You may contact Shirley at shirley.showalter(at)gmail.com to request a keynote, book club interview, workshop, retreat, or other speaking assignment. The following engagements provide a sample of Shirley's topics and interests. Recent favorites: aging and vocation, grandparenting, spiritual legacy, Mennonite memoir, and school board activism. 

2024

January 11, 2024, "Living Joyfully," Sarasota, FL, Sarasota Community Church

January 14, 2024, "Grandmas for Love Peace Talk," Covenant Mennonite Church, Sarasota, FL

May 7, 2024 "From Farm Girl to College President to Crusading Grandma: A Mennonite Life," Abbotsford, BC, Canada, Mennonite Heritage Museum

July 10, 2024, "How to Be a Mindful Grandparent," How To! Podcast with Marilyn McEntyre

September 24, 2024, "Leaving a Spiritual Legacy," The Village at University Gates, Ontario, CAN

September 25, 2024, "From Farm Girl to College President to Crusading Grandma: A Mennonite Life," North Waterloo Mennonite Church, CAN

September 27, 2024, "The Courage to Teach and the Courage to Age," Conrad Grebel University College Faculty Forum

September 29, 2024, "Loving Our Children's Children," Community Mennonite Church of Stouffville, Ontario, CAN

October 17, 2024 "How Grandmas for Love Came to Be and What We Are Doing Now" Pennsylvania State Education Association, Retired,

 

2023

April 20, 2023, "Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets the Glittering World," book club conversation, Moravian Manor

May 11, 2023, "Mennonite Memoir," Conestoga Mennonite Church

May 13, 2023, "Blush: A Mennonite Memoir," Lancaster Society of Friends

May, 26, 2023, "Mindfulness" The Grand Life Podcast

September 3, 2023, "Grandmas for Love: Who We Are and Why We Do What We Do," Lititz Church of the Brethren SS Class

September 19, 2023, "Grandmas for Love: Who We Are and Why We Do What We Do," Willow Valley Retirement Community Democratic Club

October 17, 2023, "Shirley Showalter: Grandma for Love" Grandma Magic Podcast

2022

January 18, 2022, A Lititz Childhood, Mennonite Style, Steinman Hall, Moravian Manor, Lititz, PA

April 29, 2022, Book Launch for The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children's Children, First Presbyterian Church of Kalamazoo, MI. With Marilyn McEntyre. 7 p.m.

May 3, 2022, East Coast book launch for The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children's Children, Lititz Church of the Brethren, 7 p.m.

May 4, 2022, Book Talk, The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children's Children, Landis Homes Retirement Community, West Bethany Chapel, 4 p.m.

May 10, 2022, "Be a Story Weaver," for Everence Development Officer Meeting, Wyndham Hotel, Lancaster, PA, 9 a.m.

June 23, 2022, "Mindful Grandparenting: A New Calling for A New Age," Harrisonburg, VA, 7 p.m.

June 27, 2022, Interview, Good Day PA, WHTM-TV, Channel 27, ABC affiliate, 10 a.m.

August 4, 2022, interview and book talk with Jason Samuel at Fables Books, Goshen, IN 5 p.m.

August 28, 2022, sermon, "Loving Our Children's Children," Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship. 5 p.m.

November 4, 2022 class, "Leaving a Spiritual Legacy: The Greatest Gift of Grandparenting." Landis Communities. 1-2:30 p.m.

 

Fall, 2016-2017

Shirley's current speaking engagements are focused, directly or indirectly, on her book Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World. She also speaks about Aging, Vocation, and Joy. Her topic this fall is Jubilación: Vocation in the Third Act of Life. She is open to requests.

She does book signings, book talks, and author talks. So far she has more than 20,000 miles either traveled or scheduled!

You may contact her at shirley.showalter(at)gmail.com to request a keynote, workshop, retreat, or other speaking assignment.

October 15, 2016 TEN Talk at Homecoming, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA. "Everything I Needed to Learn I Learned in Northlawn."

September 3-5, 2017 Keynote Address: "The Purpose of Memory," Brubaker Reunion (300 years after immigrant arrival), Millersville University, Lancaster, PA.

 

Fall-Winter, 2014-2015

September 18,  3 p.m. Strite Auditorium, Crestwood, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, "What I Discovered by Writing Blush."

October 2, 4-5 p.m, Bowers Writing Center, Elizabethtown College. "The Hook: How to Start Your Written Work So that the Reader Has to Keep Reading"

October 2, 7:30 p.m. Bucher Meetinghouse, The Young Center, Elizabethtown College, “Looking Backward on a Career: How Growing Up Mennonite Prepared Me for Leadership (and How a Life of Reading and Teaching led Me to Authorship)”

Weekend Retreat Friday evening October 10-Sunday after lunch October 12, Amigo Centre, Cassopolis, MI. Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Women. "Recovering Simplicity"

October 19, Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa City, IA, 2 p.m., with Carol Bodensteiner, "Is the Past Ever Past?" Book talk and signing.

October 25, Gospel Bookstore, Berlin, OH, 9 a.m. - noon; book signing and conversation

October 26, Millersburg Mennonite Church, Millersburg, OH, morning service

Sunday January 11, 6 p.m. "I Love to Tell the Story," worship service and talk-back, Bahia Vista Mennonite Church, Sarasota, Florida

The 2014 BooktourAnniversary Palooza Amtrak 30-Day Pass on Coastal Starlight and Empire Builder Trains

July 6,  9:30 a.m., Worship service and talk-back, "I Love to Tell the Story," Portland Mennonite Church, Portland, OR.

July 6, 7 p.m. Book talk and signing, Pacific Northwest Mennonite Historical Society, near Zion Mennonite Church

July 9, 7 p.m., book talk and signing, Third Place Books, Seattle

July 11, 7 p.m., Book talk on "Writing as Spiritual Practice" with April Yamasaki and Danny Unrau, House of James Book Store and Café, Abbottsford, BC, Canada.

July 13, book talk and conversation, Vancouver, BC, Point Grey Inter-Mennonite Fellowship

July 20, Worship service and talk-back, Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis "I Love to Tell the Story: Mary and Martha"

July 20 , 1-4 p.m.EDT, by Skype, Workshop:  "From Perplexed to Published," Squirrel Hill Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh http://www.carnegielibrary.org/events/details.cfm?location=Squirrel%20Hill&event_id=106429

July 27 11 a.m. Sunday School hour and light lunch, Pittsburgh Mennonite Church

 

Previous Engagements, 2014

June, 2014

June 1,  6 p.m., The Friends Meetinghouse (Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship), 15 Rutherford Place, New York, NY, "Strange Bedfellows: Writing the (Mennonite) World as We Are. With Jessica Penner.

June 4, luncheon fundraiser, Samaritan Center fundraiser, Elkhart, IN. By invitation. "How Telling Our Stories Can Save Our Broken Lives: Combining Mind, Body, and Spirit"

June 5, 10 a.m. Greencroft Retirement Community, Goshen, IN, talk and book signing " Why your Life Story Matters: And Five Tips for How to Tell it Better"

June 5, 7 p.m., Kazoo Books, Kalamazoo, MI. Reading and signing.

June 30, 1 p.m. Harrisonburg, VA Public Library, book talk and signing with poet Angela Carter

May, 2014

1. May 17, noon luncheon, Harleysville, Pennsylvania, The Mennonite Heritage Center. Mennonite Women of Pennsylvania: Our Heritage

2. May 18, worship service and talk back session afterward, Blooming Glen, Pennsylvania, Mennonite Church, "I Love to Tell the Story: Jesus in the Temple"

3. May 27, 7 p.m., The Cell Theatre, 338 W. 23rd St., New York, NY, reading the "Fresh Air Girl" chapter from BLUSH

April, 2014

• April 11          Lancaster Mellinger Church Spring Gathering, April 11

March, 2014

• March 6-11 Kansas Book Tour

February, 2014

• Book club talk, Park View, VA. Feb. 18

• February 24, Mellingers Mennonite Church, Lancaster, PA, 7 p.m. with Valerie-Weaver Zercher. For the benefits of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society. "What We Learned from Writing Our Books"
• February 25, Good Day PA interview on Channel 27 ABC Harrisburg, PA, station. Noon.
• February 26, Mt. Joy Mennonite Church, 7 p.m. with Saloma Miller Furlong. Coverings: Stories of Amish and Mennonite Women

September-December, 2013 was the Book Launch Tour. Details here: http://shirleyshowalter.com/tour/

The 2012 and 2011 events listed below give you a sample of topics and venues Shirley enjoys.

• Leading From Within, Mennonite Health Assembly
• Using StrengthsFinder to Build Leadership Teams, Mennonite Health Assembly
• Identifying and Supporting Women in Leadership
• April 29, 30, 2011, May 1 Annual Association Spring Meeting, "Dancing with Change."http://www.lmhs.org/Home/Events/Annual_Banquet
• May 12, 2011, Monthly Memoir Writing Roundtable. Teleconference. 4 PM PST |5 PM MST | 6 PM CST | 7 PM EST , "Land That I Love: Writing About Places in Memoir." More details available at National Association of Memoir Writers website: www.namw.org
• June 4, 2011, Garden Spot Village, New Holland, PA. Your memories coming alive:  Writing your memoir

Learn about the importance of memories, and how to document them in writing.  Writing is a spiritual tool you can use to create the storyline of your life.  It's a way to inspire others to tell their stories.  There will be discussion of specific techniques and approaches, and additional training needed to write your story.

June 12-16, Women's Advanced Leadership Training, CCCU-sponsored for women leaders in Christian Higher Education, Bellingham, WA.