Entries by Charlotte Jones Voiklis
L’Engle Library up for auction to benefit three organizations
Dear Ones, Happy Spring! It’s hard to trust the feeling of hope and excitement that has been fluttering in my stomach and loosening the tightness in my throat, but I won’t deny it any longer, even if I know there will be disappointments and setbacks. It is ever thus, is it not? I write to […]
Another Irrational Season
The secrets of the atom are not unlike Pandora’s box, and what we must look for is not the destructive power but the vision of interrelatedness that is desperately needed on this fragmented planet. We are indeed part of a universe. We belong to each other; the fall of every sparrow is noted, every tear […]
Poetry, Science, and the Imagination: The Inaugural L’Engle Seminar at Image
by Jessica Kantrowitz Dear Ones, We’re excited to share that registration is now open for Poetry, Science, and the Imagination, the inaugural L’Engle Seminar, hosted by Image Journal, the first in a series of events that will explore the interplay between art and science. This five-part seminar will be held via Zoom at 1pm […]
PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program Names The L’Engle/Rahman Prize for Mentorship Winners
by Jessica Kantrowitz IT’S THIS WAY by Nazim Hikmet I stand in the advancing light, my hands hungry, the world beautiful. My eyes can’t get enough of the trees— they’re so hopeful, so green. A sunny road runs through the mulberries, I’m at the window of the prison infirmary. I can’t smell the medicines— carnations […]
L’Engle Library Auction Begins
Dear Ones, 2020, apart from the collective traumas of covid-19 and the election, also marked the 13th anniversary of Madeleine’s death and the 102nd anniversary of her birth. She loved celebrating her birthday, November 29, and often bemoaned its coming too close to Thanksgiving. I have intense, impressionistic memories of Thanksgiving as a child: crowded […]
The Madeleine L’Engle Conference a year later
Reposted from Sarah Arthur‘s facebook page, with permission. Dear ones, One year ago today I was wrapping up a glorious weekend co-directing 2019 Walking on Water: The Madeleine L’Engle Conference held at All Angels’ Church in NYC. A truly fantastic team of authors, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, theatre educators, writing teachers, editors, booksellers, creatives, and […]
Why read fantasy and science fiction?
by Jessica Kantrowitz Dear Ones, I’ve all but given up reading non-fiction lately. I’m too saturated with reality, too overwhelmed with a never-ending news cycle that keeps my mind in fight-or-flight mode constantly. There are so many good writers right now grappling with questions of faith, trauma and healing, parenting, social justice, and racial justice, […]
Free stories from the new collection THE MOMENT OF TENDERNESS
Dear ones, The response to the short story collection The Moment of Tenderness has been wonderful — I knew that I loved these stories and saw something in them, and that others do too is such a beautiful thing. There have been several notable recent reviews, including from The New York Times, The Christian Science […]
Katherine Paterson’s moving keynote address at Walking on Water: The Madeleine L’Engle Conference
Dear Ones, Katherine Paterson gave a moving keynote address at the November 2019 Walking on Water conference. She talked about her writing process, what it means to have readers, and Birdie, the protagonist of her latest novel, still awaiting publisher’s edits. She moved the audience (and herself) to tears, and reminded us, as Madeleine said, […]