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Venue: Prince Conference Center, Board Room clear filter
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Saturday, April 18
 

9:00am EDT

Stained Glass and Sticky Hands: Writing Faithfully for Children in Our Holy and Messy World
Saturday April 18, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
Children are born into a world of both stunning sunsets and dropped ice cream cones. Our words and our presence can model what it means to live with an awareness of God’s goodness alongside the bumpy realities of skinned knees and playground politics. Reid encourages and equips us to contemplate the power of words infused with grace and truth and always grounded in hope.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room
Speakers
avatar for Aimee Reid

Aimee Reid

Children's author Aimee Reid learned to read through frequent story times with the Beginner Books from Random House. She soon read her way through the books in her Kindergarten classroom and received entrance to the big school library. It was special to release her first picture book... Read More →
Saturday April 18, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

10:30am EDT

Lightning Rod Poetry & Tuning Fork Poetics
Saturday April 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:15am EDT
Jacob Schepers writes, writes about, and edits avant-garde and experimental poetry. In this talk, he discusses pushing the boundaries of poetic practice and what formal, thematic, and philosophical considerations may inform such decisions. He suggests writers and readers alike may benefit from testing riskier and uglier creative practices beyond typical "shock value" alone.
Speakers
avatar for Jacob Schepers

Jacob Schepers

Jacob Schepers is cofounder and coeditor of Ballast, a 501(c)(3) non-profit online literary magazine, and the author of the poetry collections A Bundle of Careful Compromises and Ugly Ground Swell Moss, and the chapbooks Connections & Choreography and Shipwreck Abstracted... Read More →
Saturday April 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:15am EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

11:45am EDT

The Art of Poetry and the Gift of Attention
Saturday April 18, 2026 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT
Abram Van Engen has been reaching a wide range of listeners for the past five years with his popular podcast Poetry For All and his book Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church. He explores poetry as a gift of attention, and he explains why this gift might be worth our time, including how to sift poems and take them up in ways that deepen our spiritual lives.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room
Speakers
avatar for Abram VanEngen

Abram VanEngen

Abram Van Engen is the Stanley Elkin Professor of the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. His books include City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism (2020) and Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church (2024), named Best Book of 2024 in Cul... Read More →
Saturday April 18, 2026 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

2:30pm EDT

The Grace of Wild Things: Finding a Language for Praise and Lamentation
Saturday April 18, 2026 2:30pm - 3:15pm EDT
As the son of a veterinarian and the grandson of poor Appalachian farmers, Todd Davis searches for wildness in forests and remote streams. At root is his deep belief that we are kin to all species, not just humankind, and that as kin, we have a responsibility to care for one another. Rooted in praise and lamentation, Davis’s poems seek to situate our small role in the whole of creation.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room
Speakers
avatar for Todd Davis

Todd Davis

Todd Davis is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Ditch Memory: New & Selected Poems and Coffin Honey. He also edited A Literary Field Guide to Northern Appalachia and Fast Break to Line Break: Poets on the Art of Basketball. His writing has won the Midwest Book Award and the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize. He teaches environmental studies at Penn State University... Read More →
Saturday April 18, 2026 2:30pm - 3:15pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

4:00pm EDT

In the Spirit of Others' Words
Saturday April 18, 2026 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT
As editor and executive director of 32 Poems for the past 15 years, George David Clark curates and champions his favorite contemporary poems. He discusses the balance of humility and hubris required of active editors, the development of long-term artistic partnerships, editorial creativity, and the spirit of collaboration.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room
Speakers
avatar for George David Clark

George David Clark

George David Clark is the author of Reveille (winner of the Miller Williams Poetry Prize, Arkansas) and Newly Not Eternal (LSU), and coeditor, with Lew Klatt, of Playing with Fire: Christian Poets Reflect on Faith and Practice. The editor-in-chief of 32 Poems, David teaches creative writing at Washington & Jefferson College... Read More →
Saturday April 18, 2026 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room
 
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