Stay ConnectedRewrite Radio is the podcast of the Festival of Faith & Writing, a biennial celebration of literature and belief in Grand Rapids, MI.
Festival is the flagship initiative of the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing (CCFW), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit fostering scholarship & community around the literary arts.
This week on Rewrite Radio, author and scholar Karen Swallow Prior reflects on the power of imagination—not just as an individual gift, but as a force that shapes communities, cultures, and faith traditions. With insight, humor, and historical perspective, she invites us to notice the stories and symbols we live by and to consider how reimagining them might open the way toward a different future.
Karen Swallow Prior earned her Ph.D. in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a popular writer and speaker, as well as columnist for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vox, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, and many other places. Her most recent book is The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023).
This talk was recorded live at the 2024 Festival of Faith & Writing.
What happens when old models of power no longer serve us? In this episode of Rewrite Radio, Rabbi Elan Babchuck draws from his book Picking Up the Pieces to explore “Mosaic leadership,” a vision rooted in humility, resilience, and community. Through stories of Moses, modern innovators, and even his own children, Babchuck invites us to move from pyramids of control to circles of belonging—and to imagine new horizons of leadership in uncertain times.
Rabbi Elan Babchuck is Executive Vice President at CLAL (The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership) and Founding Executive Director of Glean Network. Ordained in 2012, he also holds an MBA, and works at the intersection of entrepreneurship and faith, helping shape new models of spiritual leadership.
This talk was recorded live at the 2024 Festival of Faith & Writing.
In Episode 70 of Rewrite Radio, acclaimed author M.T. Anderson explores the sacred and the strange through riveting tales of stolen religious artifacts—from Nepal to Cambodia to the tomb of Saint Nicholas. With wit and insight, he examines the power of objects, cultural identity, and why returning sacred art matters.
M. T. Anderson writes widely, for both children and adults, including the 2024 Newbery Honor Book, Elf Dog and Owl Head and The Pox Party, a Gothic novel of the American Revolution which won the National Book Award. His nonfiction book Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad was one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Books of the Year. His most recent book, Nicked, is a historical heist story set in the eleventh century.
This talk was recorded live in the 2024 Festival of Faith & Writing.
On this episode of Rewrite Radio, Rachel Pieh Jones joins us to explore how writing cultivates the humility, curiosity, and delight necessary to create a sense of home when nowhere, or everywhere, feels like home.
Jones is a prolific author whose essays have appeared in publications such as 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴, 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺, and 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘯.
Jones has also published several books, including 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 (2019), a tribute to health activist Annalena Tonelli, and the memoir 𝘗𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘓𝘦𝘥 𝘔𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 (2021), which chronicles Jones’ move from Minnesota to Djibouti, as well as the many lessons from her neighbors while living in a Muslim region.
This talk was recorded live at the 2024 Festival of Faith & Writing.
In Episode #68 of Rewrite Radio, Rebecca Sheir shares how folktales entertain, inspire, and unite us in this noisy, high-tech world, and act as a bridge between cultures and communities.
Rebecca Sheir is the author of the Circle Round books, The Tale of the Unwelcome Guest, A Taste of Honey, The Lion’s Whisker, and The Great Ball Game, and the host, writer, and producer of the Circle Round storytelling podcast. Sheir’s Circle Round books and the accompanying podcast share folktales with children all over the world.
Sheir has also brought thousands of stories to life as a news reporter on public radio shows like Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Here & Now, The Splendid Table, and Marketplace. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and son.
This talk was recorded live at the 2024 Festival of Faith & Writing.
The theme music if Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In Episode #67 of Rewrite Radio, Virginia Stem Owens muses on the difficulties, disappointments, and goodness of real communities. She encourages her audience to seek genuine “local habitations” over abstract “airy nothings.”
This talk was recorded live at the 1994 Festival of Faith & Writing.
Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In Rewrite Radio Episode #66, Thomas Lynch discusses faith, poetry, and their transformative powers. He asks us to see others as pilgrims on various roads of belief—all searching after a common table.
Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In episode #65 of Rewrite Radio, Newbery Medal winner Clare Vanderpool shares how stories transform us and how to maintain our most honest selves. She also sings a few yodel-ay-hee’s from her book Moon Over Manifest.
Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In episode #64 of Rewrite Radio, Jennifer Trafton teaches her listeners and students that play is at the heart of creativity. She draws on her experiences as a child and in the classroom to invite writers to play so that the idea brings something new to the world.
Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In episode #63 of Rewrite Radio, Sefi Atta and Diane Glancy offer their own thoughts on writing across the borders of religion, culture, language and more.
Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
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