Rhoda Marie Janzen Burton née Rhoda Marie Janzen is an American poet, academic and memoirist, best known for her memoir ''Mennonite in a Little Black Dress'' which was a finalist for a Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2010.

Early life and education

Janzen grew up in a

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

household in

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

as the daughter of a Mennonite pastor. In 1984 she graduated from Fresno Pacific University with a bachelors in English literature. Following this she earned a

Masters of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admin ...

in creative writing from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...

. She went on to earn an MA and a PhD from UCLA where she wrote her dissertation on American-British author

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

. She currently teaches at

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan, United States. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman coll ...

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in Ottawa County, Michigan, Ottawa and Allegan County, Michigan, Allegan counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located in the West Michigan, western region of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Lower Peninsula, the city is si ...

Memoirs

In 2006, Janzen's husband of 15 years left her for a man and a few days later she suffered serious injuries in a car accident. While on sabbatical from her teaching position, she went home to her Mennonite family in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

, to heal from these crises. These experiences are recounted in her memoir ''Mennonite in a Little Black Dress''. Her second memoir, ''Mennonite Meets Mr. Right'', tells the story of her experiences surviving breast cancer, becoming a stepmom, and attending her new husband's Pentecostal church. In addition to her memoir, Janzen is the author of ''Babel's Stair'', a collection of poetry.

Critical reception

Janzen's first memoir, ''Mennonite in a Little Black Dress,'' has received acclaim for its comedic elements and was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. The response from the Mennonite community, which it satirizes, has been mixed. Mennonite poet and scholar Di Brandt found the memoir enjoyable and humorous but criticized the tone as "consistently flippant, breezy, and almost relentlessly 'upbeat,'" for a book about what in Brandt's opinions is about the very serious topics of self-identity and midlife crisis. In 2015, a

Goshen College Goshen College is a Private college, private Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, a ...

professor, Ervin Beck, listed ''Mennonite in a Little Black Dress'' among what he labeled with '' Peace Shall Destroy Many'' and others as the "canon of seven literary works by Mennonite authors writing about Mennonites have been regarded by many Mennonite readers as offensive." Beck claimed that these works were dismissed by some critics as "transgressive" or purposefully shocking to gain popularity, but that this "transgressive canon" still serves as an important work within the wider Mennonite literature movement.

Bibliography

* ''Babel's Stair'', Word Press, 2006 * ''Mennonite in a Little Black Dress'', Henry Holt and Co., 2009 * ''Mennonite Meets Mr. Right'', 2012

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Janzen, Rhoda Living people 21st-century American poets 21st-century American memoirists American Mennonites Hope College faculty Mennonite writers Mennonite humorists University of California, Los Angeles alumni Writers from North Dakota American women poets American women memoirists 21st-century American women writers 1963 births Memoirists from North Dakota