Festival of Faith and Writing: A Schedule

I’m leaving for Grand Rapids, Michigan tomorrow to go to the Festival of Faith and Writing hosted by Calvin College. This three day conference is a chance for anyone who loves stories to listen to some great authors discuss their craft as well as their faith. I love this from their website, “…the Reformed tradition balances strong confessionalism and a hearty confidence in the intellectual freedom afforded by grace….we welcome the work of writers in other faith traditions who acknowledge or seek spiritual understanding, grace, or transcendence.”

I’ll take some hearty confidence and intellectual freedom with some understanding and grace, thank you very much.  Hold the transcendence.  I don’t want to get greedy.

Having graduated from Calvin, I’m familiar with the FFW, and have been to two or three festivals previously.  The last one I went to I sat in on a discussion where we talked about something called “weblogging.”  Cool, I thought. Maybe I’ll start one of those weblog thingys someday.

I also had a run in with Lauren Winner.  Well, it wasn’t really a run in.  I was sitting down with a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie at the Prince Center, and she sat down next to me. I looked at her as far as my eyes would move sideways without moving my head, then ran outside to call my dad and tell him, “IWASJUSTSITTINGNEXTTOLAURENWINNER!!!!!”

This year, since I’m going as a graduate student, I want to make the most of my time and get to as many lectures as I can, so I created a schedule for myself.

See me all hunched over looking at the screen?  I’m wearing my Calvin hat, too.  That seemed like the right thing to do.

Here is my spreadsheet, if you will.  It is currently covered in post-it notes with the titles of the lectures I am planning to hear. I chose to use post-its so I can easily remove or change a lecture in case it is no longer scheduled.  Also, when I get to the lecture, I can easily swipe off the post-it and put it on my notes, thus saving time. THIS IS HOW I RELAX.  I even have a post-it for the first day that reads, “Get coffee and make final adjustments to schedule.”  So no worries.  I’ll have exactly an hour and a half to make a change if necessary.

I signed up for a Festival Circle that I’m looking forward to.  This group will discuss the topic, “Reading Literature Devotionally” and will be led by Sarah Arthur.  She wrote one of my favorite devotionals called At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time. We will meet twice during the festival.

I’m also looking forward to hearing Gary Schmidt, Marilynne Robinson, Luci Shaw, and Paula Huston.  Since Paula is the last person I worked with before I go off to school, I sent her an email suggesting places to check out: Marie Catrib’s, Wealthy Street Bakery, Schuler’s. She helps me with my words, the least I can do is tell her about the good places to eat in GR.

Here’s what my schedule looks like now.

I don’t think it’ll look weird at all when I carry it around with me at Calvin.  I’ll be like Joey using his map in London.

Are you a Calvin fan? Or a Festival of Faith and Writing fan?  Or, hey! Maybe you’re a Callie fan!  If any of these are true, consider subscribing to my blog by entering in your email address at the top right corner of this website. This week I’ll be weblogging (or “blogging” as the hip people like to call it) every day with some reflections on my time at the conference.

And if I run into Lauren Winner, I have what I’m going to say all ready: “Hey, girl.  Totally digged Still. Also? I really like your glasses.”  I think that’s going to make my dad proud.

Now if only I could decide on what to wear…..