A small press dedicated to poetry, short fiction, & essays at the crossroads of art & culture.
Ada Troyer, Elkhart Co., Indiana, c. 1942.
Life After Death
Our first book
This volume brings back into print Jane Rohrer’s debut poetry collection, with a brand new cover and a note by the publisher. The book was reprinted in honor of two exhibits that display Jane’s poems next to paintings by her husband, Warren Rohrer, a twentieth-century abstract visual artist. Both Jane and Warren came from Mennonite backgrounds, and incorporated elements of their rural upbringings into sophisticated works of art.
Our most recent release
MennoFolk3:
Puns, Riddles, Tales, Legends
Ervin Beck’s latest collection of folklore from Mennonite sources takes us into the world of oral storytelling, lifting material from informal exchanges between Mennonite speakers, giving us a “behind the scenes” and “off the record” glimpse of what Mennonites say about themselves and their cultural rivals, such as the Old Order Amish. These snippets of humor were collected mainly from middle-aged and older speakers. Beck notes that younger Mennonites rarely tell such stories, perhaps because their acculturation is more complete. Thus Beck’s entertaining and insightful collection offers verbal snapshots of traditional Mennonites responding to cultural adaptation and change in the late 20th century.
About
the press
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We publish 2-4 titles per year, so please inquire. Send a query email and sample pages to submissions@paintedglasspress.com
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Reverse painting on glass was first a European Renaissance fine art, after which it became a folk art. Catholics used it for pictures of saints; protestants, for religious texts. Brought to America, it was called “tinsel painting” and, with crinkled tinfoil, was used for portraits and still life during the Victorian period and earlier. Revived as a fine art and then a folk art in the Art Deco period, it was taught in schools, prisons, and foreign missions.
Anabaptist groups throughout America developed it as a distinctive, community-based folk art. Children brought the craft home from school, and parents and relatives used it to make art for the walls, especially in communities that did not use fine art. Sometimes women gathered in small groups to do the paintings, like quilting bees. The tradition, which died out following World War II, is an example of a genuinely community-based art in subcultures that do not embrace fine art. When well done, it offers depth and abstraction to mundane materials.
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Ann Hostetler
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
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Julia Spicher Kasdorf
Managing Editor
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Philip Ruth
Production Editor