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“Good writers, at heart, ought to be as dangerous as a riled cat with thumbs and the keys to both the liquor and gun cabinet.” —Leila Allison

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BASICS

In 1996, after 16 years in manufacturing after co-founding—with my uncle Earl Taves and my dad, “Chuck” Toews—Hanover Doors in Steinbach, Manitoba, my wife Janice and I sold the business. After that, I worked principally as a communications manager for wood product manufacturers in Canada and the US. 

Backed by my (almost) B.A. in Sociology from UVIC & U of Wpg and sixteen years of business ownership, I completed a Master’s Certificate in Marketing Communication Management at the Schulich School of Business (York, Toronto). I took on duties including creative leader, copywriting and layout/design, film producer and history book editor-in-chief. I began taking my retirement in installments in 2015 and in the fall of 2016 devoted myself strictly to writing: embarking on a career in literary fiction.

I am an active member of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, the Winnipeg River Arts Council (Lac du Bonnet), and the Writers’ Union of Canada.

• Well over 100 short stories, interviews, and flash fiction pieces have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and contests in Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia and more.
• A short story collection, “Pinching Zwieback: Made-up stories from the Darp” (At Bay Press) was released in late October 2023. The collection comprises loosely related stories focused on Mennonite experiences in the fictional prairie town of “Hartplatz” and elsewhere in the world. 

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“A childhood is not a period of life and does not pass on. It haunts discourse.” —Jean-François Lyotard

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• Also, a literary fiction novel set in Manitoba awaits its opportunity, resting in the boreal where I reside and the story is set. Well-known Canadian writer, author, novelist, playwright, and raconteur Armin Wiebe, in conjunction with The Writers’ Guild of Canada’s Mentorship Microgrants program, worked with me on this project in Feb/Mar 2022. The novel, “Mulholland and Hardbar,” will be published in 2026 by Winnipeg’s At Bay Press.

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“Remember, storytellers. Just to attempt the impossible is victory enough.” —Robert Kroetsch

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I am a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a finalist in The Writers’ Union of Canada’s 2021 Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers, and the 2022 Humber Literary Review/Creative Nonfiction Collective Canada-wide contest, a shortlisted finalist in the 2022 J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction and a Runner-up in The 2022 PULP Literature Raven Short Story Contest.

Please see the post “Detailed C-V” for a complete listing of published work. 

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CONTESTS, PRIZES, ANTHOLOGIES, etc.

For information on the 2023 themed short story collection, “Pinching Zwieback” please see: 

BOOK REVIEWS, AUTHOR INTERVIEWS, COMMENTARY & “BLURBS”

Stories

“So Are They All” won second place in the Adult Fiction category of the 2016 “Write on the Lake” writing contest and appears in the Lake Winnipeg Writers’ Group’s semi-annual journal, Voices, Volume 16, No. 2. Mitchell presented excerpts from the story during the Voices launch at McNally Robinson Book Sellers in Winnipeg, on November 20, 2016.

“Fall from Grace” received an honourable mention (not published) in The Writers’ Workshop of Asheville  Memoirs Contest, 2016. TWWOA has been active in the North Carolina literary scene since 1985. A young boy’s fears come to life – danger hides in plain sight on a quiet, small-town day.

Mitchell’s offbeat (!) story, “The Phage Match” was one of 16 finalists in Deathmatch 2017 – a writing contest for independent creative fiction in Canada, from the special people at Broken Pencil mega-zine.

The story “Nothing to Lose,” which is part memoir-part imagination about Mitchell’s father, Norman “Chuck” Toews, as a young man in Steinbach, MB (“Hartplatz”) was chosen for a print anthology in England. Writer/Editor/Scrabble Genius Charlie Fish of London has published the online literary zine, Fiction on the Web, since 1996. In that time he has published more than one thousand short stories by writers from around the world. Charlie is publishing a print collection of his favourite stories from FotW‘s 21-year history. The proceeds of this literary collection’s sale will go to a London hospital charity: Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation Trust.

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Mitchell’s Canadiana flash fiction, “Sweet Caporal at Dawn,” earned a place in Blank Spaces second literary collection, “Just Words Volume 2.”

“Sweet Caporal at Dawn” has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize XLIII by Blank Spaces Magazine.

Mitchell’s story of immigration, social stigma, and longing, “Groota Pieter,” appears in the Pact Press anthology, “We Refugees”. The story first appeared in print and online in the Lilly Press publication “The Immigrants”, by The River Poets Journal in 2018.

The story, “Peacemongers” is included in this excellent anthology of work from 2013-2019 issues of The MOON Magazine. See this BLOG POST for details: https://mitchellaneous.com/2019/07/09/out-of-this-world/

“Piece of My Heart” was named by Pulp Literature magazine as the Editors’ Choice in the 2020 Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest.

Mitch’s On Writing essay from Blank Spaces June 2020 will be included in the 2020 anthology, “Just Words Volume 4”. “My Life as a Corkscrew.”

“The Margin of the River” looks at how we treat all those over whom we hold sway. This story appeared in Blank Spaces Sept 2020. Editor Alanna Rusnak has nominated it for a Pushcart Prize, the author’s second nomination to this prestigious anthology of the year’s best from small presses.

Mitchell’s story “Fetch” was chosen as one of 11 finalists in the 2021 Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers sponsored nationally by The Writers’ Union of Canada. “Fetch” was selected from over 800 entries.

“Fast and Steep” was included in the Summer 2021 Anthology of Short Fiction by Fenechty Press, London, UK.

“Sweet Caporal” has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize XXI by Rivanna Review, a quarterly literary journal published in Charlottesville, Va.

“The Rabid” was a finalist in the 2022 PULP Literature Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest.

(March 16, 2022) “The Spring Kid” is a finalist in the 2022 J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction, making both the longlist and the shortlist. One out of over 400 submissions from around the world. 

Two stories have been selected for the Guernica Editions’ This Will Only Take a Minute: 100 Canadian Flashes. “Winter Eve at Walker Creek Park” and “Shade Tree Haven” will appear in a collective anthology edited by Bruce Meyer and Michael Mirolla.

“The Mighty Hartski” was named to the 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. Mitch’s story, “Luck!” was placed on the Shortlist in this same contest.

“Winter in the Sandilands” was named to the Shortlist for the 2023 PULP Literature Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest.

One of Mitch’s flashier fictions was named to the longlist of the 2025 PULP Literature Hummingbird Flash Fiction Contest. Shortlist coming: July 15, 2025.