Mennonite Memoir

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Anabaptist is the name common to a number of groups who all trace their origins to the radical reformation in 16th-century Europe. I created a category for Anabaptist memoirs. These include Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonite.

Amish memoir:

Why I Left the Amish, by Saloma Miller Furlong, reviewed here.

Hutterite memoir:

I Am Hutterite, by Mary-Ann Kirkby, reviewed here

Mennonite memoir:

The most recent issue from the Center for Mennonite Writing is devoted to memoir. Don’t miss Ann Hostetler’s excellent introduction if you are interested in this sub-genre of memoir.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, by Rhoda Janzen, reviewed here.

At Powerline and Diamond Hill, by Lee Snyder, reviewed here.

Emma, by Ervin Stutzman, reviewed here.

A Hundred Camels, by Gerald. L. Miller, reviewed here.

The Steppes Are the Colour of Sepia, by Connie Braun, reviewed here.

A Mennonite Woman: Spiritual Life and Identity by Dawn Ruth Nelson reviewed in Mennonite Quarterly Review, Fall, 2011

Because I Can by Janet Oberholtzer, interviewed here

Growing Up Plain by ShirleyKurtz described in her essay here.

The two-volume set of short memoirs from the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society is a great resource.

Just received: Small Steps Toward the Missing Peace: A Memoir by James C. Juhnke

Announcing a book contract for my own memoir — along with a request for your help in building a community around it: here.

This is not a complete list! See titles from Cascadia Press for more.

See also these suggestions from Ann Hostetler at the Center for Mennonite Writing.  Rolling Down Black Stockings by Esther Royer Ayers (Kent State 2005) and David Wagler’s Growing Up Amish (Tyndale House 2011).