Regularly I hear from young Catholic writers that they want to walk in the footsteps of those writers that they revere from the twentieth century: Francois Mauriac, Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, and others. The Catholic Imagination Conference proposes that such imaginations must be cultivated. With that assumption, writers James Matthew Wilson and Joshua Hren have founded an MFA at the University of St. Thomas-Houston that seeks to foster specifically Catholic imaginations. Not only do they both teach in the graduate program, but also they both started presses (Colosseum Books and Wiseblood Books), regularly publish their own poetry (The Strangeness of the Good 2021) or fiction (Infinite Regress 2022), and are annual presenters at the Catholic Imagination Conference.
Current students in the MFA will be showcased at the Catholic Imagination Conference on Friday morning, introduced by Wilson. There will also be workshops led by the founders that we highly recommend you attend and receive a taste of what the MFA offers. Many of the visiting lecturers in the MFA program will be presenting at the conference, including Glenn Arbery, Sarah Cortez, Abigail Favale, Dana Gioia, Chris Beha, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Phil Klay, Ron Hansen, and others.
While only one canonized saint is an English novelist (John Henry Newman), the tradition is full of poets. Recently, an English missionary-poet could become the first saint for Zimbabwe: John Bradburne wrote over 6000 poems, sometimes a dozen or more each day. If you want to investigate more How to Read (and Write) Like a Catholic, there’s a book for that (not to mention a great conversation on the Catholic Culture podcast between the author and Thomas Mirus).
Whether novelist, essayist, journalist, or poet, all of us are called to be saints. On April 28 at 6PM, in preparation for our fall event, Jessica Hooten Wilson (who also teaches in the U of St. Thomas MFA program), will be drawing from her new book The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints to answer the question “Should Saints Read Novels?” Event is free and open to the public.
Let me further recommend you join us in Dallas on Sept 30-Oct 1 and become part of the community!