Ann Haut
Author, Editor, Speaker
Welcome!
Coming Soon!
Baking Second Chances, the second work in the Haut's Cookie Shoppe series, has been acquired by Wipf and Stock!
The book continues the story begun in Listen to Your Bread, and is expected to be released in the Summer of 2024!
BOOKS
A tough town like Olean offers a guy only so many job options: sweat in the stench of oil refinery crude, like his immigrant father does, suffer boredom in a factory job, or apprentice in a trade. Icky Haut chooses the latter and works his way up, one crumb at a time, in a commercial bread bakery.
Haut loves everything about baking bread: the smell and taste of yeast, the softness of flour rubbed between fingertips, the intense heat of ovens, the anticipation of a loaf's rise, and the comfort of its promise of sustenance. But after his second child is born, he realizes he's been mixing, proofing, shaping, scoring and baking dough half his life. Is this it?
Maybe not . . . but then his great idea to expand the bakery jams him up with his boss, and he's toast. How Haut relies on family and faith to start his own bakery is the center of this real life, local-guy-makes-good story set in the 1930s and '40s. Haut's boss calls bread the "staff of life" feeding his bottom line; the Hauts are nourished by their faith, and that shift in perspective recasts the story to hope in the Bread of Life.
Jesus is Risen: Theology for the Church is comprised of two volumes based on Walter R. Bouman's lectures at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. In Volume 1, Dr. Bouman's claim that Jesus is God begins by telling why the Gospel is literally, the "good news" of the church.
Following chapters describe the historical mission of Jesus, reveal the meaning of the crucified messiah, explain why Jesus's resurrection is the power of the future, explore the idea that a loving God suffers, introduce the presence of the Holy Spirit, and investigate Trinitarian language for God.
Volume 2 begins by describing several models on what it means to be a church, and then lays out the importance of the Holy Eucharist, distinctions between law and gospel, the meaning of justification by faith, the gift of Holy Baptism as initiation into the Christian community, and the Christian doctrine of creation as an affirmation of our duty to care for the world.
The link below goes to Volume 1; Volume 2 is available from the same publisher.
Alleluia! is a Gedenkschrift—that is, a collection of writings in gratitude for the lifework of one of the most respected teachers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Walter R. Bouman, ThD.
In these pages, readers are invited to enter into conversation with theologians whose work represents the dynamic search for truth that Dr. Bouman once shared, and continues in the enterprise to which he gave his life.
The book begins with the funeral sermon delivered by his nephew, Stephen Paul Bouman, for as Dr. Bouman often said, to begin at the end of the story is to better understand its message. The essays that follow represent the rigorous thinking that Dr. Bouman would likely have enjoyed—whether or not he would have agreed, as the authors in this book often indicate.
Among the contributors are Mark Allan Powell, James M. Childs, Jr., and Gordon W. Lathrop, each a cherished colleague with whom Bouman worked and struggled in strengthening his own theological position.
Praise for
Listen to Your Bread
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“In this beautifully written retelling of her own family’s journey, Dr. Ann Haut shares the hard-earned wisdom and life lessons of baker Edward ‘Icky’ Haut. Wisdom does not come from cheap grace but, rather, from a kind of virtuous, but counter-intuitive, obstinacy—a stubbornness anchored in hope and faith in the ultimate goodness of creation and its Creator. It is not a walk of sugar and spice, even when bread and cookies are its manifestations. It’s messy, uncomfortable, and hard on loved ones, and fraught with pain and disappointment. It is a test of one’s grit, as the author shows, but a test that can be met when we listen to our bread.”
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“Food, culture, and entre-preneurship converge in this chronicle of the European immigrant experience in the US. Yes, it is one family’s story in Olean, New York, but it’s also a reminder of the struggles during the Great Depression and World War II. Ann Haut’s conversa-tional writing style in this novelized family history captures the flavor of time and place. Bread offers more than sustenance here—it represents connections to cultural identity, faith, and family.”
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“Listen to Your Bread is a story set in the small town of Olean, New York, where a young Icky Haut finds identity and vocation. The story is subtle and empathetic, delving into the community and family ties of love, duty, sympathy, forgive- ness, and faith. The grace of plain and ordinary people serves to raise the human spirit for those today who seek to find their center in a more strife-filled and impersonal world.”
Peter Reinhart, author of
The Bread Baker's Apprentice
and Executive Director of the Johnson & Wales University International Symposium on Bread
Gail Bellamy,
restaurant writer,
food editor, and author of
Cleveland Food Memories
Mark R. Ramseth, President Emeritus, Trinity Lutheran Seminary
CURRENT PROJECTS
I'm currently working on books set in Olean, NY, a small mountain town located halfway between New York City and Chicago. The area’s storied past has included a variety of real-life characters—from oil exploiting magnates, John D. and William Rockefeller, to rum-running bootleggers and union/criminal masterminds, such as Al Capone and his cronies.
The books are born out of stories from my husband Mark’s family, for like many Oleanders, their lives were linked to both the town’s influential upper crust and its unfortunate underbelly. His paternal grandfather was a fireman for Socony (an acronym for Standard Oil Com-pany of New York), his maternal grandfather was a machinist foreman for Luther Manufacturing (and repaired stills for Jack Hoard’s speakeasy), and his father, who as a young man dealt cards in an illegal gaming operation to earn enough money to pay off doctor bills arising out of the delivery of his firstborn daughter, later had his own business infiltrated by an arm-twisting union with connections to crime lords.
People who grew up in post-WWII Olean still brag about their town's proud history. They point to four-lane downtown boulevards lined by specialty shops, fine restaurants and favorite hangouts, tree-lined neighbor- hood streets, an abundance of city parks and community sports facilities, an incredible public library . . . the place sounds ideal, right? What could possibly go wrong? (heh, heh, heh. . .)
The Haut Family. Top row: Alma, Idka (Icky), Minnie (Herta), and Erna. Bottom row: Henry (Pa Haut), Henry (son), and Emma (Ma Haut).
If you're from Olean, you might wonder whether or not you, your family, or your favorite spots are mentioned in the Haut's Cookie Shoppe stories. Maybe you shudder at the thought. Or maybe you have a few details to add. Even if you've never been there, you probably know people and places just like the ones in these books.
BIO
For as far back as I can remember, I've been told that I was born with ink in my blood. My grandfather was a typesetter for The Toledo Blade, and my father was a sports reporter who covered the Detroit Tigers during the years in which Denny McClain and Mark Fidrych were on the mound.
My own writing career began at The Detroit News, and eventually moved into corporate public relations, where I wrote executive speeches delivered before audiences such as The New York Society of Security Analysts. I also contributed to a script delivered by George C. Scott on the NBC television special, Happy Birthday, Bob (Hope), and generated pre-game Super Bowl content that aired on the Today show.
After earning a PhD, I edited two volumes on the lifework and teaching of The Rev. Dr. Walter R. Bouman entitled
Jesus is Risen: Theology for the Church. While I never questioned my calling to write, I also felt drawn to teaching and became an associate professor of business writing and ethics at John Carroll University. Working with the wonderful students in The Boler School of Business have been among the happiest years of my career.
When I married Mark Haut, I began writing books set in his home town of Olean, New York. Listen to Your Bread is the first of three bakery stories.
People sometimes ask if I write every day. Yes! I'm at the computer before dawn and keep going until the herbs and flowers call. While I'm tending to my garden, my thoughts wander through the work-in-progress on my desk. Research and writing inspire me and energize my soul, perhaps because wherever I am, I am at home in someone's story.
Welcome to my world!
UPCOMING EVENTS
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April 10, 2024 - Olmsted Garden Club, Southern Pines, NC
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CONTACT
For media inquiries or to schedule speaking engagements, please email:
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