News

Check out this nice review appearing in a research journal produced by the Turkish think tank Uluslararası Stratejik Arastirmalar Kurumu (International Strategic Research Organisation/USAK). It’s good to see the exposure Pilgrims on the Silk Road is receiving: Journal of Central Asia and the Caucasian Studies Volume: 5 Issue: 10 (2010), 165-168. Kitap İncelemeleri /...
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This week, Pilgrims on the Silk Road won a gold medal in the nonfiction war writing category from the Reader’s Favorite review site. Not bad for a book about a pacifist community and their peaceful response to Muslims. Yet, the context in which the Mennonites of Pilgrims engaged their Muslim neighbors was among the...
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Check out my “Art in the First Person” article in the latest issue of Elan, an arts magazine in Northern Virginia: An Author in Search of a Story: Retracing a Long-Forgotten Trek by Walter Ratliff A few flakes of white paint clinging to the rusting, sun-shaped ironwork of the gate fell away as I...
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The Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia is graciously hosting me for a two special events at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, BC. On Saturday, May 28, at 7:00pm we’ll have a screening of Through the Desert Goes Our Journey. On Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm, I’ll deliver a presentation about the Mennonites of Pilgrims...
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The April 2011  issue of Mennonite Quarterly Review features a lengthy (2,000+ words) review of Pilgrims on the Silk Road. I appreciate how the reviewer offers lots of praise and some thoughtful perspective for Pilgrims readers. Here are some excerpts: The so-called Great Trek of several hundred Mennonites from the Molotschna and the Am...
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BOOK REVIEW Pilgrims on the Silk Road: a Muslim-Christian Encounter in Khiva. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2010. By Robert Martens From Roots and Branches, 17:1, February, 2011. Where is this last gathering place of the true church? The answer: It is to be in the desert. But where? Perhaps, yes very likely in...
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Ira Glass, the host of PRI’s This American Life offers some good advice on storytelling. The video quality is not that great, but the advice is solid across any format – whether you are writing a print article, or producing a video or audio piece:
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A common question for people who have read the book or have seen the documentary is “What happened to the Mennonites who were deported from Khiva in 1935?” I devote a section of Pilgrims on the Silk Road to the issue. There are also a number of sources that outline the dramatic end to...
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Google just released a new tool called Ngram that compiles keywords from their vast library of scanned books. It charts these keywords from the 16th century to 2008. This makes Ngram a wonderful tool for seeing the rise and fall of subjects and ideas over a period of time. For example, you can see...
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I have a apocalyptic prediction: Throughout the year 2011 we will see a deluge of movies, television shows, books and films about the The End and the year 2012. Is it truly a prediction if this has already started? If nothing else, this fascination with mass destruction and the end of the prevailing order...
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