ELMA SCHEMENAUER

 

"ELMA MARY FROM THE PRAIRIE"

 

I was born Elma Mary Martens, a first-generation child of Russian Mennonite immigrants to Saskatchewan, Canada. My life began on a prairie farm east of the village of Elbow. Favourite childhood activities included picking wildflowers, jumping into haystacks, catching tadpoles, and singing to the cattle in the pasture.

 

After high school in Elbow, I attended Briercrest Bible Institute (now a college) and the Universities of Saskatchewan and Toronto. I taught in Saskatchewan, Montana, and Nova Scotia. Then I moved into the publishing industry in Toronto, where I wrote and edited for a variety of publishers.

 

I'm the author of many books besides YesterCanada. They include:

​-Consider the Sunflowers, a 1940s-era Saskatchewan Mennonite novel also published by Borealis Press. Available on Amazon and elsewhere.  

-Ottawa: Our Nation's Capital

-Hello Toronto, Hello Halifax, Hello Fredericton

-John A. Macdonald

-Special Canadian Communities

-Native Canadians Today and Long Ago.

I've also edited numerous books. Titles include United Empire Loyalists by Alan Skeoch, Inuit Peoples of Canada by Palmer Patterson, The Girl From Away by Claire Mowat, One John A. Too Many by Richard Wright, and Canada Today, third edition by Carl F. Smith et al. (co-editor). 

 

In 2006 my husband and I relocated to Kamloops, British Columbia. There I write, blog, and take long walks on grassy hillsides that remind me of my prairie roots. I thank God for His many blessings and trust Him for the future, whatever it may bring.