Welcome
Welcome to the Coffee Talk Blog. Check in regularly to see info on upcoming speakers and topics or to comment and join the discussion on a past session of Coffee Talk.
Latest From Coffee Talk
- Connie Braun – Nov 29th
November 30, 2009
- This week – Connie Braun
November 25, 2009
- They’ll know we are Christians by …
November 3, 2009
- Christians and Nazis – Part II
October 27, 2009
About Coffee Talk
Even though it looks like the Holy Spirit might be coming down onto that cup of coffee, I don’t think that’s how it works.
Coffee Talk is a weekly discussion led by various well-read and enlightened speakers and is sometimes very interesting. Next week, for instance, could be one of the interesting weeks, so stop by the fireside room at Bakerview between 10 – 11 am on Sundays for some intelligent discussion, good times, … and coffee.
And no … I still don’t like the name but it’s all we’ve got right now. Suggest something better and win a free coffee.
Quote
Having being unfortunately unable to attend the last session of Coffee Talk featuring Connie Braun, I now defer to a super secret mystery writer who sums up Connie’s talk on her book “The Steppes are the Colour of Sepia: A Mennonite Memoir” in the following way …
Connie offered some thoughtful background into why she wrote the book, and the process of bringing the story of her grandfather and father to life in this way. Some of her insights included:
- She wrote the book as a gift to her father, and in order to preserve his memories of their family’s flight from
Russia.
- She identified her work as part of the ‘witness narrative’ genre: stories told to bear witness to the suffering and experiences of others.
- She spoke about both the ethics and aesthetics involved in this kind of work. The ethics of this kind of writing involve both being true to the historical facts on the ground (political, geographical, historical) as well as true to the personal memories and experiences. Connie used lots of interesting quotations from Frederick Buechner and Paul Ricoeur to illustrate some of the theoretical aspects of writing memoirs with which she had to come to terms.
- At one point, she experienced a kind of writer’s block concerning how to bring one particular part of the story to life–in speaking with her father about it, he said that perhaps it would be helpful for her to use her imagination, alongside the historical reconstruction, in order to bring the story to life. That was a freeing moment in the process for her, as, ironically, her informed imagination was able to bring the actual story to life.
- Initially, she self-published the book, and hadn’t planned on wide distribution. However, she was encouraged to seek a publisher, and landed with the fine Ronsdale Press—which isn’t geared toward Christian or Mennonite books. She’s been very appreciative of the positive reviews that the work has received.
- A variety of photos she uncovered from various family sources helped organize and energize the narrative of the book—she shared a few of those with the class, and then read excerpts from the book that connected to the photos.
All-in-all, a great session! Connie was thoughtful, and her reflections on bringing this particular story to life made me consider the ways in which we each have stories that reflect different aspects of both the human experience and divine purposes.
