By Sarah Parker

Brian Pinkney is from a family of children’s book illustrators and authors. His mother and father, Gloria and Jerry, work as a team; Gloria is Jerry’s agent, finding models for his illustrations and reading the manuscripts that he is asked to illustrate. Gloria has recently begun to write as well. Pinkney grew up with art around him and developed a passion for art because he wanted to be like his father and wanted to do everything his father did. His mother encouraged him and made a studio for him out of a walk-in closet. Pinkney continues to pursue his passion to this day; he writes and illustrates books, and often collaborates with his wife, Andrea, who is also a children’s book author.

Pinkney uses his very own childhood for the inspiration of many of his stories, as well as copious amounts of research. His stories are fun and remind me of being a child myself. One of my favorite stories by Pinkney is Sparrowboy, which is about imagination, courage, and doing the right thing, all told through the innocent eyes of a child. This story introduces us to a paper delivery boy who always reads the newspaper before delivering them to the neighborhood. He dislikes the headlines, but he loves the comics. One day, on his paper route, he encounters a sparrow in the way of his bicycle. He tries not to run over the bird but the bird does not move, and then the boy hears a “Zap!” Suddenly, he can fly! He uses his new power to deliver the papers to his neighborhood and to help those in need. Pinkney’s artwork in this story is whimsical and inviting; it feels like you are up in the air with the little boy as he soars through the sky.

Not only is Pinkney very gifted, it is also clear that he enjoys his work. I think his stories and illustrations are fun and inviting. They offer imagination and information, and are enjoyable to read at any age.

By Alex Westenbroek

Having spent several years as more or less a student of English, not to mention having spent my entire life as the son of a writer, I have heard many “rules” for good writing. And of all these “rules,” the one I heard the most often was certainly “show, don’t tell.” I never had a full understanding of what exactly that meant, however, until I found it masterfully illustrated in the writing of Jonathan Safran Foer.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close makes use of pictures, red ink, and pages blank except for a single sentence to add an unusual visual element to his storytelling. And even more than that—he shows the reader things with his words and doesn’t always explain them. The reader is left to figure out why exactly he circles a word in red, or why exactly Oskar will only wear white. Every word, every picture—even every bit of blank space on the page is carefully placed to enhance the story.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is truly a masterpiece, and leaves me eager for Mr. Foer’s other works.

The Festival is next week! To tide you over until then, here's another installment of fun facts about some of our speakers.

Did you know that…

~ Literary critic Judith Shulevitz began her career as an editor who helped startup magazines?

~ Poet Lisa Russ Spaar lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, but has collected an anthology of poems about London?

~ Writer Dan Taylor identifies himself as “a Christian humanist with a fondness for the life of the mind, spiritual pilgrimage, and salty snacks?”

~ Scott Teems wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film That Evening Sun starring Hal Holbrook?

~ Graphic novelist Craig Thompson won a congressional art competition in high school and was presented with an award by actor Tom Cruise?

~ Children’s author Clare Vanderpool has a double major in English and elementary education?

~ Poet Li-Young Lee’s father was Mao Zedong’s personal physician?

~ Author Walter Wangerin, Jr., has worked as a radio announcer?

~ Author and poet Paul Willis’ eco-fantasy novel The Alpine Tales is influenced by C.S. Lewis, Edmund Spenser, and John Muir?

~ Illustrator Brian Pinkney won the Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in In the Time of the Drums? 

~ Writer John Wilson starts out almost every day by reading and taking a walk with his wife?

Compiled by Abby Zwart

By Jasmine Wilson

Brian Walsh is co-author of the book many would consider required reading for Christians, Colossians Remixed. I first encountered the book as a high school senior, and like most young adults, I was interested in finding myself. Part of figuring out who one is requires answering the question, "Where am I?" – not just geographically, but culturally and ideologically. What are the ideological waters that we are swimming in? When my teachers began throwing around the term "postmodern," I remember being shocked, never knowing that was the descriptor for the water I was swimming in and breathing. I gravitated toward anything that I thought would tell me what exactly postmodernity meant.

I am glad I found Walsh's book. It not only gives a presentation of our contemporary cultural waters, it gives us the tools to take scripture such as the book of Colossians seriously in the midst of that culture, partly by revealing certain aspects of the cultural world in which the book was written.

On my way to visit Calvin College as an incoming student in 2008, Colossians Remixed was one of the books I took to read on the plane. Imagine my surprise when they quoted from that book at orientation, and that "ta panta," a Greek phrase meaning "all things" which occurs frequently in Paul's book of Colossians, was the theme with which they introduced us to Calvin College. God is the Lord of all things: all academic disciplines, all truth in music and art, etc.

Brian Walsh's Colossians Remixed helped me discover exactly what that Lordship looked like, however. The subtitle of the book is key: Subverting the Empire. This book gave me eyes to see empire in our postmodern culture today, and inspired me to try and subvert it in order to follow the kingdom of Jesus, the servant King.

By Ae Hee Lee

A review of Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir by Susan E. Isaacs.

So is it really angry?

Yes!

Snarky?

Oh, yes.

How about authentic?

Definitely.

Susan E. Isaacs is a writer, actor, and comedienne with many credits in TV, film, stage and radio.  She teaches screenwriting and sketch comedy at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and currently, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Larry Wilson.

But her life has not always looked as neat and orderly as these sentences describe it.

According to the blurb at the end of her book, “Susan managed to screw up every lucky break she had,” and committed several “lamebrain” mistakes to get where she was in life. Through this spiritual memoir, any reader can share Isaacs’ journey through her rollercoaster-like life and the precious dialogues she shares with God. Such as ones like these:

God: I love you. Not for anything you’ve done, but because it’s my nature to love.

Susan: Boy I do feel special.

God: I love your creativity, your chutzpah. You stuck with me all these years, when other people walked away. You hung in there, like a rabid terrier. However—

Susan: Here it comes.

God: I resent you blaming me for everything. And I do not exist to give you what you want.

Susan: Do I exist to give you what you want?

God: Well, actually—

Don’t worry, they don’t end up wrestling. If you really need to know, she makes peace at the end. Well, sort of. You’ll have to read it to find out more.

By Andrew Knot

“I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can’t believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don’t imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.”
~ p. 57, Gilead

Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead is a series of letters and considerations from Reverend John Ames, an ailing father, to his young son, who Ames fears will never grow to truly know his father.

In his considerations, Ames’ subtlety and gracefully reflects on relationships, memories and spirituality. Ames’ voice, through Robinson’s fluid prose, is achingly profound and contemplative. Among Ames’ considerations is the above passage, a reflection on mortality and beauty and their curiously gorgeous intersection. How are we to consider the human, the existential, the corrupted, with a mind that strives for sanctification? Is this life a stain to be removed, a skin to be shed, or, as Ames suggests, a ballad to be sung?

Gilead demonstrates Robinson’s noteworthy ability to let her characters linger on these questions in remarkable resonance. The above passage, the words of an aging man longing for a child’s perspective, demands reckoning. By the end of the excerpt, Ames, in all of his contemplation, likens this life to Troy, a place of renowned human legend. Ames’, despite his best imaginations of the life to come, can’t “forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence.” Nor can he disregard the tantalizing cycle of creation and erosion, humanity’s “great bright dream.”

Of course it’s possible to read Ames’ statement as just another illustration of the brain’s shortcomings:  the inability to conceive of a life that demoralizingly trumps this existence. But to do so is to spit in the face of Gilead. Robinson’s novel, itself so finely crafted and incisive, is entirely incarnate. Gilead is alive in a way that not only suggests sanctification; it treasures the tangible. Robinson isn’t willing to ignore this mortal beauty. She may as well assume the words of her protagonist, who says, simply, “Piety forbids me to try.”

With one week to go before registration closes, we're showcasing more fun facts about our 2012 speakers.

So, did you know that...

~ Poet Maurice Manning was inspired to write an essay about physics and poetry by a trip he took to a dollar store?  You can read it here.

~ As well as writing poetry about Dutch painters, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre also does scholarly research and writing about medical humanities?

~ Poet and children’s book author Richard Michelson owns an art gallery in Massachusetts?

~ You can watch Peter O’Leary read his poetry live here?

~ Author and painter Bethany Pierce has webbed toes?

~ Children’s author Andrea Davis Pinkney has written from the perspective of a cat?

~ Author Mark Richard’s memoir House of Prayer No. 2 is written completely in second person?

~ Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gilead is written as a letter from father to son?

~ Author Gary Schmidt lives on a farm (and teaches at Calvin College)?

~ Poet and writer Luci Shaw has co-written three books with Madeline L’Engle?

(compiled by Abby Zwart)

By Elizabeth Stille

One well-known name coming to Festival 2012 is Jewish author Judith Shulevitz. Shulevitz wrote The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time, which The New York Times editors named one of their 100 Notable Books for 2010. She has also contributed to The New Yorker, Slate, The New Republic, and The New York Times Book Review.

In her book, The Sabbath World, Shulevitz speaks in depth on the value of a Sabbath, and not only from a religious point of view. As she tells Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report, the Sabbath lets us “not work, together” (watch the interview here). In a technological age she advocates for setting aside a time to be with people. By this she means face-to-face interaction to build community with other physical people while truly relaxing, devoting all attention to the present.