Sarah Klassen (born 6 October 1932) is a Canadian writer and retired educator living in
Winnipeg, Manitoba.[1][2] Klassen's first volume of poetry, Journey to Yalta, was awarded the
Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 1989. Klassen is the recipient of Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry[3] and Klassen's novel, The Wittenbergs, was awarded the
Margaret McWilliams Award for popular history.[4]
Career
Sarah Klassen was born in
Winnipeg,
Manitoba, and currently resides there.[1] She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Education degree from the
University of Winnipeg. Sarah Klassen taught English in the public school system in Winnipeg, and at summer institutes in Lithuania and Ukraine.[1] Klassen has been recognized as part of a flourishing of
Mennonite novelists and poets emerging in the 1980s.[5] A subject of Klassen's writing (in Journey to Yalta, The Wittenbergs and The Russian Daughter) is the experiences and locations of
Russian Mennonite settlements in the early part of the twentieth century, a topic relayed to her in stories by her own mother.[1][6]
Sarah Klassen has served as poetry editor for Prairie Fire and editor of Sophia magazine.[7]
A Century of Poetry: 100 Poems for Searching the Heart, by
Rowen Williams, London, UK:
SPCK (2022)
The Turning Aside: The Kingdom Poets Book of Contemporary Christian Poetry, edited by D.S. Martin (2016)
Pith & Wry: Canadian Poetry, edited by
Susan McMaster, Scrivener Press (2010)
Northern Lights: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Writing in Canada, edited by Byron Rempel-Burkholder and
Dora Dueck, Mississauga, ON: John Wiley & Sons Canada (2008)
Poetry as Liturgy: An Anthology of Canadian Poets, edited by Margo Swiss, St. Thomas Press (2007)
Imagine a World: Poetry for Peacemakers, edited by Peggy Rosenthal, Pax Christi USA (2005)
A Capella, edited by Ann Hostetler, University of Iowa Press (2003)
Waging Peace, edited by
Susan McMaster, Penumbra Press (2002)
Smaller Than God, edited by Brother Paul Quenon and
John B. Lee (2002)
Line By Line, edited by
Heather Spears, Ekstasis Editions (2002)
Snapshots: The New Canadian Fiction, edited by Kristina Russelo, Wiley (2008), Black Moss Press (1992)
All are Witnesses: A Collection of Sermons by Mennonite Brethren Women, edited by Delores Friesen, Winnipeg: Kindred Productions (1996)
Out of Place: Stories and Poems, edited by Judith Krause and
Ven Begamudré, Coteau Books (1991)
Buffaloberries and Saskatoons, edited by
Hendrika Ruger, Netherlandic Press (1991)
Liars and Rascals: Mennonite Short Stories, edited by Hildi Froese Tiessen, University of Waterloo Press, (1989)
Tongue Screws and Testimonies: Poems, stories, and essays inspired by the Martyrs Mirror, edited by Kirsten Eve Beachy, Herald Press (2010)
Limited Editions (chapbooks and artist books)
Winter is Past: Two Poems by Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg, translation by Joanne Epp,
Sally Ito, and Sarah Klassen; designed and produced by Joanne Epp at Spy Tower Press, Winnipeg (2020)
Train Country Emigrant, edited by Lois Klassen (Reading the Migration Library), Vancouver: Light Factory Publications (2017)[6]
^Redekop, Magdalene (2020). Making Believe: Questions About Mennonites and Art. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. pp. 5, 178–9.
ISBN978-0-88755-857-3.
^
abSpenst, Kevin (2022). "Chuffed about Reading the Migration Library". SubTerrain. 8 (90): 96–97.
Giessener Elektronische Bibliothek: Julia Michael, Narrating communities: constructing and challenging Mennonite Canadian identities through narrative, thesis
Universität Gießen 2017, therein Demythologizing Stories of Martyrdom as Narratives of Victimization in Sarah Klassen's "Dangerous Elements", pp 59 – 73