Some very nice news came in since the Christy Otto book giveaway post went up. A reader who wishes to remain anonymous has very generously chosen to donate copies of one of Christy Otto’s books of artwork to the first 50 people who left comments on the previous Q&A post. Call it an early Christmas gift in appreciation to the readers here. Wow! Below you’ll…
Christy Otto is an Amishman living in the LaGrange-Elkhart County settlement in northern Indiana. He is known for his artwork. Being an artist and Amish is not the most common combination, but there are more and more people who can describe themselves that way. Christy has become quite well-known in Amish circles for his drawings and paintings. David Arment, who helped put this Q&A together,…
The Budget, published in Sugarcreek, Ohio since 1890, is a correspondence paper popular in Amish and Mennonite communities. This is one of the best articles I’ve seen on the paper, a fairly deep dive into how the Budget gets made, who reads it, what it covers, and more, by Sophie LeMay of thereportingproject.org. The intro: SUGARCREEK, Ohio – Of all print newspapers in the U.S.,…
We’ve got a winner of In Plain View: The Daily Lives of Amish Women by Judy Stavisky today. If you didn’t catch last week’s Q&A with Judy, you can find that here. She has done a nice job of answering a number of your questions in the comments there. But first here’s an excerpt of the book, courtesy of Herald Press. This is from pages…
For years now, Judy Stavisky has been driving and accompanying Amish women on shopping trips, building friendships with them and learning firsthand about their lives. Judy has compiled her experiences and insights in a new book called In Plain View: The Daily Lives of Amish Women. Here’s the description via Herald Press: What does the life of an Amish woman really look like? Over the…
Following last week’s insightful Q-and-A with Donald Kraybill, we’ve got a winner of What the Amish Teach Us: Plain Living in a Busy World, his new book just released today. This book is unlike others Don has written – a series of 22 essays sharing things that he has learned from his friendships with Amish people and study of Amish life, spanning decades. Before we…
Donald Kraybill‘s new book What the Amish Teach Us: Plain Living in a Busy World will be out next Tuesday. What the Amish Teach Us features 22 essays on a wide array of important life topics, each drawing lessons from the Amish example. Topics include “Limits: Less Choice, More Joy”, “Parenting: Raising Sturdy Children”, “Hacking: Creative Bypasses”, “Patience: Slow Down and Listen”, and many more….
I’m happy to share that the new issue of the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (JPAC) is out. Here’s journal co-editor Joe Donnermeyer on what you’ll find inside the latest edition of this freely available online publication. The third issue of the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities was released this past week. On the cover of Volume 2, Issue 1 is a photo showing an…
There was a nice article recently in the Epoch Times, a feature on the monthly publication Plain Values, which has become popular with both Amish and non-Amish alike. The publisher of the magazine is Marlin Miller, who grew up Amish. There are three main “pillars” the magazine focuses on – children with special needs, adoption, and “to highlight good works being done both at home…
Linda Byler is rare in the world of Amish fiction writing. She is an actual member of an Old Order Amish church in an industry dominated by non-Amish writers. That’s one reason I found this recent profile of Linda so interesting. It begins charmingly with Linda not being totally sure how many books she’s actually written since first picking up the pen in 2003: While…