A celebration of faith as represented by poets, writers and scholars will be held Friday and Saturday, October 21–22, at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Among those attending will be poet Marilyn Nelson and Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson.
Krista Tippett, broadcaster and host of “On Being,” will record conversations with Nelson and Wilkerson for her show airing nationally on public radio stations, including WCQS Asheville. Many other free events will be held during the conference, including readings and signings, interviews and forums.
Organizers of the event are UNCA professors Richard Chess and Evan Gurney and Wake Forest University School of Divinity professor Fred Bahnson. “Our event provides a range of Christian, Jewish and Muslim voices, and includes Hindu sacred stories and Zen and Buddhist philosophies,” says Gurney.
Chess says his own realization that literature could pair with faith came years ago when he found himself bringing poetry to synagogue services. When he would open the books of poetry, he says, “I’d feel connected in a deep sense to something present and beyond me—connected through language to something greater than me and within me.” He calls it “poetry in the place of prayer—taking the place of, and taking place in the place of prayer.”
Participating writers, Gurney says, were chosen from those they admired. “These are writers whose stories are moving, perhaps because they believe themselves to be moving in a larger story; their own words are powerful, perhaps because they have felt the power of words, words that can heal, can bless.”
Bahnson adds, “Stories and poems, when carefully made, can create empathy across differences. That’s what this celebration of writers and readers is about: renewing the language, creating kinship across faith traditions.”
This event, says Gurney, is for “anyone who cultivates a spiritual practice, anyone who participates in a tradition of faith, anyone moved by poems and prayers, anyone who loves a good story.”
Tickets to the “On Being” interviews have sold out, however tickets are not required for other events being held at various locations on the UNCA campus. For more information and a schedule of events, visit unca.edu/faith-in-literature.
