Interview - Mennonite Poetry

An Interview with Sheri Hostetler
(September 2004)

I would like a short biography of your childhood, including your birth date, the place you grew up, and a short story that would describe your childhood.

Born May 24, 1962, in Berlin, Ohio. Berlin is in the heart of the largest Amish settlement in the world (its claim to fame and to tourists!). Frankly, I have a hard time coming up with a short story that would describe my childhood—I have impressions more than anything. We lived in town, but out our back window you could see for miles, and all you would see (for the most part) were rolling hills, forests, fields. I seem to remember looking out windows a lot growing up. And my Dad and I would walk in the country a lot, so I have very rich [memories] of a natural beauty in that area—the lushness of spring and summer when everything was green and humid and the starkness of a bare tree along a hedgerow against a slate-grey winter sky.

Memories of church are also quite strong—and somewhat mixed. My own baptism is probably a good example. I remember feeling like I was being initiated into a community, that I was becoming “more grown up” and I suppose in a way it felt very safe to become a part of this family. But I also was burning with shame the entire time—because my mother made me wear a head covering that day, the first and last time I wore one. I actually wrote a poem about that experience, but I think it wasn’t included in the anthology. It was also a mixed experience, because I was way too young (I believe) to be making the decision I had made. I was only 13, maybe 12, and I had a sense even at the time that I really didn’t know what I was doing. So much for adult baptism!

Did you grow up in an older order, traditional Mennonite family?

No. My church and family were from the Mennonite Conference. About two or three generations back they had been Amish, and then Amish-Mennonite. The adult women still wore head coverings in my church (and a few outside of church—although not women in my family) when I was growing up, but few if any of the girls of my generation did. I dressed “normally,” albeit a bit more conservatively than some of my non-Mennonite counterparts in other high schools in the area. We could go to movies, play cards—all things forbidden to my parents. In many respects, I suspect my childhood and family were fairly typical of small-town Midwest families of that era—regardless of whether they were Mennonite or not.

When did you begin writing?

I wrote silly poems and short stories from a very young age. I decided at age 13 that I wanted to be a journalist, so I began writing news stories for the school newspaper, and eventually became the high school correspondent for our local newspaper. I was a journalist, writer and editor for several years after graduating from college. I didn’t seriously start poetry and creative non-fiction again until 1990, when I was 28.

Why did you start writing?

“I felt compelled” to is the short answer. While I was a journalist, I realized fairly early on that writing straight news stories wasn’t my thing. For awhile, I had a newspaper column, and I really enjoyed that. I realized as I grew older that more personal writing was really what I was interested in. But it wasn’t until I had finished my M.A. in theology and was working half-time at a rather mind-numbing job that I finally “gave myself” over to writing, really explored it. Fortunately, I had a dear friend who became my writing buddy and main cheerleader. He really urged me on at that time.

What are you inspirations for your writing?

I’m not sure how to answer this. I know a lot of my metaphors seem to come from nature. I also tend to do a lot of writing that I suppose one could define quite broadly as “spiritual.” Some of my poems have started out as prayers. When I was younger, excavating my life was an inspiration—going back into memories, trying to make sense of things from my childhood and other eras of my life, etc. I find that I turn much less to my past now when I write. More than anything, I write now to find out how I’m feeling/thinking about something. It’s like there’s a mystery I want to understand, and writing is my way into knowing it more deeply. I’m pregnant right now with our first child, and so my writing now is to try to find out what I’m feeling/thinking about this big thing that happening to us.

Do you write fiction, or just non fiction, including poetry?

I have written a smattering of short stories and I have about 90 pages of a novel. I never tried to publish any of this. My main writing form has been essays and poetry. Now that I’m a pastor, it’s sermons!

How long have you been working with Mennonot?

I started Mennonot in 1992—the first issue was actually dated fall 1993. I did the last issue in 2000, although I think it may not have come out until a couple of years after that.

What is the purpose of Mennonot?

Its main purpose was to provide a forum for viewpoints and opinions and material that wouldn’t be able to find their way into the “mainstream” Mennonite press, like The Mennonite. Perhaps because those more mainstream publications have to appeal to a wide constituency, the range of opinions you’ll find in there is (I feel) rather limited. For instance, if someone really wanted to argue for abortion as an ethical choice, would you see that in The Mennonite? What if a gay person wanted to write from their experience? I felt like there were a lot of voices that weren’t being heard, and I had hoped that Mennonot could provide a forum for those voices.

Mennonot is highly controversial and offensive to most of its readers. What is your take on that?

I would disagree that Mennonot was offensive to most of its readers—at least, if Mennonot’s readers were offended, they didn’t let me or my co-publisher know. (On the other hand, Steve and I certainly didn’t mind being controversial or a bit edgy—I think many Mennonites are almost mortally afraid of making others uncomfortable or expressing passionate emotion or pushing the edge of things—and Mennonot was clearly a place where I wanted people to be able to “speak freely.”) What I almost exclusively heard was thank-yous from readers who finally felt that there was a place where their voices could be heard. I do believe, however, that Mennonot may have been offensive to some of its non-readers! My take on it is that anybody who didn’t want to read Mennonot didn’t have to.

Do you consider yourself a feminist? How would you define that?

Yes, I consider myself a feminist. I like Joan Chittister’s definition of feminism as a philosophy that “regards the human race as one humanity in two genders and sets out to make the fullness of humanity available to both. More than that, it undertakes to release the energy of the human race.” That’s a broad definition! But it is how I view feminism—it really seeks to liberate both genders from oppressive attitudes and structures that would tend to deny part of our humanity.

You received the Clare Fischer Feminist Scholar Essay Award from the Center for Women and Religion. What did you focus on in your essay?

On how social class affects the woman writer. Virginia Wolfe wrote about how sexism and gender roles can silence women-- my essay pointed out how social class can also silence the voice of the woman writer, make poor and working-class women feel they have nothing important to say.

Where are you currently living?

In the San Francisco Bay area, specifically in Oakland, California .

Are you presently working as the pastor of First Mennonite Church ?

Yes—First Mennonite Church of San Francisco is the full name.

Are you planning on publishing anything new in the near future?

No. My church work is so rich and full that I don’t have a lot of creative energy left over for doing anymore writing or publishing. And, now with a baby on the way, it seems even less likely. But, who knows?

Libby Glover