Grand Rapids — Martin

Something special is in the air come the middle of April — every other year — in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s when a massing occurs, a migration, a gathering of writers from across the continent, including some of the best known of their various genres. The Festival of Faith & Writing is the place to be for anyone who loves Christian writing, and particularly for those who engage in the writing itself.

Start a list of the very finest Christian writers in whatever genre you most enjoy, and chances are they’ve appeared at the festival. What is particularly amazing is how many of them appear in the same year. The festival also broadens to include writers of other faiths, and secular writers who address well the issues of faith.

It is the poets who interest me most. This year Luci Shaw, Robert Siegel, Scott Cairns, Christian Wiman, Jeanne Murray Walker, and several other top-notch Christian poets appeared. In 2008, I was delighted to meet Paul Mariani, Franz Wright and Rod Jellema — to name a few.

Many Canadians make the biannual trip — particularly from southern Ontario. Four friends from my writers group came this year, as well as a number of others I know. Hugh Cook presented a workshop, and Rudy Wiebe, was another speaker. I didn’t get a chance to catch either of Rudy’s presentations, because there was too much else going on. In most time slots there are ten different options, most of which don’t require preregistration.

This was my fourth visit to the festival, and am already planning to attend in 2012. My report following festival 2008 is available here

Here's a link to the festival website.

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D.S. Martin is Music Critic for Christian Week. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca

The Festival — Martin

I am so pumped right now. I arrived home on Sunday from my biannual pilgrimage to The Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you are a literary writer, who takes your art seriously, I recommend that you start planning now to attend the next Festival in April of 2010.

There are so many benefits to going. It’s a great place to be exposed to wonderful books. Scores of authors of varying genres are there reading, teaching and discussing the art and craft of writing. During many of the time slots there were ten different options, making it difficult to choose between — say — a panel discussion on humour writing, a poetry reading, a session on screenwriting, and an interview with a famous novelist. Over the three days, my friend Henry and I hadn’t attended the same concurrent session once, until I switched one of mine last minute just to simplify things.

There are many other related things happening on campus too. We attended concerts Thursday and Saturday nights with Caedmon’s Call and Iron & Wine — although we were exhausted from the pace we’d set all conference.

This year was the third Festival of Faith & Writing that I have attended. It’s a great place to make connections with magazine editors and book publishers. Publications such as Books & Culture, Image, Relief, Rock & Sling and Ruminate were there. Publishers such as Baker, Eerdmans, IVP, Paraclete, WordFarm, and Zondervan had displays.

The Festival is predominantly, but not exclusively a Christian conference. It’s interesting to hear the perspective of a Jewish writer such as Michael Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen’s Union) or an uncommitted seeker such as Yann Martel (Life of Pi).

For me the highlight is interacting with some of the finest poets anywhere — this year Luci Shaw, Paul Mariani, Rod Jellema, Mary Karr, Scott Cairns, and Pulitzer Prize winner Franz Wright were some of them.
It’s a great place to advance your writing. Will I see you there in 2010?

D.S. Martin is Music Critic for Christian Week; his poetry chapbook So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed is available at www.dsmartin.ca