As director of this year’s Catholic Imagination Conference, I (Jessica Hooten Wilson) keep on hearing, “What a great lineup!” The speakers list will comprise more than a quarter of the attendees. We’re gathering the top Catholic writers to the University of Dallas this fall to share from their work, discuss the pertinent questions to the Catholic imagination, and enjoy one another’s friendship. Putting together the list of who’s who in Catholic belles lettres right now was the fun part, and we could have sent invites to hundreds more. The real question was how to limit a thousand invitations to stay under 50.
We wanted to bring together everyone who has attended or presented before, but such a feat is impossible. For each iteration of this event, we hope to hear from some writers who have moved and awed us in the past while also highlighting new voices.
Two debut novelists have been invited to present, Joshua Hren and Katy Carl, had their books recently reviewed in the LA Review of Books:
“both Infinite Regress and As Earth Without Water emphasize how much we can choose to cooperate with transcendent love. Carl and Hren have each written not just a brilliant novel but, in the truest sense, a divine comedy.” —John-Paul Heil, “Waiting for Eucatastrophe”
If you are interested in becoming a writer, you should talk with the University of St. Thomas and University of Dallas graduate students who will be presenting their work on Friday and Saturday morning. Or check out The Image Journal’s Glen Workshop this summer, where writers of faith invest in their craft.
For years, I have trusted The Image Journal to point me towards the best living writers of faith (“Top 50 Contemporary Writers of Faith”). As someone who has hosted numerous writers festivals (at three different colleges), I love to glean from lists of great writers.
When composing my syllabus in Modern American Catholic fiction for the MFA at St. Thomas where I will guest teach this fall, I struggled to winnow down the hundred novels I would enjoy teaching to a mere six books, fourteen poems, and three short stories. The Catholic imagination is broad and far reaching, full of the living and the dead.
If you know writers, artists, magazines, podcast hosts and others who consider themselves practitioners of the Catholic imagination but who are not included in the Fall 2022 event, please invite them to attend this year. Hopefully, we can add them to future conference programs! Space is limited. Please register soon.