Luther endows Lutheran writing festival

The Lutheran Festival of Writers, a gathering hosted by Luther College in Nov. 2007, will now be a regular event at Luther every third year. The festival will be funded by an endowment set up as part of Luther’s latest fund-raising campaign. The next festival is planned for the fall of 2010.

The festival offered an opportunity for students to learn from professional writers while connecting with the Lutheran church as a whole, a feature of Luther’s current strategic plan, “Transformed by the Journey.”

The Lutheran Festival of Writers stemmed from a visiting writer’s dream of a small gathering of Lutheran writers coming together as a discussion and support group. The local planning committee developed it into a gathering attended by 250 people from 21 states.

“We had a great range of people,” said Professor of English Carol Gilbertson, who directed the festival. “We had fellow writers, avid readers, high school teachers, pastors, church workers, congregation members and community people from all walks of life.”

The keynote speakers at last year’s festival were Walt Wangerin, Jr., a well-known Lutheran writer and speaker and Marilyn Robinson, a prominent African American poet.

Not all speakers or attendees were Lutheran. However, each visiting presenter was simply shaped in some way by the Lutheran tradition.

“We included a great range of people — writers who teach at Lutheran colleges, Lutheran writers at other colleges, independent Lutheran writers and some writers who have a Lutheran background but aren’t active Lutherans now,” said Gilbertson.

Luther students and a small number of students from other Lutheran colleges attended and helped with the festival.

“I especially appreciated the breadth of the experience,” said Laura Fuller (‘10), who attended last year’s festival. “I had never been to a writers’ festival before, so it was inspiring to hear from so many creative minds and to see some of my professors from Luther in their element.”

Many students attended panel discussions on subjects including “The Writing Life,” “Climate for Religious Publishing” and “What does it mean to be a Religious Writer?” Students also hosted and participated in an open-mic reading.

“I’m hoping in the future we will be able to attract more students and maybe have more activities specifically for students,” said Gilbertson. “Maybe we’ll be able to have a session for student writers. But I think it’s really valuable for students to hear visiting writers. A lot of times we forget that writing is a vocation - that it is action to transform the world.”

Fuller also looks forward to ways students will benefit from future festivals.

“It allows us to see a different side of literature than the basic read-a-book-and-write-about-it format of class,” said Fuller. “It makes it seem like something less historical and more current and active, something we can be a part of.”