Reading List

This list is a compilation of new works, old favorites, and award winners from the speakers slated for Festival 2024*.

Since this list is a sampling of speakers' writings, we encourage you to use the list as a starting point and continue to explore their work beyond what's included here!

Kaveh Akbar

Pilgrim Bell: Poems

Calling a Wolf a Wolf

M. T. Anderson

Elf Dog & Owl Head

The Collectors: Stories

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

Rabbi Elan Babchuck

Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership After Empire

Fred Bahnson

Soil & Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith

"The Gate of Heaven is Everywhere: Among the Contemplatives"

"On the Road with Thomas Merton"

Amy Julia Becker

To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope

White Picket Fences: Turning Towards Love in a World Divided by Privilege

A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny

Sonya Bilocerkowycz

On Our Way Home from the Revolution: Reflections on Ukraine

Los Angeles Review of Books: interview with Sonya Bilocerkowycz

Sarah Blake

Naamah: A Novel

Let's Not Live on Earth

Bryan Bliss

Dispatches from Parts Unknown

Thoughts and Prayers

No Parking at the End Times

We'll Fly Away

Anne Bogel

I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life

Don't Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life

Reading People: How Seeing the World Through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything

Byron Borger

Hearts and Minds book review blog, "BookNotes"

Daniel Bowman Jr.

On The Spectrum: Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity

A Plum Tree in Leatherstocking Country

Ayşe Papatya Bucak

The Trojan War Museum and Other Stories

Interview: Fiction Writers Review

Danielle Chapman

Delinquent Palaces

Holler: A Poet Among Patriots

Boxed Juice
(forthcoming in 2024)

S. J. Dahlman

A Familiar Wilderness: Searching for Home on Daniel Boone's Road

With Eyes to See Addiction, Appalachian Churches Respond to the Opioids Crisis

Peter Ho Davies

A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself

The Welsh Girl

Adam Day

Left-Handed Wolf: Poems

Model of a City in Civil War

Jennifer De Leon

Don't Ask Me Where I'm From

White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, and Writing

Mary DeMuth

Love, Pray, Listen: Parenting Your Wayward Adult Kids with Joy

The Most Misunderstood Women of the Bible: What Their Stories Teach Us about Thriving

We Too: How the Church Can Respond Redemptively to the Sexual Abuse Crisis

Matthew Dickerson

From Homer to Harry Potter

Aslan's Breath

Ents, Elves, and Eriador: the Environmental Vision of J.R.R.Tolkien

The Voices of Rivers

Kent & Kevin Dixon

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Anthony Doerr

Cloud Cuckoo Land

All the Light We Cannot See

Margaret Feinberg

Taste and See: Discovering God Among Butchers, Bakers and Fresh Food Makers

Scouting the Divine: Searching for God in Wine, Wool, and Wild Honey

Fight Back With Joy: Celebrate More. Regret Less. Stare Down Your Greatest Fears.

Leslie Leyland Fields

Nearing a Far God: Praying the Psalms with Our Whole Selves

Your Story Matters: Finding, Writing, and Living the Truth of Your Life

Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers: Finding Freedom from Hurt and Hate

Ruth Graham

Articles by Ruth Graham in The New York Times

Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom

Silas House

Lark Ascending

A Parchment of Leaves

Sarah Hurwitz

Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life--in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There)

Jessica Jacobs

unalone (March 2024)

Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going

Pelvis with Distance

Rachel Pieh Jones

Pillars: How Muslim Friends Led Me Closer to Jesus

Stronger Than Death

Laleh Khadivi

A Good Country

The Age of Orphans

Kenneth Kraegel

Mushroom Lullaby

This is a Book of Shapes

King Arthur's Very Great Grandson

Aviya Kushner

The Grammar of God: A Journey Into the Words and Worlds of the Bible

WOLF LAMB BOMB

Paul Lisicky

Later: My Life at the Edge of the World

The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship

The Burning House

Maurice Manning

The Common Man

Marilyn McEntyre

Midwinter Light: Poems and Reflections for the Long Season

Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts

The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving our Children's Children

Nishta Mehra

The Pomegranate King: Essays

Brown White Black: An American Family at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion

Diane Mehta

Tiny Extravaganzas

Forest with Castanets

Dean Nelson

Talk To Me: How To Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro

God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World

Meghan O'Gieblyn

Interior States: Essays

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

Mitali Perkins

Hope in the Valley

Steeped in Stories: Timeless Children's Novels to Refresh Our Tired Souls

You Bring the Distant Near

Karen Swallow Prior

The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis

On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me

Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson

Voices of Lament: Reflections of Brokenness and Hope in a World Longing for Justice

Mentor for Life: Finding Purpose Through Intentional Discipleship

A Sojourner's Truth: Choosing Freedom and Courage in a Divided World

Rebecca Sheir

The Tale of the Unwelcome Guest

The Lion's Whisker

The Great Ball Game

A Taste of Honey

Curtis Sittenfeld

Romantic Comedy

Sarah Smarsh

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

James K. A. Smith

On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts

How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

Tracy K. Smith

To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul

Such Color: New and Selected Poems

Ordinary Light: A Memoir

Suzanne Stabile

The Journey Toward Wholeness: Enneagram Wisdom for Stress, Balance, and Transformation

The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery

The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey to Healthy Relationships

Randy Michael Testa

Growing Up Poor: A Literary Anthology

"Tales ‘Told Twice’ Through Close Cross-Media Comparisons"

Truth's Table

Truth's Table: Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation

Faithful Antiracism: Moving Past Talk to Systemic Change

Jemar Tisby, PhD

How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice

How to Fight Racism: A Guide to Standing Up For Justice (Young Reader's Edition)

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the Church's Complicity in Racism

Asma T. Uddin

When Islam Is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom

The Politics of Vulnerability: How to Heal Muslim-Christian Relations in a Post-Christian America

Charlotte Jones Voiklis

A Book, Too, Can Be a Star: The Story of Madeleine l'Engle and the Making of a Wrinkle in Time

Becoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of a Wrinkle in Time by Her Granddaughters

Chanequa Walker-Barnes

Sacred Self-Care: Daily Practices for Nurturing Our Whole Selves

I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation

Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength

Christian Wiman

Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair

Hammer is the Prayer: Selected Poems

My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer

John Wray

Gone to the Wolves

The Right Hand of Sleep

Hilary Yancey

Forgiving God: A Story of Faith

* The books on this list are linked to independent booksellers when possible. The CCFW encourages you to support local and independent bookshops.