What Is the Plain Community Writers Workshop? Over 300 Amish and Plain Writers Just Attended in Berlin, Ohio
Over 300 Amish and Plain community writers got together in Berlin, Ohio on March 13 and 14 for the Plain Community Writers Workshop — an event that has grown from a small home gathering five years ago into one of the more noteworthy literary happenings involving the Amish.
The two-day event was held at Dayspring United Mennonite Church in Holmes County. Publishers, sponsors, and book vendors were there, with The Budget, Plain Communities Business Exchange, and The Vendor among the supporters. The purpose of the event? In a nutshell, “inspiration, practical advice and fellowship.”
The gathering featured a number of speakers, including experienced authors and publishers. As noted in the report at Anabaptist World, keynote speaker Marcus Yoder of the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center emphasized the importance of writers using their Godly gift:
Writing is a gift from God, and writers need to put the gift to work instead of burying it in the ground, Marcus Yoder believes.
“When [God] wants to express love, he . . . entrusts us to write,” said Yoder, keynote speaker at the Plain Community Writers Workshop in Berlin, Ohio, March 13-14. “If you aren’t going to communicate what God gives us, then who’s going to do it?”
From a Home Gathering to 300+ Attendees
The workshop’s origins go back to 2019, when Amish writers in Ohio began talking about how to learn more about writing and connect with one another. The first gathering followed in 2021, held at a local home, with presentations given entirely in Pennsylvania Dutch. About 100 people attended.
By 2022, non-Amish people were showing up. So the following year, the event had moved to a local Mennonite church, and shifted to English. According to Beverly Keller’s article in The Budget (hat tip to Al in KY), the 2026 edition had around 200 show up on Friday, with a peak of about 320 on Saturday. Surely some of those attended both days, but in any case it looks like they drew at least several hundred “unique” visitors over the weekend.
The newspaper quoted Planning Committee member Marion Kuhns on what keeps people returning: “It can be a challenge to develop new ideas for topics and classes every year, yet we recognize that what keeps a lot of people coming back is just that ability to connect and mingle with other writers.”
“Writing Is Not a High Priority”
The event seeks to address a gap. As Anabaptist World notes, former committee member Reuben Shetler has acknowledged that writing is “not a high priority” among Plain communities.
This quote caught my attention – that’s because if someone told me that writing is a high priority in Plain communities, I would find that just as, or even more, believable.
That’s in part due to the still largely analog nature of Plain communities. Digital communication is a part of Amish life to varying degrees, especially in more progressive communities. But the Amish still rely on and consume a lot of print-on-paper media.
For one, correspondence newspapers like the Budget and Die Botschaft thrive, with Amish and other Plain community scribes penning weekly reports from their home communities, eagerly read by the papers’ thousands of subscribers.
Other publications, such as The Connection or Plain and Simple, feature Amish columnists. And many Amish are in that dwindling group of Americans still regularly writing letters, at least some of them – after all, they maintain a tradition of circle letters. And Amish authors are hardly unheard of.
So I’m not exactly sure what was meant by that – perhaps that studying and learning how to be better writers is not prioritized. And to that point, at least some of the conference’s sessions at the even were devoted to just that.
They also covered topics including self-publishing and traditional publishing, historical research, interviewing, poetry, and the writer’s relationship with editors.
David Kline, author of several books, editor of Farming Magazine, and a committee member, offered a straightforward challenge: to be a good writer, you first have to be a good reader. Other speakers stressed the importance of editors.
Speakers and attendees were not just from the Plain community. Reporter and documentarian Erik German, who had previously written on the use of robotics in Amish businesses, came from his home in NYC to deliver a specially-crafted session.
Writing as God’s Work
A recurring theme was – not surprisingly – the spiritual dimension of writing. As reported in The Budget, speaker Johnny Miller put it plainly:
“God endowed it [the power of the pen] and our duty is to exercise it. Write so people can see God.”
Keynote speaker Marcus Yoder posed a question: “What about writing reflects the image of God?” – and rooted his answer in Scripture:
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
And he closed with a challenge to any writer inclined to hold back: “Work hard at the craft of writing, when you do so, you are creating for God.”
More Than “Just” Fellowship
Like many such Amish events, a big part of the draw is the getting-together of it. As David Kline put it: “It’s nice to get together with people who have a common interest” of reading and writing, while Kuhns cited “the connections that are made and the atmosphere of the event.” And as you’d expect of an Amish-heavy event, there was time for prayer and singing throughout the event.
But that’s not the whole point, of course. And the organizers see tangible proof of results year after year, as quoted in The Budget:
As a whole, the committee remains inspired as they see past attendees return with published works of all kinds.
“It’s proof that people are not just attending for fun but also applying the things they learn and using it to produce content that our communities need,” Kuhns added.
Very nice to hear of the continuing success of this event. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it maintains its growth trajectory as more and more Plain community writers choose to devote focus to the craft and community of putting pen to paper.
Amish Stories Matter
I would have loved to attend this conference. During my years as an Amish taxi driver, I heard enough incredible stories from my passengers to fill several libraries — and probably a few sermon illustrations too.
More than once, I’ve encouraged Amish friends to write their stories down. Many told me they wouldn’t know where to begin, or that it just sounded like too much hassle. But I always tell them the same thing: your children and grandchildren will someday treasure those stories. They’ll want to know who you were, how you lived, and what life was like “back in the day.”
The Amish have such a rich storytelling culture already — around supper tables, in shops, in buggies, and yes… occasionally in the backseat of a taxi van. I’m glad to see conferences like this encouraging people to preserve those stories before they disappear.
A suspicion or two
As one who often writes about the Amish, I suspect I would enjoy attending! I also suspect that this could be another example of two worlds colliding. I’m not merely referring to Amish versus Englisch. Too often, writers focus on the “craft” of writing and forget or lose sight of its purpose: to communicate. In my occasional forays into the Budget and other Amish writing, I enjoy the simplicity. I would hope the organizers do not over-emphasize publishing.
Fascinating
I have never attended a writer’s conference before but I must admit, your presentation of it is tempting.