Breaking the Academic Mold: Liberating the Powerful, Personal Voice Inside You
Important Dates
Application Opens: January 16, 2024
Application Deadline: March 6, 2024
Event: Monday, July 8, 2024 to Sunday, July 14, 2024
Gathering Location
Inn at Serenbee
Atlanta, GA
Leadership Team
Sophfronia Scott
Director of the MFA in Creative Writing
Alma College
Donald Quist
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
University of Missouri
Participants
Anna Mercedes, College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University
Carloyn Medine, University of Georgia
Colleen Conway, Seton Hall University
Derek Taylor, Whitworth University
DeAnna Daniels, University of Arizona
Ellen Posman, Baldwin Wallace University
Matthew Maruggi, Augsburg University
Sarra Lev, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Valerie Miles-Tribble, GTU – Berkeley School of Theology
Fred Glennon, LeMoyne College
Mitzi Smith, Columbia Theological Seminary
Molly Greening, Loyola University of Chicago
Susan McGurgan, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Farmer, Associate Director
Wabash Center
farmers@wabash.edu
Stipend
Each participant will be provided with travel expenses, meals, lodging, and a stipend of $1500.
Important Information
Description
This writing workshop is for scholars of religion and theology who have written exclusively or primarily in the scholarly genre for other scholars of religion but long to share their knowledge or personal experience in a more creative way with a wider audience. Many scholars yearn to speak to a broader audience through creative nonfiction, blogs, op-eds, and memoir. Many scholars want to write with more clarity and imagination. Participants in this workshop will develop their writing voice in service to topics they care about, and for which they have passion and curiosity. A combination of plenary, small group and individual instruction, our week together will help scholars free the creative spirit, structure their writing more effectively, and speak on the page in a truer, more engaging voice. Our focus will be on releasing the professors’ voice to the public square, giving permission to be imaginative, and finding new ways of being inspired.
No previous experience publishing in creative writing genres is needed.
Workshop Goals
- To create a collaborative learning cohort of teacher-scholars to expand and deepen scholarly writing
- To navigate the intersecting challenges of creative writing as an academic
- To develop new practices of creative writing in the service of teaching and scholarship of religion and theology
- To explore strategies for the authentic voice while thriving in institutional, political and personal contexts
- To write and receive feedback while also being in conversation with other creative writers
Participant Eligibility
- Tenure track, continuing term, and/or full-time contingency teaching full time in college, university, or seminary
- Must be teaching in religion and theology or related fields
- Job description or contract that is wholly or primarily inclusive of teaching
- Teaching in accredited college, university, seminary in the United States, Puerto Rico or Canada
- Personal commitment to participate fully in workshop with 100% attendance in all sessions
- Little to no experience with publishing in creative genres, but great interest in learning to write in creative genre