation of two distinct lanes as they relate to tone and theme… a gentleness and authenticity, while also tapping into the heaviness of religious oppression” […]
“Bouncing Baby Boy” poem, published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal (Paris, FR) March 6, 2025 Publisher Strider Mark Jones: […] “originality of voice, concept and language, the internal atmospheres and imagery in place and time” […]
“The Preacher’s Wife,” short story, first published by Fiction on the Web in 2016 as “The Preacher and His Wife” was reprised in Rivanna Review(US) on March 15, 2025
The poem, “This Older Dude Over at Conchita’s Up North Main This Morning,” received an Honourable Mention in the annual Manitoba Writers’ Guild Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Competition and appeared on the contest’s website. June 06, 2025 (Ca) 🍁
The poem, “Shade Tree Haven,” in Grit Quarterly (US), September 1, 2025
“Ahead, Go,” in CommuterLit(Ca) the week of September 15, 2025
“The Light Pool” in PULP Literature (Ca) 🍁 Issue 48, Autumn 2025
“Review of Pitfall (At Bay Press), 325 pages, by Terry Kirk,” in Literary Heist (Ca) 🍁 December 21, 2025
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Publication Count Graphic September 10, 2025:
TOTAL: 144 short stories/flash fiction/interviews/essays/poems/podcasts in total out of approximately 850 submissions.
CONTESTS-PRIZES-AWARDS 2015-Oct 28/2025. . .
27 of Mitchell Toews’ stories have been chosen as longlist, shortlist, finalist or winner in literary contests around the world. Last UPDATED: 2025-11-07
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses is an annual award that has chosen stories for a prestigious anthology for the past 45 consecutive years. Mitchell has four PUSHCART PRIZE nominations (See below for details.)
“So Are They All”— short story, Second Place in the Adult Fiction category of the Write on the Lake (Ca) contest, 2016, paid print ISSN: 1710-1239 🇨🇦🍁
“Fall from Grace”— short story, Honourable Mention in The Writers’ Workshop of Asheville (US) Memoirs Contest, 2016
“The Phage Match” —short story,Finalist in Broken Pencil’s (Ca) annual “Deathmatch contest, 2016, print 🇨🇦🍁
“Cave on a Cul-de-sac” — short story, Winner in The Hayward Fault Line—Doorknobs & Bodypaint Issue 93 Triannual Themed Flash contest, 2018
“I am Otter” — short story, CommuterLit (Ca), Runner-up in for Flash Fiction Feature, 2018 🇨🇦🍁
“Sweet Caporal at Dawn” — short story, nominated by Blank Spaces for a PUSHCART PRIZE, 2019, print 🇨🇦🍁
“Piece of My Heart” — a 750-word or less flash fiction was named “Editors’ Choice” in the 2020 Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest from Pulp Literature Press, paid print 🇨🇦🍁
“The Margin of the River” — short story, nominated by Blank Spaces for a PUSHCART PRIZE, 2020, print 🇨🇦🍁
“Fetch” — short story, one of 11 finalists in a national field of over 800 entries: The Writers’ Union of Canada’s Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023) 🇨🇦🍁
“Sweet Caporal” has been nominated by Rivanna Review, Charlottesville, Va. for a PUSHCART PRIZE, 2021, print
“The Rabid,” finalist in the 2022 PULP Literature Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest. (750-word max.) 🇨🇦🍁
The 2022 J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction. This Open competition drew over 400 submissions from around the world from writers in all stages of career development. “The Spring Kid,” was one of 28 longlist finalists and later advanced to the shortlist.
“The Mighty Hartski”: 2022 longlist for the Humber Literary Review/Creative Nonfiction Collective Society (CNFC) Canada-wide CNF contest (“Pinching Zwieback” 2023) 🇨🇦🍁
“Winter in the Sandilands” was named to the longlist for the 2022 PULP Literature Hummingbird Flash Fiction Contest. Mitch’s story, “Luck!” was on the shortlist in this same contest. 🇨🇦🍁
“All Our Swains Commend Her” Second Runner-up in the 2022 PULP Literature Raven Short Story Contest. 🇨🇦🍁
“Winter in the Sandilands” was named to the Shortlist for the 2023 PULP Literature Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest. (750-word max.) 🇨🇦🍁
“Saskatchewan” placed on the Longlist for the 2023Dave Williamson National Short Story Competition 🇨🇦🍁
“Mr. R” made it to the Longlist for the 2023 Bill MacDonald Prize for Prose sponsored by the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop Annual International Writing Contest🇨🇦🍁
“All Our Swains Commend Her” is one of PULP Literature’s (Vancouver, B.C.) 2023 PUSHCART PRIZE nominees 🇨🇦🍁 “A highly skilled piece of writing with a lot to say about the way we live and how we treat one another.” —Leo X Robertson
“Parade Day” made the Longlist for 2024 PULP Literature Raven Short Story Contest 🇨🇦🍁
“The Light Pool” made the Longlist for the 2025 PULP LiteratureBumblebee Flash Fiction Contest Longlist. March 2025. 🇨🇦🍁
“The Lunker Jack” placed third in the 27th Annual NOWW Writing Contest, Bill MacDonald Prize for Prose – Short Fiction May 2025 🇨🇦🍁 Judge Rebekah Skochinski: “This story captures what it’s like to leave the protective cocoon of family and ritual—in this instance, by learning how to ride a snow machine, going ice fishing, and discovering how to make friends. Both an adventure and a return to the poignant moments of childhood, where one takes their first steps toward independence.”
“This Older Dude Over at Conchita’s Up North Main This Morning” was named to the Shortlist for the 2025 Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Competition, May 2025, 🇨🇦🍁
“This Older Dude Over at Conchita’s” was named to the longlist for the 2025 PULP Literature Hummingbird Flash Fiction Contest 🇨🇦🍁
“Second Helping at Conchita’s Diner,” First Runner-up for the 2024 PULP Literature Raven Short Story Contest 🇨🇦🍁This is Mitch’s 27th short/longlist, finalist, runner-up, etc. placement in a contest or prize.
FUNDING
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Manitoba Arts Council, June 30, 2020. Financial support for the creation of a unique Manitoba artbook, ekphrastic in nature and featuring artistic photography and short fictional stories. The theme is “People, Places, and Light”. Photography by collaborator, Phil Hossack. Project extended due to Covid 19 to July 1, 2022. Complete.
February 2022. Mitchell has been partnered with veteran, award-winning author Armin Wiebe, a mentor in The Writers’ Union of Canada Mentorship Microgrant program. Armin and Mitch will be reviewing Mitchell’s debut novel: “Mulholland and Hardbar” (“Fargo with Mennonite accents.”)
PULP Literature Reading Series, live internet April 24, 2020
PULP Literature Issue 27 launch, live internet July 19, 2020
Mechanics’ Institute, San Francisco, Cal, COVID-19 open mic, Zoom August 19, 2020
Just Voices Volume 4 virtual launch, recorded for September 26, 2020
PULP Literature Issue28 launch, live internet November 7, 2020
Rivanna Review editor Robert Boucheron reads an excerpt from the short story “Hundred Miles an Hour” on Charlottesville (VA) Cable Access TV, May 2022 https://bit.ly/100MPHat12min18
“Sweet Caporal” and “Winter Eve at Walker Creek Park” for an international Zoom audience organized by poet Fizza A. Rabbani (Fizza Abbas) https://www.facebook.com/fizzah.abas.9, May 2022
Prosetry, Jessica Lake, MB, 2022
Excerpts from “No Strings” at the Zoom launch for the “Framework of the Human Body” anthology from Bell Press Books. February 11, 2023
Excerpts from “All Our Swains Commend Her” at the live launch of PULP Literature’s Winter 2023 at the Fabrique St. George Winery in Vancouver, February 20, 2023. (My story is forthcoming in PL Issue 38, Spring 2023.)
Appearances on Manitoba Writers’ Guild monthly Zoom critique circle
“An Evening with the Authors” with excerpts from “All Our Swains Commend Her” and the “Pinching Zwieback” story, “Fast and Steep” at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum, a pre-launch event for “Pinching Zwieback” and sharing the stage with authors Faith Eidse and Charity Schellenberg who are both launching memoirs, May 9, 2023. The video is posted here: https://youtu.be/oxypMlbIOJA (My contribution starts at 12:55.) More info on “Pinching Zwieback: https://atbaypress.com/creators/detail/mitchell-toews
“The Listening Room” Open Mic Sessions in Lac du Bonnet, MB sponsored by the Fire and Water Festival in the historic St. John’s Anglican Church: Mar 22/23, Apr 12/23, May 10/23, May 24/23, June 14/23, June 28/23, Dec 3/23, Jan 7/24, Jan 24/24, Feb 14/24, Mar 13/24, Mar 27/24, Apr 10/24, Jun 26/24, Sept 7/24 (Porch Party), Sept 25/24, Oct 10/24, Feb 26/25, June 11/25, Sept 10/25, Sept 24/25, Oct 8/25, Nov 12/25…
Readings, Discussions, and Question & Answer for the debut collection of short stories, Pinching Zwieback (a McNally Robinson bestselling “Paperback Pick” fiction) and other work: Nov 2/23 – MHM Books & Borscht Mennonite Heritage Museum, Abbotsford, BC; Nov 8/23 – Hybrid Book Launch with host Sue Sorensen and authors Ariel Gordon (“Siteseeing”) and Mitchell Toews (“Pinching Zwieback”) at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park, Winnipeg, MB; Nov 9/23 Lac du Bonnet Arts Centre Ariel Gordon and Mitchell Toews with local musical guests; Nov 15/23 – Mennonite Heritage Village, Steinbach, MB with local authors; Nov 18/23 - The Public Brewhouse, Steinbach, MB with MC award-winning author Andrew Unger; Nov 21/23 - Altona Library; Nov 22/23 - Pinawa Library; Nov 23/23 - Winkler Library; Nov 28/23 – Morden Library – Dec 3/23 – Fireside Book Market, Park Theatre, Winnipeg, MB; Jan 25/24 – Gordie’s Coffee House Open Mic, Winnipeg, MB; Brandon Western Regional Library – Feb 29/24 (Book reading and workshop); Mar 23/24 Book Club, Steinbach; Apr 17/24 Millenium Library Wpg “Embracing Your Identity” student workshop; May 16/24 Book Club, Gimli; Jun 12/24 Jake Epp Library Steinbach; July 25/24 Lac du Bonnet Regional Library; Sept 13/24 Miriam Toews Residence Event, Steinbach; Sept 28/24 Gaynor Family Regional Library, Selkirk; Oct 22 “Plotting our Roots” Theatre Projects Manitoba Wpg; Feb 22/25 Author Signing, Indigo, St. Vital Centre, Winnipeg, ; June 6/25 2nd annual Manitoba Writers’ Guild Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Competition Awards Ceremony and Poetry Reading, Wpg; Jun 18/25 Spring Into Summer with a Wednesday of Wild & Wonderful Words at Sookrams Brewing, Wpg; June 18/25 Interview Arts, Loggers, and Leftovers with Artist paul Toews, KYac Community Radio, Mill City, Oregon; June 19/25 Gordie’s Coffee House Open Mic—”Wang Dang Doodle Season Finale & Fundraiser, Wpg; Sept 25/25 Open Mic, Jake Epp Library, Steinbach; Sept 28/25 Introduce At Bay Press author Terry Kirk and her new book Pitfall (At Bay Press) Wpg; Oct 30/25 Reading, Jake Epp Library, Steinbach …
A short story collection, “Pinching Zwieback” (At Bay Press) launched Nov 8, 2023. Google: Mitch Toews ISBN13 9781998779055 Pinching Zwieback or go to BookFinder.com.
Pinching Zwieback: Made-up Stories from the Darp focuses on recurrent, related characters with a common reality: small town Mennonite life. It’s socially engaged autofiction based heavily on the author’s own background and experiences. The loosely linked stories read, “almost like a novel,” with characters whose lives are given form by the past but undergo change as the world reshapes beliefs and circumstances.
Author Mitchell Toews’, who grew up in his parents’ Mennonite bakery in Steinbach Manitoba, employs a gritty style containing psychological depth. Toews’ stories reveal the truth behind the fiction. This collection is a blend of memory, fable, and trauma that examines profound moments in which the conflict might be subtle or camouflaged but the consequences are real. A Keatsian, “mansion of many apartments,” the stories combine to offer a broad narrative on how the people once known as the quiet in the land have evolved, and are evolving.
(NOTE: In the story listings above, those pieces selected for inclusion in “Pinching Zwieback” are, in their first appearance on the list, shown in blue.)
“Mulholland and Hardbar” — a WIP novel (“Fargo, with a Mennonite accent”).
“Myths and Troubadours” — a WIP collection of short stories. An eclectic range of topics, places, people, and circumstances.
“People, Places, Light” — an ekphrastic Manitoba artbook including original photography and short stories (Funded in part by The Manitoba Arts Council | Le conseil des arts du Manitoba.) Collaborator Phil Hossack @philhossackphoto.
Many new short stories are always on the go, being submitted to literary journals, contests, and anthologies.
“The Mismaloya”— a proposed novelette screenplay adaptation. Seeking a collaborator.
FRIENDS & FOLLOWERS
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PANELS
1.15.21 Mitchell Toews participated as an Artist Testifier for the Commission on Basic Income. This Ontario/Canadian (Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts) jointly-sponsored commission requested Mitch to “share your experience and thoughts with our commissioners and to inform their future report on the issue of Basic Income for Artists.”
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
As a storyteller, I’m often driven to tell my own “Mennonite story.” Partly fact, partly fable. Within that fictional framework, my writing comes from three places: Family, history, and love of storytelling. My most popular and critically acclaimed stories come out of this tradition.
Family is the inspiration for most of my writing. These stories are meant as a lasting message to my family.
History is elusive, cloudy, and is sometimes the subverted domain of those who seek to control the broadly written record. I concern myself with providing a coherent feel for the underlying sentiment of the times and the people. This is the living history I want the reader to experience—one that is visceral and personally felt.
Storytelling is served by the creation of a place and its people both remembered and imagined. I tend towards scenes that hang on action sequences which place the characters in a moral dilemma. The vibrancy of the natural world is always well-represented. Physical harm is often a threat or a consequence. Characters make both good and bad decisions and their relationships contextualize each outcome. If there is trauma, there must also be hope.
A fourth core element might be to “observe my culture” as a Mennonite author. Others have done this extremely well, but I have my own perspective and address issues not yet widely developed by others, or not available in the same time frame/location in which I might write. Important themes include:
(i.) alcoholism
(ii.) violence within the pacifist doctrine of Mennonites
(iii.) patriarchy and misogyny
At all times, I am guided by the tenets of CULTURAL INTEGRITY IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS.
In general, I strive to provide open and accurate artistic observation—even when it is critical—and also to articulate the joy I have seen and felt, and to “stuff my eyes full of wonder” as author Ray Bradbury put it.
Please feel free to share this post! I welcome all comments.
Quiet writing in a noisy era
Mitchell Toews 