2026 Festival of Faith and Writing: Full Schedule

2:30pm EDT

The Invitation of Desert Literature: Meeting Ourselves and God in Bleak Places

Thursday April 16, 2026 2:30pm - 3:15pm EDT

Deserts are often places of God encounter–in Scripture, literature, and our hearts. Novelist and Flannery O’Connor Award winner A. Muia discusses the lure of the desert as a space where we come to the edge of ourselves and wait for God. Muia uses published works of desert literature to illustrate how characters (and perhaps we ourselves) find good news, even in the bleakest of landscapes.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room

Speakers

A. Muia

A. Muia is the 2024 winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction for her novel, A Desert Between Two Seas. Her fiction has appeared in journals throughout the U.S. She holds a degree in Spanish language, a master's in teaching English to speakers of other languages, an... Read More →

Thursday April 16, 2026 2:30pm - 3:15pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

4:00pm EDT

Cultivating Curiosity with Picture Books

Thursday April 16, 2026 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Children’s book author Larissa Theule believes that stories shape the world one young reader at a time. She discusses how the art and craft of picture books cultivate children’s curiosity, prompting them to think critically and engage with life in meaningful, creative ways.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room

Speakers

Larissa Theule

Larissa Theule is the author of critically-acclaimed fiction and nonfiction books for children, including Tove Under the Tree, illustrated by Julie Benbassat, Kafka and the Doll, illustrated by Rebecca Green, and the Material Marvels. She lives and writes in Pasadena, California... Read More →

Thursday April 16, 2026 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

7:30pm EDT

Collegeville Institute

The Collegeville Institute is a place of scholarship, worship, dialogue, and community immersed in the Benedictine rhythm of work and prayer.

We invite you to explore our site, join the online conversations, subscribe to us, apply for a program, make a visit to Collegeville. Howev... Read More →

Thursday April 16, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

9:00am EDT

Reclaiming Christianity from the Christians: The Witness of Las Casas

Friday April 17, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

In the 16th century, a former conquistador named Bartolomé de las Casas boldly confronted his fellow Christians and spoke out against colonial violence in the Americas. In this session, Daniel José Camacho shares about Las Casas’s fascinating life and underappreciated writings that contain crucial lessons about faith and empathy that remain relevant in our own day.

Speakers

Daniel José Camacho

Daniel José Camacho is currently working on a book about Bartolomé de las Casas with Avid Reader Press. Previously an editor at Sojourners and Fortress Press, he won a Robert B. Silvers Foundation Grant for his essay "Saint Augustine's Slave Play," which became one of the top-t... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

10:30am EDT

Session Cancelled

Friday April 17, 2026 10:30am - 11:15am EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Tasha Jun will no longer be speaking at the Festival.

Friday April 17, 2026 10:30am - 11:15am EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

11:45am EDT

Religion Reporting in an Era of Distrust

Friday April 17, 2026 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

At a time when distrust of institutions and media runs high, Religion News Service reporter Kathryn Post shares behind-the-scenes stories of earning trust with her sources, from conservative Christian "momfluencers" to ex-evangelicals and survivors of religious abuse. She discusses what she's learned about building relationships and why getting religion right matters in today's newsrooms.

Speakers

Kathryn Post

Kathryn Post is an award-winning national reporter for Religion News Service (RNS). Based in Pittsburgh, Kathryn covers topics such as religious "nones," religious higher education and abuse in religious contexts. She joined RNS in 2021 after earning a Master of Arts in Religion from... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

2:30pm EDT

The Grief and Hope of Conversion

Friday April 17, 2026 2:30pm - 3:15pm EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

In her memoir We Carry Smoke and Paper, poet and essayist Melody S. Gee explores the grief and hope of becoming Catholic at age 35. She discusses what is lost and found in religious conversion--what is gained, let go, and sometimes resurrected.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room

Speakers

Melody S. Gee

Melody S. Gee is the author of We Carry Smoke and Paper: Essays on the Grief and Hope of Conversion (University of Iowa Press, October 2024) and three books of poetry. She is the recipient of Kundiman fellowships in poetry and fiction, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, and Artist Support Grants from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 2:30pm - 3:15pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

4:00pm EDT

Poetics of the Sacred

Friday April 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

How might artistic practices invoke the qualities of prayer? By extension, is it possible to articulate a poetics of the sacred? In this session, Patrick Rosal explores his complex relationship to prayer, the sacred, and a secular artistic practice, sharing how he was influenced by his relationship with his father, who was a priest and theologian trained in the Thomist tradition.

Book signing follows in the Prince Conference Center, Fireside Room

Speakers

Patrick Rosal

Patrick Rosal is the author of The Last Thing and has been published in The New York Times, The Nation, Best American Poetry and elsewhere. A Guggenheim and NEA Fellow, he is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers-Camden. His mother and father immigrated from the Philippines and met in the U.S., while his father was still a Catholic priest and theologian in the Thomist tradition... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT
Prince Conference Center, Board Room

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

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

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

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

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

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

10:30am EDT

Lightning Rod Poetry & Tuning Fork Poetics

Saturday April 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:15am EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

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

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

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

11:45am EDT

The Art of Poetry and the Gift of Attention

Saturday April 18, 2026 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

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

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

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

2:30pm EDT

The Grace of Wild Things: Finding a Language for Praise and Lamentation

Saturday April 18, 2026 2:30pm - 3:15pm EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

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

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

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

4:00pm EDT

In the Spirit of Others' Words

Saturday April 18, 2026 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT

Prince Conference Center, Board Room

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

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

Concurrent Session, Solo Session

2:30pm EDT

4:00pm EDT

7:30pm EDT

9:00am EDT

10:30am EDT

11:45am EDT

2:30pm EDT

4:00pm EDT

9:00am EDT

10:30am EDT

11:45am EDT

2:30pm EDT

4:00pm EDT

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