Festival of Faith & Writing Coming to Calvin

elist Michael Chabon, Yann Martel, author of the “Life of Pi,” and children's author Katherine Paterson are among the constellation of novelists, poets, playwrights, illustrators, screenwriters, memoirists, graphic artists and others featured at the 2008 Festival of Faith & Writing, to be held April 17-19 at Calvin College.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Chabon, Man Booker Prize-winning Martel and multiple Newbery Award-winning Paterson, all of whom will deliver plenary talks open to the public, are good representatives of the depth of quality of the festival roster, said director Shelly LeMahieu Dunn.

"Many people talk about the festival as an oasis, and I think that's a really appropriate metaphor," said LeMahieu Dunn. “Writing and reading are such solitary activities, and the festival gives people a place to encourage one another and to reflect a little bit about what it means to be a Christian, a writer, a reader, and how to do those things faithfully."

Festival 2008 organizers have created multiple opportunities for featured authors to meet, both on and off campus, with area high school students, partner with a local gallery, connect with the staff of the college's service-learning center, and meet with Calvin Russian literature, graphic novel and creative writing classes.

One such on-campus collaboration joins the Festival of Faith & Writing with the Calvin Theatre Company, which will give several performances of Deborah Breevort's “The Women of Lockerbie.” The play, structured as a Greek tragedy, is loosely based on the true story of the women of Lockerbie, Scotland, who retrieved and washed the clothes of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and returned them to their families.

Breevort will speak following each performance of the play and at a session titled "Writing The Women of Lockerbie, from Inspiration to Completion," at 11 a.m., Saturday, April 19 in the Gezon Auditorium.

Another vital on-campus collaboration is “Beauty of the Spirit,” an exhibition of the work of preeminent African American artist and illustrator, and festival speaker, Kadir Nelson. The exhibition, which runs in the Center Art Gallery from March 17 through April 19, showcases paintings from five of Nelson's books.

For more information on the FFW, visit:  www.calvin.edu/festival

For the list of plenary talks open to the public see
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival/conference/public-events.php