By Maryann Henck

What is it like to grow up in an Old Order Amish com­mu­ni­ty? Can the allure of tra­di­tion and a sense of belong­ing to such a com­mu­ni­ty over­ride the long­ing for free­dom and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence the great wide world? This unre­lent­ing push and pull between secure Amish com­mu­ni­ty life and the tempt­ing siren song of the out­side world have shaped ex-Amish author and blog­ger, Ira Wagler. In his best-sell­ing mem­oir, Grow­ing Up Amish, the author offers his read­ers an hon­est, bit­ter­sweet, and mov­ing account of how he left the Amish, only to return and even­tu­al­ly leave for good.

As one of the guest speak­ers at the Plain Peo­ple Con­fer­ence, Ira Wagler gave a heart­felt talk as well as read excerpts from his mem­oir about com­ing of age and his first love, Sarah Miller. But why don’t you lis­ten for yourself?

By Drew Hayden Taylor

After a dozen trips or more to Deutsch­land, I can offi­cial­ly say I con­sid­er Ger­many to be my home away from home. Each vis­it reunites me with old friends, and if I’m lucky, I get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make new ones. I’ve grown fond of the land and the peo­ple. Upon reflec­tion, I think I have quite prob­a­bly seen more of Ger­many and its cities than most of its cit­i­zens. I lost track after the thir­ti­eth town. Or was it the for­ti­eth. … Hard to say. After this many trips, it’s all a blur of schnitzel and white asparagus.
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By Daria Radler

Writ­ers are a spe­cial breed. Con­stant­ly shift­ing through their per­cep­tion of the envi­ron­ment with detailed atten­tion, they store and ana­lyze any piece of infor­ma­tion on the end­less shelves of their flour­ish­ing mind. Every­thing is of val­ue. The way the grumpy barista was hold­ing the pen as he scrib­bled their name on their cup of take-away cof­fee; the momen­tary silence before a daugh­ter answered her moth­er, assur­ing her that she would be home in time for din­ner; the way he brushed her cheeks ever so slight­ly, trac­ing the out­line of her cheek­bone with the tip of his thumb as they sat on the park bench next to each oth­er, their eyes drink­ing in each oth­ers’ presence.

Writ­ers are like magi­cians. They turn to the world for inspi­ra­tion to cre­ate a uni­verse of their own, using a hand­ful of words to lat­er engage their read­ers. They feed the pages of a satir­i­cal play, a lost romance, or a spec­tac­u­lar crime. I’ve always found writ­ers fascinating.

When I came to Amer­i­ca as an exchange stu­dent in the spring of 2015, I was burn­ing with curios­i­ty but rather shy of expec­ta­tions. Lit­tle did I know that the U.S. would be my lit­er­ary haven.  Read more »