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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Panel will muse on questions about ‘listening to the work,’ the creative process

Madeleine insisted, “The largest job of the artist is to listen to the work.”

This listening is one of the ways, she believed, that we become co-creators with God. But, practically speaking, what does it mean to listen to what the work is trying to express or be? How do artists in various mediums allow their work a measure of free will?

Four artists will reflect on those questions and share what goes into their creative processes, during the “Listening to the Work” artists panel at the first Madeleine L’Engle Walking on Water Conference in New York City.

Musician in Residence Audrey Assad, artist and writer Albert Pedulla, and visual artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee will participate in the panel, moderated by Seth Little, who directs arts programming for All Angels’ Church in Manhattan.

 

Audrey Assad is the daughter of a Syrian refugee, an author, speaker, record producer, and critically laudedsongwriter and musician. She refers to her music as “soundtracks for prayer,” and cites Madeleine as an inspiration.

Albert Pedulla is an artist, and occasional writer and curator. Fun fact: he designed and built Madeleine’s bedroom furniture and writing desk. He’s written on art for the journals Image, Comment and Seen. He also served on the Board of Directors of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) for 16 years.

Joyce Yu-Jean Lee is a visual artist working with video, digital photography and interactive installation. Her artwork examines how mass media and visual culture shape notions of truth and understanding of the “other.” Her project about Internet censorship, FIREWALL, garnered backlash from Chinese state authorities in 2016 and was presented at Lincoln Center in NYC and the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. She has exhibited internationally, receiving support and press from a wide variety of publications and groups. She is based in NYC and teaches as an Assistant Professor of Art & Digital Media at Marist College.

The artists’ panel is part of the festivities on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Walking on Water Conference. For a detailed schedule and to lock in your place at the event, check out the registration page.

Can’t wait to see you in NYC!

~Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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Walking on Water Conference workshops give time, space for feeding a richer inner life

For many of her readers, Madeleine’s exploration of the inner life both fed their understanding of different traditions and prompted deeper self-reflection. It’s why when some of us read her work, we’re often underlining long passages, nodding, yes, I feel that, too. We’re creating space for more of those yes, I feel that, too moments at the first Madeleine L’Engle-Walking on Water Conference. Workshops on Saturday talk about contemplation, meditation, and “feeding the lake,” and you’re welcome to participate:

Meditation on Contemplation: Madeleine L’Engle and Buddhism in Conversation

This workshop will cover the distinction between meditation in the Buddhist sense and Christian contemplation. Madeleine’s devotion to Christianity was so confident as to allow the influences of many different spiritual traditions into her thinking, including that of Buddhism, which she referenced many times, notably in Walking on Water.

In this morning workshop, psychoanalyst-in-training Edward Jones will talk about meditation and contemplation, as well as how they intersect and where they might differ, with an eye toward reconciling any perceived tension between them. Some time will be devoted to exploring Buddhist meditation techniques including some actual practice together, and putting Buddhist philosophy into a 21st century context. Jones is in training at the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies. He’s energized by the intersection of yoga philosophy, Buddhism, and psychology and seeks to draw from these three deep and potent sources for the benefit of his students and clients. He is also Madeleine L’Engle’s grandson.

“Feeding the Lake: A Journaling Workshop”

After lunch that day, author Sophfronia Scott will provide insights and prompts for the regular habit of journaling, which Madeleine herself practiced. (Madeleine’s advice to unpublished writers was to write anyway because all of it helps “feed the lake,” to quote Jean Rhys). Scott, author of the novel Unforgivable Love, has also published a spiritual memoir, This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World, co-written with her son Tain; and an essay collection, Love’s Long Line.

“Walking on Water: The Gallery Tour”

Later Saturday afternoon, artist Albert Pedulla will lead participants on a tour of a L’Engle installation, which is a collaboration between All Angels’ Church and CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts), featuring a number of artists and works inspired by Madeleine. The tour features a number of artists and works inspired by Madeleine. Pedulla is an artist, and occasional writer, and curator. He designed and built Madeleine’s bedroom furniture and writing desk that she used for many years. He also served on the Board of Directors of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) for 16 years.

 

** Last call! **

Registration prices increase after Sept. 15 from $169 to $199, so reserve your spot today! Registration for the Friday retreat is $79, and can be completed here, too.

The Walking on Water Conference is Saturday, Nov. 16, at All Angels’ Church, 251 W. 80th St., NY, NY, with a smaller pre-conference retreat on Friday, Nov. 15. Headline speaker for the conference will be acclaimed children’s author Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins), with award-winning singer-songwriter Audrey Assad as Musician-in-Residence (Evergreen).

Watch here for more info about the conference — we’re getting SO excited!

Tesser well,

~Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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‘Walking on Water Conference’ recommended reading list pairs L’Engle titles, modern must-reads

Bibliophiles love a good “to read” list, and we will not disappoint you now.

As part of our prep for “Walking on Water: The Madeleine L’Engle Conference” this November, conference co-director Sarah Arthur has curated a list of books you’ll want to add to your stack, post haste. The list is categorized by genre – and we encourage you to take that as a challenge to read broadly. Let’s take a cue from Madeleine, shall we?, the woman who read poetry, fairy tales, and astrophysics.

We’ve included Sarah’s Recommended Reads list as an attachment, for those who (like me!) want to print the list for easy reference. Not that we’re keeping score, but I’ve read fifteen titles (and counting) so far. Most recently, I’ve devoured 2019 Newbery Honor Book The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani and The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. In my job as a school librarian, I’ve made it my life’s ambition to get as many readers as possible to discover these books (and the rest on the list!). I hope the list inspires such enthusiastic sharing with your fellow readers, too.

What have you read from this list that you’d recommend? What are you excited to read next? Comment below.

By the way, we encourage you to find these books through Books of Wonder online, in their stores, or at the pop-up bookstore at the conference. Thanks for supporting indie sellers.

In other Walking on Water Conference news: We’ve extended the deadline for early-bird registration to Sept. 15!

The inaugural Madeleine L’Engle Conference will feature hands-on workshops, panel discussions, lunch groups, live music, plenary sessions, and more. All are welcome to join this lively and generative conversation centered around L’Engle’s signature treatise on faith & art, Walking on Water.

Conference highlights include acclaimed children’s author Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins), Newbery-Honor-winner Veera Hiranandani (The Night Diary), National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi (American Street, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich), A Wrinkle in Time film producer Catherine Hand, music by award-winning singer-songwriter Audrey Assad, and much more. The conference, in partnership with Writing For Your Life, is honored to work with collaborators We Need Diverse Books, Books of Wonder bookstore, Stage Partners, and Macmillan, as well as host venue and co-sponsor All Angels’ Church, to welcome artists, writers, readers, & students to the Upper West Side neighborhood that Madeleine called home.

Register and find more information here, including details about a Friday retreat and a special young adult discount price.

Can’t wait to see you there!

~Erin F. Wasinger for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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‘A Wrinkle in Time’ appreciation comes full circle for author Karuna Riazi

Author Karuna Riazi has been a fan of Madeleine L’Engle since she was an 8-year-old reading A Wrinkle in Time. That love for Wrinkle and its protagonist, Meg Murry, brings Karuna to the first Walking on Water Conference this fall (yay!). She’s part of the stellar panel of We Need Diverse Books authors who’ll be talking about a new generation of Meg Murrys: What Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Inspire. We’re so geeked to feature her today on the blog!

Welcome, Karuna Riazi.

What excites you about the Madeleine L’Engle Conference?
I love how being invited — and honored as a guest! — at this conference makes me feel like my writing and reading life has come full circle. I first read A Wrinkle in Time when I was eight, as my next door neighbor and long time family friend saw me browsing her bookshelves for something new. That prompted her husband — a middle school science teacher — to offer me his own copy (with the caveat that it needed to be returned, which it was … quite reluctantly) with the assurance that “I would enjoy it.”

I did, and revisited it many times after that, along with Ms. L’Engle’s other wonderful titles. Now — probably to the disbelief of my eight year old self — I get to discuss it and how I am carrying on her legacy (shivers) at the conference!

Do you have a Madeleine story/quote/moment that has inspired you?
“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.” This quote has carried me through a lot of moments in which my love of writing for children has been demeaned, dismissed or otherwise brushed aside as “not serious craft.”

In what ways does a legacy like Madeleine’s inspire the way you create art for a new generation?
When I look at Madeleine, who was a woman of faith and a woman author, I feel so deeply that I can be who she was and pass on the gift that she gave me. I can represent those communities, along with the other marginalized communities I inhabit, and stir people to wonder and to love and to unity with my words, and encourage kids to look within themselves and see the spark of magic and bravery and strength that only they have.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a great many things, as always: some YA-shaped things and some middle-grade sparks of possibility. But, if readers are searching for something more from me besides The Gauntlet, its companion The Battle, releases on August 27 from Simon and Schuster/Salaam Reads!

Thanks, Karuna — and congrats on the new release!

Before I wrap up today’s party, I’ve got two friendly reminders:

  1. Registration prices for the Walking on Water Conference increase after September 15 (yes, we extended it. If you are like us, our thoughts won’t fully turn to Fall until after Labor Day)! Get yourself signed up here.
  2. Catch up with the other We Need Diverse Books authors who’ll be part of the Walking on Water Conference: Sayantani DasGupta, Heidi Heilig, and moderator Caroline Richmond.

-Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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Kiranmala series’ author, Sayantani DasGupta, shares how L’Engle inspired her stories

This week, we’re excited to get to know Sayantani DasGupta, a panelist on the We Need Diverse Books panel, which will be featured at the Walking on Water Conference this November. Writers associated with We Need Diverse Books  will talk about “The New Generation of Meg Murrys – What Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Inspire,” and will feature Sayantani, Heidi Heilig, and Karuna Riazi, with moderator Caroline Richmond.

Sayantani is the author of a series of books that finds its inspiration in L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time series. Hear, in her own words, how Madeleine’s work made hers soar:

What excites you about the Madeleine L’Engle Conference?

Everything! I’m a huge fan of both the Wrinkle in Time series and the Austin Family series. Of course my own Bengali folktale and string theory inspired Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series was very much influenced by Madeleine L’Engle’s work! In fact as a physician-writer who uses lots of space science in her fantasy series, it was Madeleine L’Engle who first taught me that stories and science can go hand in hand.

Do you have a Madeleine story/quote/moment that has inspired you?

“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?

As I mentioned above, L’Engle’s books were the first place I learned that science and stories are not opposites, but partners. My entire career is at the intersection of science and story (I teach, after all, in a program for Narrative Medicine). In addition, my fantasy series from Scholastic (The Serpent’s Secret, Game of Stars and the soon-to-come-out The Chaos Curse) is very much influenced by the space science and metaphysics of A Wrinkle in Time. To me, string theory and parallel universes seemed the perfect metaphor for the immigrant experience — immigrants are, to me, galaxy hoppers and space explorers!

What are you working on now?

A secret project, possibly a follow up to the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series. (Shhh!)

Thanks, Sayantani! Follow the links to several more fun endorsements of the links between her work and Wrinkle in Time:

1. Click here for an online interview at Booklist, in which Sayantani discusses L’Engle’s work.

2. Don’t miss this LA Review of Books Review of The Serpent’s Secret, in which they say the following: “Kiran’s journey through space, complete with moving mountains and black holes, felt like a wink to Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time (1962). The reader feels a sense of connection to other stories they have loved, while also appreciating the unique qualities of characters they have never encountered before.”

3. A Barnes and Noble Blog Interview in which she mentions both A Wrinkle in Time book and film.

4. This list of nine diverse sci-fi fantasy books to read after A Wrinkle in Time. 

One more thing: Just in case you’re on the fence, early-bird pricing goes up in just a bit! Register for the Walking on Water Conference before August 31!

–Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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STD: PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program and Madeleine L’Engle

Dear Ones,

We’re happy to help announce and promote BREAK OUT: a movement to (re)integrate incarcerated writers into literary community, an effort from The Poetry Project and the PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program.

Throughout the month of September, over two dozen local reading series in New York City—and across the country—will feature the work of a currently incarcerated writer. The BREAK OUT series culminates with the 2019 PEN America Prison Writing Awards and Anthology Launch, the evening of September 18, 2019, at the Brooklyn Book Festival. This dynamic free-to-the-public program, held at St. Marks Church in Manhattan, features awarded works by incarcerated writers staged by Margo Jefferson, Cortney Lamar Charleston, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, T Kira Madden, Shaun Leonardo, and others TBA.

Madeleine was a participant in the prison writing program from their early days. When I was in college and graduate school in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I sometimes helped my grandmother, Madeleine L’Engle, with her mail. She received more than 400 letters a week at her New York apartment, Crosswicks (her home in Northwest Connecticut), and at her office at the Library of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. It was at the Library where I first came across a letter from Ahmad Rahman. The envelope’s return address was Jackson State Penitentiary with a long identification number on it, and I asked my grandmother about it.

She told me that it was from her friend. She didn’t say much more about it to me that morning, as we were sorting and prioritizing work. While she read every piece of mail that crossed her desk, some letters she answered herself and some she dictated. She answered Ahmad Rahman herself, and had done so since they first began corresponding in 1976 as part of the PEN America prison writing program. Their first exchanges of letters were cautious, testing each other and building trust across race and class and gender and circumstance. It grew to be a deep friendship whose foundation was a love of writing and words, and a commitment to truth-telling and listening, even when that is difficult.

Ahmad Rahman was released from prison in 1992 after a gubernatorial pardon. He was the first prisoner in Michigan to earn a BA while incarcerated, and he went on to earn a Ph.D. and was a beloved professor at the University of Michigan. As I organized my grandmother’s papers following her death in 2007, I kept coming across letters and would occasionally try to find him (the state called him one name; he called himself another, and so it wasn’t a straightforward search). I was able eventually to reach out to him, and he and I corresponded and even met in person (something he and Madeleine were never able to do). He died suddenly of a heart attack in 2015 at the age of 64.

As part of the culminating event on September 18th, PEN will be announcing the creation of a mentorship award named in their honor. We’re excited to be part of that and will have more news as the date gets closer.

— Charlotte Jones Voiklis

 

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