Mary-Ann Kirkby Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Mary-Ann Kirkby is an accomplished author.

She spent the first decade of her life living in a Hutterite Colony in Manitoba, Canada. Her parents did something unthinkable and in 1969 they decided to uproot their seven children and then leave behind the only life that they had known.

This pushed them further into a society that they didn’t understand and which also did not understand them that well. Her transition into mainstream culture has been at times both heartbreaking and humorous.

Mary-Ann is an award-winning television journalist in addition to being an author. She learned about the art of storytelling from her gifted Hutterite teachers. She resides in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage is a fascinating true story told by the author Mary-Ann Kirkby to the reader about her own life.

The year was 1969, and after ten years living in a colony, her parents did something unthinkable. They left the Hutterite colony with their seven children and not much else and departed from Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, to begin a new life together.

Throughout the course of the night, the family found that they had been pushed into a society that they did not get and which didn’t know anything of the unique culture that they had come from. As a result, the transition was definitely not as smooth as it could have been.

Over 40,000 Hutterites are known for residing on four hundred colonies throughout the United States and Canada’s Prairie provinces. They are spiritual cousins to groups such as the Amish and the Mennonites.

This is a culture that has been around for about five hundred years and has European roots. It has been part of North America since the late 1800s times, but at the same time it is also ironic because not too many outsiders know that much about the customs or the traditions of this group.

This book takes the reader inside Fairholme Colony. This is where the author spent the first years of her life living and the details that she offers help create a portrait of a closed community that few have had the privilege of witnessing. This is the story of a way of life that might seem unusual to the outside world, even extraordinary. Grab a copy of I Am Hutterite to absorb all of the details for yourself!

Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen: Unveiling the Rituals Traditions and Food of the Hutterite Culture takes together the life experience of Mary-Ann Kirkby and combines it with elements of food and the kitchen to create a book that is part memoir and part a food experience.

For those who did not know or did not read above, Mary-Ann spent ten years living in a Hutterite colony, collecting many of her experiences and reclaiming her heritage in her debut book I Am Hutterite.

Since that time, the author has spent two years traveling to what was nearly fifty Hutterite colonies all across North America, which helped earn their trust along the way as well as a ‘place in their hearts’.

As a reader, you’ll be taken into the center of this community and shows a way of life that comes from their deep spiritual conviction as well as their uncommon rites of passage. It shows inside details of a community life that few have had the honor of knowing, from the morals to the manners of this culture which feeds a family of 125 on every day of the year.

This book goes into the social customs, the marriage ceremonies, the birthing practices, romantic entanglements, and even the death rituals as filtered through the Hutterite community kitchen as well as the Hutterite women that are sure to fascinate the reader. It’s full of photographs that have never before been seen and includes some Hutterite recipes as well. Check out this book to get the full breadth of this detailed and interesting story and come away with some new things you can cook too!