One of the Canadian Mennonite writers that emerged from the prairie provinces in the 1980s, Di Brandt began her literary career by breaking the cultural silence surrounding women in the Mennonite church, and moved to consider the power differentials in the world outside that culture. Her poetry challenges traditions that have organized and problematized much of Western literary, cultural, or spiritual thought, with the emphasis she places upon the complexities of motherhood, faith, gender, language, and managing life in what Brandt calls the “postpostmodern world”.
Born Diana Ruth Janzen in 1952, she grew up in Reinland, a Mennonite farming village in southern central Manitoba. Moving to Winnipeg in 1969 to study at …
1861 words
Citation: MacDonald, Tanis. "Di Brandt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 October 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5346, accessed 21 November 2024.]