Reading List - Calvin Center for Faith & Writing

Following Festival's postponement, we'll be updating the reading list later this year to reflect the speakers who will be able to join us in 2021. Until then, we still recommend the writing on this list!

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Kaveh Akbar

Portrait of the Alcoholic

Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak: The 20th Anniversary Edition

Speak: The Graphic Novel

M.T. Anderson

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge

Symphony for the City of the Dead

Fred Bahnson

Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith

Making Peace with the Land: God's Call to Reconcile with Creation

Jill Baumgaertner

Flannery O'Connor: A Proper Scaring

Amy Julia Becker

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

Small Talk: Learning from My Children about What Matters Most

Sonya Bilocerkowycz

On Our Way Home from the Revolution: Reflections on Ukraine

When Johnny Cash Wandered with U2

Sarah Blake

Naamah: A Novel

Bryan Bliss

We’ll Fly Away

No Parking at the End Times

Anne Bogel

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

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

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

Gayle Boss

Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings

Daniel Bowman, Jr.

A Plum Tree in Leatherstocking Country

Molly McCully Brown

The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded: Poems

Bent Body, Lamb

Sharon Garlough Brown

Sensible Shoes: A Story about the Spiritual Journey

Shades of Light

Ayşe Papatya Bucak

The Trojan War Museum: And Other Stories

Scott Cairns

Anaphora: New Poems

Idiot Psalms: New Poems

Daniel Jose Camacho

When the US government snatches children, it's biblical to resist the law

When White Nationalist Christians Redefined Their Neighbors

Jan Carson

The Fire Starters

Casey Cep

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

Harper Lee’s Abandoned True-Crime Novel

Danielle Chapman

Delinquent Palaces: Poems

Hugh Cook

Heron River: A Novel

Jim Dahlman

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

Kristina Marie Darling

In the Room of Persistent Sorry

Peter Ho Davies

Adam Day

Model of a City in Civil War

Mary DeMuth

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

Outrageous Grace Every Day: Daily Reflections on the Gospel's Hope

Kate DiCamillo

Beverly, Right Here

A Piglet Named Mercy

Louisiana’s Way Home

The Tale of Despereaux

Because of Winn-Dixie

Matthew Dickerson

The Voices of Rivers

A Hobbit Journey: Discovering the Enchantment of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth

Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C. S. Lewis

Kent and Kevin Dixon

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See

Fight of the Century

Four Seasons in Rome

Ruth Everhart

The #metoo Reckoning: Facing the Church's Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct

Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Sabrina & Corina: Stories

Margaret Feinberg

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

Flourish: Live Free, Live Loved

Callie Feyen

The Teacher Diaries: Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet: The Full Play-Includes Essays and Annotations by Callie Feyen of the Teacher Diaries

Leslie Leyland Fields

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

The Wonder Years: 40 Women Over 40 on Aging, Faith, Beauty, and Strength

Diane Glancy

The Book of Bearings

Island of the Innocent: A Consideration of the Book of Job

Pushing the Bear: After the Trail of Tears

Terry Glaspey

The Prayers of Jane Austen

Not a Tame Lion: The Spiritual Legacy of C. S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia

Ruth Graham

How Conservative Christians Are Responding to the Kavanaugh Allegations

The Professor Wore a Hijab in Solidarity — Then Lost Her Job

How a Megachurch Melts Down

Jennifer Grant

Maybe I Can Love My Neighbor Too

When Did Everybody Else Get So Old?: Indignities, Compromises, and the Unexpected Grace of Midlife

Nikki Grimes

Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir

Between the Lines

Bronx Masquerade

At Break of Day

Caitlin Horrocks

Silas House

Bob Hudson

The Art of the Almost Said: A Christian Writer's Guide to Writing Poetry

The Monk's Record Player: Thomas Merton, Bob Dylan, and the Perilous Summer of 1966

The Christian Writer's Manual of Style, 4th Edition

Sarah Hurwitz

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

Rachel Pieh Jones

Stronger Than Death: How Annalena Tonelli Defied Terror and Tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa

Welcome to Djibouti: Arrive, Survive, and Thrive in the Hottest Country on Earth

Finding Home: Third Culture Kids in the World

Laleh Khadivi

The Walking: A Novel

Irene Kraegel

The Mindful Christian: Cultivating a Life of Intentionality, Openness, and Faith

Kenneth Kraegel

Wild Honey from the Moon

King Arthur's Very Great Grandson

Jarrett Krosoczka

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction

Lunch Lady and the Schoolwide Scuffle

Michelle Kuo

Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship

Aviya Kushner

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

Min Jin Lee

Free Food for Millionaires

Paige Lewis

You Can Take Off Your Sweater, I’ve Made Today Warm

Paul Lisicky

The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship

Unbuilt Projects

Layli Long Soldier

Maurice Manning

One Man’s Dark

The Gone and the Going Away

Marilyn McEntyre

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

Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice

Bernice McFadden

Praise Song for the Butterflies

The Book of Harlan

Brenda Salter McNeil

Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities Into Unity, Wholeness and Justice

A Credible Witness: Reflections on Power, Evangelism and Race

Nishta Mehra

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

The Pomegranate King: Essays

Jonathan Merritt

Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing—and How We Can Revive Them

Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined

Daniel Minter

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk Toward Freedom

Going Down Home with Daddy

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

Kadir Nelson

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Sigrid Nunez

The Friend: A Novel

Kaya Oakes

The Nones Are Alright: A New Generation of Seekers, Believers, and Those In Between

Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church

Meghan O'Gieblyn

Interior States: Essays

Paradise Lost: On (Finally) Reading John Updike

Katherine Paterson

Bridge to Terabithia 40th Anniversary Edition

The Night of His Birth

A Sense of Wonder: On Reading and Writing Books for Children

The Great Gilly Hopkins

Jacob Have I Loved

The Sign of the Chrysanthemum

Beth Peterson

Dispatches from the End of Ice: Essays

Mitali Perkins

Forward Me Back to You

You Bring The Distant Near

Kiki Petrosino

Hymn for the Black Terrific

Fort Red Border

Karen Swallow Prior

On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books

Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me

Natasha Sistrunk Robinson

Mentor for Life: Finding Purpose through Intentional Discipleship

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

Sigal Samuel

The Mystics of Mile End: A Novel

James Schaap

Up the Hill: Folk Tales from the Grave

Gary D. Schmidt

Pay Attention, Carter Jones

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk Toward Freedom

Orbiting Jupiter

The Wednesday Wars

Luci Shaw

Eye of the Beholder

Polishing the Petoskey Stone: Selected Poems

Adventure of Ascent: Field Notes from a Lifelong Journey

Water My Soul: Cultivating the Interior Life

Curtis Sittenfeld

Eligible: A modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice

You Think It, I’ll Say It

Sarah Smarsh

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke In The Richest Country On Earth

The working-class kid who became a writer: how a Kansas teacher helped change my life

James K.A. Smith

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

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

Letters to a Young Calvinist

Suzanne Stabile

The Path Between Us

The Road Back to You

Margot Starbuck

Small Things with Great Love: Adventures in Loving Your Neighbor

The Solid Place: 365 Affirmations for Thriving Emotionally and Spiritually

Kim Cash Tate

Cling: Choosing a Lifestyle of Intimacy with God

Though I Stumble

Daniel Taylor

Death Comes for the Deconstructionist

Creating a Spiritual Legacy: How to Share Your Stories, Values, and Wisdom

Randy-Michael Testa

Tales ‘Told Twice’ Through Close Cross-Media Comparisons

Krista Tippett

Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living

Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters—and How to Talk About It

Jemar Tisby

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

All Are Welcome: Toward a Multi-Everything Church

Asma T. Uddin

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

Gwen Vogelzang

If I Squeeze Your Head I'm Sorry

Charlotte Jones Voiklis

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

Chanequa Walker-Barnes

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

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

Paul Willis

To Build a Trail: Essays on Curiosity, Love & Wonder

Say This Prayer Into the Past

Emily Wilson

The Odyssey by Homer

Six Tragedies by Seneca

Christian Wiman

He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art

Hammer is the Prayer: Selected Poems

Maryanne Wolf

Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century: The Literary Agenda

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

Nick Wolterstorff

In This World of Wonders: Memoir of a Life in Learning

Justice in Love

Lament For a Son

John Wray

Godsend: A Novel

The Lost Time Accidents: A Novel

Lowboy: A Novel

Hilary Yancey

Forgiving God: A Story of Faith

Kevin Young

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News