“In a time when traditional religion is viewed as suspect, passé, or offensive, many authors and artists are uncomfortable talking about their personal religion or spirituality, while others grope for new ways to say “God.” They attempt to articulate an amorphous truth in an “elsewhere beyond language,” in the words of Fanny Howe, but use language to explore their way toward it. The Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame—together with Sick Pilgrim, Patheos, Image, and St. Michael’s College in Toronto—will bring together both well-known and emerging writers, artists and musicians who are wrestling with religious experience and traditions in new ways. We will feature authors in all literary genres: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and memoir, fantasy, and science fiction. We want to create a community of support, encouraging each other in a world that is dismissive and outright hostile toward our faith to continue Trying to Say God in our own distinctive way.” —Trying to Say God website https://www.tryingtosaygod.com/
I am so happy to be a small part of this conference from June 22-24, 2017, at the University of Notre Dame. I’ll be serving on a discussion panel entitled, “The Marian Effect: Building Strong Women in Writing and Life,” along with these strong and talented women: Angela Carlson, Suzanne Wolfe, Karen Beattie, Caroline Langston Jarboe, and my good friend, Karen Ullo. Our moderator will be Angela Cybulski.
“The writer, like any artist, is called to bring people closer to God through beauty expressed, truth told, and virtue taught. Simple as that.” — Father George Rutler
If you’d like to attend, Trying to Say God, click on the website.
Translating a World on the Edge 