Anderson University is hosting the Southeast Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, which will take place October 23-25.
The conference theme is “Imaginative Reading: Walking into the Wardrobe.”
According to Dr. Katherine Wyma, conference director and associate professor of English in the Anderson University College of Arts and Sciences, the conference theme is a nod to the 75th anniversary of the printing of the C.S. Lewis children’s classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Featured conference speakers include New York Times, USA Today and Globe and Mail Bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry, presenting “Through the Wardrobe: The Alchemy of Grief, Imagination and Story. She has published historical fiction works that include Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Once Upon a Wardrobe. The public is invited to hear Henry, who will speak Friday, October 24 at 7 p.m. Details on this ticketed event can be found here.
Conference speakers also include Dr. Rachel Roberts, chair of the English Department at North Greenville University; and Rev. Austin Carty, pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church in Anderson.
Dr. Roberts, whose academic specialty is early British literature, coauthored the book Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age. Rev. Carty is the author of High Points and Lows: Life, Faith and Figuring it All Out. He also wrote The Pastor’s Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for Ministry, which received the 2023 Christianity Today Award of Merit and was named Book of the Year by Preaching Magazine.
Dr. Wyma commented that regional meetings take place every October at a different location in the Southeast—usually CCCU institutions.
College professors and other scholars have submitted paper proposals to be included among the meeting’s scholarly presentations.
Details, including a schedule are available online.