All Angels’ vibrant arts community makes the church a perfect spot for first Walking on Water Conference

Coming to the Walking on Water Conference next month? Let me introduce you to our generous host and co-sponsors: All Angels Church, the artistic faith community on the Upper West Side.

The church’s site is perfect for the conference for a few reasons. One, it’s where Madeleine worshiped during the last years of her life (more on that in a minute). Two, it’s a thriving, vibrant collection of creative types who value art as a means of understanding our Creator. All Angels Church’s artistic aims are infused with the flavor of Walking on Water, Madeleine’s treatise on faith and creativity.

Listen for some of Madeleine’s influence in All Angels’ artistic statement: “At All Angels’, our Arts ministry reminds us that we are co-agents with God in the world he’s made,” their site reads. “We believe the arts are a key way for us to witness God’s creative power on earth. In fact, it is through the arts that we experience the fullness of God, together.”

Her signature infusion of imagination into the spiritual life will for sure come up during the Walking on Water Conference, too. And, thanks to the hospitality of All Angels, the amalgamation of awesomeness taking place that weekend will “feed hungry sheep,” to borrow another illustration of Madeleine’s. (“I go to church … because I am a hungry sheep who needs to be fed,” she wrote in The Irrational Season.)

Let’s get to the details of all that awesomeness. Besides being our welcoming hosts for the Walking on Water Conference on Saturday, Nov. 16, All Angels has also slated its own events:

  • Songwriter Audrey Assad will perform a concert there on Friday, Nov. 15. The show is open to the public and tickets are $15 (you can buy concert tickets here.) (The next day, Assad will serve as the Walking on Water musician-in-residence — eep! read more about that here.)
  • Friday, Nov. 15, is also the opening reception for a special art exhibition that complements the Walking on Water Conference. Curated by Albert Pedulla and Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, the gallery will open at 6:30 pm and again after Audrey’s concert.
  • Saturday, Nov. 16, is the official Walking on Water Conference festivities (which you can register for here, and find a full recap of highlights here).
  • And finally, on Sunday, Nov. 17, author and Conference Co-Director Sarah Arthur will be preaching at the church’s 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. worship services.

That’s a lot of good stuff in one special space on the Upper West Side.  The space is, unfortunately, not wheelchair accessible. It has been a source of concern for the parish, and for us as we organize this gathering. There won’t be architectural changes in place to make the conference wheelchair accessible, but as we begin to imagine what future L’Engle events might look like, inclusion and accessibility are very much top of mind.

Going to church, for Madeleine, is akin to wearing a wedding ring: “a public witness of a private commitment.” For years she worshiped at St. John the Divine. Toward the end of her life, she found the cathedral overwhelming, as Sarah Arthur writes in A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle. Madeleine was invited to All Angels by one of her goddaughters, Cornelia Duryée Moore, who coincidentally will be part of a panel discussion at the conference: “Icons of the True: Adapting Novels for Film.”

Isn’t it fun, how Madeleine’s part in the community of All Angels continues to bear fruit? Partake with us in November — we’ll all taste and see a glimmer of that magic!

Tesser well,

~Erin Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com

 

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Guest Blog Post: “This particular copy”

By RuthAnn Deveney

When I was a senior in high school, a friend in my English class told me, “I found something at a yard sale over the weekend, and I got it for you. You like Madeleine L’Engle, right?”

The question was more of a formality than out of necessity; in my circle of nerds, it was common knowledge that I was working my way through the Madeleine L’Engle shelf in the fiction section of my school’s library. It was common to see me reach into my over-the-shoulder messenger bag (it was the early 2000’s) and haul out a huge, library-bound copy of whatever novel I was working through.

“Yes!” I said. “She’s my favorite author.”

My friend pulled a book out of her messenger bag (they were in style then!) and presented it to me. It was a hardcover copy of A Swiftly Tilting Planet with simple, minimal cover art. I had already read and re-read the Dell Yearling editions, and I was partial to that cover art. Where was Charles Wallace’s blue anorak? Where were the people he went Within? And why would I need another copy?

At that point in my life, I had never considered having multiple copies of books. It would just take up precious bookshelf space, and at my house, that real estate was at a premium. More importantly, I felt strongly that books in a series should match. Nevertheless, it was a gift, and you never look a gift book in the mouth, or the cover, or whatever.

“Thanks! What do I owe you?”

My friend shrugged. “It was fifty cents,” she said. “You can get me an ice cream sometime if you want.”

Good deal! I started to stow it away in my bag, but my friend interrupted me, saying, “Wait! Look at this!”

She took the book back, flipped a couple of pages, and showed me what she was looking for.

 

A signed title page. Madeleine L’Engle had signed this book at one point, and my friend found it at a yard sale for fifty cents! And bought it for me!

I shrieked and basically tackled my friend right there in the classroom. Since then, I’ve realized that this copy was a former library copy, and there’s an old pocket in the back for due date cards. Plus, Gaudior is embossed on the cloth cover. Years later, this particular copy is one of my prized possessions, and I’ve moved it with me from bedroom to dorm room to summer housing to apartment to house. And I’ve gotten over the fact that it doesn’t match any of the other Madeleine books I own.

RuthAnn Deveney works in corporate learning and development and loves walking around her small town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.  She lives there with her husband, dog, and a huge 

collection of Madeleine L’Engle books, including her most prized volume: a signed copy of A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which a friend gave to her in high school after finding it at a yard sale for fifty cents! You can read more Madeleine musings at RuthAnn’s blog or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

This piece was originally published on RuthAnn’s blog. Do you have something you’d like us to share with our blog readers? We are taking submissions for guest blog posts. Email: social [at] madeleinelengle [dot] com

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Author of ‘The Night Diary’ inspired by Madeleine’s advice

Dear Ones,

Take it from this bibliophile/ school librarian: Veera Hiranandani’s book, The Night Diary, needs to be one of your next-reads.

This 2019 Newbery Honor Award winning book is set during a tumultuous time in India’s history, told through letters written by

Author Veera Hiranandani

a girl to her deceased mother. I found it powerful and moving, as did plenty of other readers. Case in point: The Night Diary was a 2018 best book of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Amazon, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, the Chicago Public Library, and others.

In short, people are talking about it.

We’re excited to welcome Veera to the first Walking on Water Conference this fall in New York, to hear her perspective during the panel called, “Glorious Impossibles: Writing About Faith for Younger Readers.” Let’s get to know her a bit before then!

What excites you about the Madeleine L’Engle Conference?
I have always been an admirer of Madeleine L’Engle’s work since I was a child. I also tend to write about characters who wrestle with their own interfaith identities as I have in my personal life.

Do you have a Madeleine story/quote/moment that has inspired you?
I relate to this particular quote deeply, especially when writing The Night Diary, which is based on the complex and difficult topic of the 1947 Partition of India: “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

In what ways does a legacy like Madeleine’s inspire the way you create art for a new generation?
I think she was a risk-taker and a very versatile writer. She gave herself the freedom to experiment and create from a place way outside the box. I hope I can find the courage to do the same over the years.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on my next middle-grade novel called The Sound of Summer coming out in Summer 2020.

Where can we learn more about your work? 
On my website, www.veerahiranandani.com; and in an interview done on TheHindu.com.

Thanks, Veera!

Find out more about the conference here. Until then, head to your local indie bookseller or library to grab a copy of The Night Diary (so we can talk about it in November!).

Read on,

~Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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L’Engle/Rahman Prize celebrates what’s possible in the connective nature of mentoring relationships

Eric Berryman and Charlotte Jones Voiklis read from the letters of Madeleine L’Engle and Ahmad Rahman, September 18, 20019.

Dear Ones,

Last month, PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program announced the creation of the L’Engle/Rahman Prize for Mentorship. As part of that program’s month-long reading series, the September 16th event featured the performance of the prize-winning writers’ works, and also a dramatic dialogue I arranged from the letters Madeleine exchanged with Ahmad Rahman in the 1970s and 80s. We share the remarks of Caits Meissner, Director of the the Prison and Justice Writing Program, below.

Tesser well,

Charlotte Jones Voiklis

 

“In 1976, beloved fantasy author Madeleine L’Engle applied her visionary seeing to the dystopian planet of American prison, embracing what others could not: that people in prison are capable of wild talent, profound contribution, and are worthy of sincere and authentic relational connection. 

How do we know this? 

Amazingly, we learned, also fairly recently, that L’Engle was one of our program’s very first mentors back in the 1970s—and to make the discovery even sweeter, her exchange with Ahmad Rahman is wonderfully illustrative of our “connective versus charitable” approach to the mentorship process. 

And if you don’t know these names, let me fill you in. Madeleine L’Engle wrote a little book called A Wrinkle in Time. Anyone heard of it? If you didn’t read it as a young person, the recent Ava DuVernay movie might ring a bell. 

Amhad Rahman is decidedly less of a household name, but an equally powerful person. Rahman was a highly intellectual incarcerated Black Panther Party leader who later, upon release, became a beloved Associate Professor at the University of Michigan–Dearborn. 

In the letters, the two writers share articles and book recommendations, debate their respective religious affiliations of Christianity and Islam, exchange work, share personal stories, and relate through a very personal humor. The letters range in date from 1976 to 1990—over a decade of friendship through long hand and stamped envelopes. 

Our program recognizes the Mentee-Mentor exchange as a connective experience, rather than a charitable one, where reciprocal learning occurs. As much as we rely on a mentor’s expertise to help deepen the self-expression and literary skills of imprisoned writers, we also believe in the positive, often transformative, impact of this process for the Mentor.

And as we sometimes see, and hope to keep cultivating more of, delightfully, our more accomplished writers often offer strong feedback to the writing of their assigned mentors as well, flipping the very dichotomy of mentor/mentee on its head. The truth is, many of our writers are already phenomenal talents, and looking for connection, rather than a teacher. We see the letters of Madeleine and Ahmad as an instructional tool for our incoming mentors, illustrating what an equitable, successful and sustainable connection through writing can look like—and across great difference, at that. 

I want to share more about the letters, but I think it best for you to hear them yourself. Madeleine’s granddaughter, Charlotte, has weaved together excerpts from the archived letters, performed here tonight. It is with this performance, that we are so very proud to announce that The PEN America/L’Engle-Rahman Prize for Mentorship, underwritten by Madeleine L’Engle’s family, will launch in 2020, honoring exceptional mentorships in our program. I invite you to stay connected through our mailing list to learn more about the awards when presented next season. Tonight, please join us in celebrating this extraordinary history, staged by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Eric Berryman.”

Caits Meissner
Director, Prison and Justice Writing
PEN America

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