2026 Festival of Faith and Writing

Joann White is a writer, pastor, spiritual director, and enthusiast of wild places. She is a graduate of Colgate University, McCormick Theological Seminary, the Institute for Spiritual Leadership, and Pittsburgh Seminary's innovative Creative Writing and Public Theology D.Min. program. Since 2005, she has pastored the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake. When she isn’t at church, you might find her advocating for immigrant friends, feeding hungry people, or hiking the Adirondack trails in all kinds of weather. Her 2021 book Blest Be the Tie: Fables of Faith from the Far North, a collection of stories about small town church life, is available now from Wipf and Stock, Amazon, and other outlets. She's currently shopping her most recent work The Third Testament, a collection of stories and sonnets from the point of view of the hidden voices of scripture, to publishers.