I can more or less measure the timeline of my writing career through the Festival of Faith and Writing.
In 2008 I saw an ad for the festival in a magazine. I showed up, pregnant with our second child, manuscript in hand, without knowing anyone. I met my friend Margot Starbuck and was introduced to my agent as a result.
I won’t take you through all the subsequent years, but I have reveled in hearing from speakers like Christian Wiman and James McBride and Anne Lamott and Bill McKibben and Kate Bowler.
And I have been so honored to participate as a speaker and panelist over those years. I’ve been so filled up with gratitude and joy to connect with other writers and readers and thinkers and people of faith and doubt and everything in between.
So I was really sad back in 2020 when the world shut down and I wasn’t able to speak about themes from White Picket Fences.
BUT I am also thrilled to say that I have been invited to speak in 2024. The lineup of other speakers is both intimidating and wondrous—Yaa Gyasi, Anthony Doerr, and Tracy K. Smith are the keynote speakers, and then the dozens of other people (like Karen Swallow Prior and Natasha Sistrunk Robinson and James K. A. Smith and Chanequa Walker-Barnes and on and on) will make each day a delightful feast for all who love books and reading and faith and thinking.
I tell you this in hopes that you’ll join us in Michigan in April 2024 (registration opens this fall). Stay tuned for thoughts about what I’ll say, and let me know if you have any ideas I should consider for a talk!
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