Mary Ann Zehr
@mazehr.bsky.social
College writing prof. Former EdWeek journalist. Former high school teacher. Memoirist. Got an English PhD at age 62. Rhet/Comp. NOT slow to speak up. Striving to be kind.
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
I really don't know about everyone else, but when I wrote book reviews, I read the books, cover to cover.
December 13, 2025 at 3:20 AM
I really don't know about everyone else, but when I wrote book reviews, I read the books, cover to cover.
Sofia Samatar writes about what she notices in the walkable small city--Harrisonburg--where she lives. I also live here and love this small city.
hburgcitizen.com/2025/12/03/b...
hburgcitizen.com/2025/12/03/b...
Book Review: Friendly City | The Harrisonburg Citizen
A year-long series of weekly columns about walking in Harrisonburg is being published in book form - with a launch on Dec. 5 at Parentheses Books
hburgcitizen.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Sofia Samatar writes about what she notices in the walkable small city--Harrisonburg--where she lives. I also live here and love this small city.
hburgcitizen.com/2025/12/03/b...
hburgcitizen.com/2025/12/03/b...
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
Research Finds That Employers Are Looking For People With Social Skills – I’d Show Students This Article If I Was Still In Classroom larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2025/11/28/r...
Research Finds That Employers Are Looking For People With Social Skills – I’d Show Students This Article If I Was Still In Classroom
Prior to the pandemic, when I would give students the option to work in groups or on their own, I might have gotten one-or-two students, if any, who would choose to work alone. Post-pandemic…
larryferlazzo.edublogs.org
November 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Research Finds That Employers Are Looking For People With Social Skills – I’d Show Students This Article If I Was Still In Classroom larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2025/11/28/r...
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
this turned out unexpectedly fascinating. I hope you’re doing/making things that make you curious and delighted.
🤍🕊️
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#artistsonbluesky #blueskyartshow #abstractart #abstractexpressionism #painter #art #artist #womensartbluesky #abstractartist #blueskyart #oregonartist #oregon
🤍🕊️
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#artistsonbluesky #blueskyartshow #abstractart #abstractexpressionism #painter #art #artist #womensartbluesky #abstractartist #blueskyart #oregonartist #oregon
November 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
this turned out unexpectedly fascinating. I hope you’re doing/making things that make you curious and delighted.
🤍🕊️
.
.
#artistsonbluesky #blueskyartshow #abstractart #abstractexpressionism #painter #art #artist #womensartbluesky #abstractartist #blueskyart #oregonartist #oregon
🤍🕊️
.
.
#artistsonbluesky #blueskyartshow #abstractart #abstractexpressionism #painter #art #artist #womensartbluesky #abstractartist #blueskyart #oregonartist #oregon
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
One side is darker than the other but let’s pretend that’s intentional. Ombré coconut pie 😂
November 27, 2025 at 8:22 PM
One side is darker than the other but let’s pretend that’s intentional. Ombré coconut pie 😂
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
Is there anything more anticlimactic than Black Friday, a day that has been happening for weeks?
November 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Is there anything more anticlimactic than Black Friday, a day that has been happening for weeks?
@bsky.app RIP, Diane Keaton. I watched you star with Warren Beatty in Reds in a downtown theater in Manhattan when I was 19 years old. It was one of the most memorable big-screen experiences of my life. Epic film.
October 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
@bsky.app RIP, Diane Keaton. I watched you star with Warren Beatty in Reds in a downtown theater in Manhattan when I was 19 years old. It was one of the most memorable big-screen experiences of my life. Epic film.
Book Review by Lee Snyder, former president of Bluffton University: "These young women found themselves in a world they could scarcely imagine." anabaptistworld.org/sojourns-in-...
Sojourns in the Middle Kingdom | Anabaptist World
From early missionaries to teachers of English, from the creation of the China Educational Exchange to Mennonite Partners in China, Mennonites represent a tiny but important part of an evolving story.
anabaptistworld.org
October 7, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Book Review by Lee Snyder, former president of Bluffton University: "These young women found themselves in a world they could scarcely imagine." anabaptistworld.org/sojourns-in-...
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall
💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero
― Jane Goodall
💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero
October 2, 2025 at 2:56 AM
“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall
💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero
― Jane Goodall
💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero
Yes. Mennonites can write art.
anabaptistworld.org/can-mennonit...
anabaptistworld.org/can-mennonit...
Can Mennonites write art? | Anabaptist World
The editor of a new anthology of Mennonite literary criticism penned over 150 years hopes a carefully curated resource about the past may inform the future of the field.
anabaptistworld.org
September 27, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Yes. Mennonites can write art.
anabaptistworld.org/can-mennonit...
anabaptistworld.org/can-mennonit...
Speculative fiction and real-life events in my community are trending toward each other.
tinyurl.com/y2tux6rp
tinyurl.com/y2tux6rp
Book Review: A Fairy Tale (with Startling Realism)
In reviewing a new work of speculative fiction by local author Keith Miller, The Citizen book critic Mary Ann Zehr finds uncomfortable real-life parallels
tinyurl.com
September 26, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Speculative fiction and real-life events in my community are trending toward each other.
tinyurl.com/y2tux6rp
tinyurl.com/y2tux6rp
If you are local, come out to Parentheses Books, Harrisonburg's independent bookstore, today, Saturday, at 4 pm to hear a reading by Kirsten Beachy from her new memoir. After the reading I'll be asking her a few questions. granolamennonite.com
Kirsten Eve Beachy
More reviews are in!
granolamennonite.com
September 6, 2025 at 1:09 PM
If you are local, come out to Parentheses Books, Harrisonburg's independent bookstore, today, Saturday, at 4 pm to hear a reading by Kirsten Beachy from her new memoir. After the reading I'll be asking her a few questions. granolamennonite.com
Thanks to the gift of papers by his granddaughter to James Madison University, Harrisonburg resident George A. Newman's novel written not long after the Civil War is now in the public eye. tinyurl.com/hhw83t9z
Book Review: An Unpublished (Until Now) 19th-Century Novel
The Citizen’s book critic explores a novel by a prominent Black resident of Harrisonburg written nearly 150 years ago but only recently published
tinyurl.com
September 6, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Thanks to the gift of papers by his granddaughter to James Madison University, Harrisonburg resident George A. Newman's novel written not long after the Civil War is now in the public eye. tinyurl.com/hhw83t9z
@bsky.app
I continue to be impressed with the creativity of local authors in Harrisonburg. I haven't run out of ideas for my monthly book column yet.
tinyurl.com/yc45u7p9
I continue to be impressed with the creativity of local authors in Harrisonburg. I haven't run out of ideas for my monthly book column yet.
tinyurl.com/yc45u7p9
Book Review: Representation | The Harrisonburg Citizen
Best Believe tells how three real-life Puerto Rican sisters worked to improve schools, higher education, and libraries in the Bronx.
tinyurl.com
August 16, 2025 at 12:43 PM
@bsky.app
I continue to be impressed with the creativity of local authors in Harrisonburg. I haven't run out of ideas for my monthly book column yet.
tinyurl.com/yc45u7p9
I continue to be impressed with the creativity of local authors in Harrisonburg. I haven't run out of ideas for my monthly book column yet.
tinyurl.com/yc45u7p9
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
"We should all keep in mind that the final judge of our actions is God...Some things are worth taking a principled stand for." #BishopBrennan #PrayForAmerica www.ncronline.org/news/west-vi...
West Virginia bishop warns on immigration: 'The final judge of our actions is God'
Bishop Mark E. Brennan urged people of his state to "affirm the humanity of all immigrants." He also called on every person to "pray for the courage to do the right thing," including those tasked with...
www.ncronline.org
August 7, 2025 at 1:25 PM
"We should all keep in mind that the final judge of our actions is God...Some things are worth taking a principled stand for." #BishopBrennan #PrayForAmerica www.ncronline.org/news/west-vi...
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.
July 21, 2025 at 5:20 PM
When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
Reposted by Mary Ann Zehr
July 13, 2025 at 11:54 AM
". . . Let me clearly plant my stake in the ground: humans need community. . .Isolation and loneliness are deadly, like actually [italics on actually] deadly."
July 13, 2025 at 12:29 PM
". . . Let me clearly plant my stake in the ground: humans need community. . .Isolation and loneliness are deadly, like actually [italics on actually] deadly."
". . . open lands inspire open minds. This is the open space of democracy." --Terry Tempest Williams
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/o...
Opinion | Americans Fought Off This Awful Idea in Trump’s Bill
www.nytimes.com
July 6, 2025 at 9:23 PM
". . . open lands inspire open minds. This is the open space of democracy." --Terry Tempest Williams
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/o...
In writing my book column for July, I learned a lot more about an important story from my region: the displacement of mountain families for the creation of Shenandoah National Park. tinyurl.com/22kn99sc
Book Review: Place and Displacement | The Harrisonburg Citizen
On one visit to the park, I came across stones from a chimney and the foundation of a dwelling. I didn’t give these ruins a second thought.
tinyurl.com
July 5, 2025 at 1:33 PM
In writing my book column for July, I learned a lot more about an important story from my region: the displacement of mountain families for the creation of Shenandoah National Park. tinyurl.com/22kn99sc
When I am planning to teach a book, I kind of go crazy with post-it notes. Braiding Sweetgrass is the Common Read for my university this coming academic year.
June 26, 2025 at 7:52 PM
When I am planning to teach a book, I kind of go crazy with post-it notes. Braiding Sweetgrass is the Common Read for my university this coming academic year.
"Books aren't meant to be hiding places, defenses against a dark world, excuses for detachment and engagement. I think they're meant to be flashlights, moving us forward, placing us in community with one another, giving us a reason to walk together."
June 26, 2025 at 12:18 PM
"Books aren't meant to be hiding places, defenses against a dark world, excuses for detachment and engagement. I think they're meant to be flashlights, moving us forward, placing us in community with one another, giving us a reason to walk together."