Josiah Neufeld

Jun 11, 2024 | thewalrus.ca | Josiah Neufeld

O n November 13, 2023, less than four minutes into the awards ceremony for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the evening’s host, comedian Rick Mercer, was attempting a joke about Alice Munro when two young people quietly appeared next to him onstage holding signs that read, “Scotiabank funds genocide.” After a moment of shocked silence, another protester shouted from the floor, “Scotiabank currently has a $500 million stake in Elbit Systems.

May 15, 2024 | broadview.org | Josiah Neufeld |Emma Donoghue

In 1978, the American theologian Walter Brueggemann published a slender, pointed book about the biblical prophets whose revolutionary imagination he believed was sorely needed now to awaken a culture numbed, subdued and satiated by an ethos of consumerism. The prophet, said Brueggemann, had two tasks: to criticize the dominant consciousness and to imagine an alternative. In recent decades, a prophetic genre has emerged in literature.

Feb 16, 2024 | broadview.org | Josiah Neufeld

Poverty is pain: the ache in your belly after you finish the bag of Doritos you brought to school for lunch. Poverty is shame: your classmates’ laughter at your crooked teeth because your parents can’t afford to get them fixed. Poverty is brain fog: its stresses reduce a person’s ability to solve problems or make good decisions. Poverty is sickness: it increases a child’s likelihood of experiencing heart disease or diabetes as an adult.

Nov 22, 2023 | broadview.org | Josiah Neufeld

The rallies had the appearance of a grassroots movement led by concerned parents, but the “1 Million March 4 Children” was the fruit of months of organizing by far-right groups that include Christian nationalists, conservative Muslim activists, COVID conspiracy theorists and believers in “climate fraud.”In recent months, they have rallied around the goal of eliminating sex and gender curricula from public schools, along with other vital supports for queer and trans youth.

Nov 19, 2023 | reviewcanada.ca | Josiah Neufeld |Andrew Torry

Josiah Neufeld opens his debut work of non-fiction, The Temple at the End of the Universe, with a disclaimer: “If you hope this book will lead you to spiritual truth, I am sorry, in advance.” The short story writer, essayist, and journalist — who lives in Winnipeg and won an Amnesty International Media Award in 2016 — explores the complex intersection of religion and environmentalism.