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.
In Rewrite Radio Episode #52, Eugene Peterson and Scott Hoezee discuss teaching, preaching, and conversation at the 2010 Festival of Faith & Writing.Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In Rewrite Radio Episode #51, National Book Award winner Carlos Eire muses on the ethics of false memory, the power of images, and the story of thousands of children who, like him, were airlifted from Castro's Cuba, without their parents, in the early 1960's.Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In Rewrite Radio Episode #50, Jen Hatmaker and Jennifer Holberg discuss the truths that humor conveys, the need for good friends, and the problems facing evangelicals.Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In Rewrite Radio Episode #49, writer Lee Smith talks about and reads from her novel Saving Grace. Smith lets us into the stories behind her novels, her experiences with southern churches, and her fascination with all forms of ecstatic religion. Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In Rewrite Radio Episode #48, Walter Wangerin, Jr. begins his Festival talk by comparing hard rain on a roof to the sound of applause and praise, and he says that he found it his job to seek God in the common things and know that the whole earth is filled with God's glory. He also dives into the whole process of writing–from observation to idea to final product.Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
In Rewrite Radio Episode #47, CCFW co-director Jennifer Holberg interviews some who have been there since the beginning of Festival: Henry J. Baron, Donald Hettinga, and Gary D. Schmidt. This episode shares the journey of the Festival’s past 30 years–its speakers, triumphs, difficulties–all driven by the idea for a place where writers of faith can learn from, appreciate, support, and affirm one another.Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.
Episode 46 of Rewrite Radio features a collection of excerpts from our second season of the podcast, curated and edited together by CCFW media producerJon Brown and program coordinator Natalie Rowland. Join us as we journey through past Festival sessions in an exploration of stories as service.Speakers in order of appearance in this episode:Gene Luen Yang (2014)Richard Rodriguez (2010)Li-Young Lee & Nick Samaras (2004)Marie Howe (2018)Kwame Alexander & Nate Marshall (2018)Jacqueline Woodson (2004)Madeleine L'Engle (1996)Dorothy Fortenberry (2018)Elie Wiesel (1998)
On this episode of Rewrite Radio, we go back to the first night of Festival 1998 and Nobel-prize-winning writer Elie Wiesel, who offers powerful and prophetic words as applicable today as they were then. The author of over 60 books, Elie Wiesel was born in what is now Romania. At 15, he was deported to Auschwitz. By the time of liberation in 1945, Wiesel had lost his mother, his father, and his younger sister. After the war, he became a journalist and out of an interview, he was persuaded to write what would become his memoir, Night—now translated into more than 30 languages. Wiesel went on to a much-lauded career as a writer, professor, and humanitarian. In 1978, President Carter named Wiesel as chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, and in 1980, Wiesel was the Founding Chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council. Together with his wife, he established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. His works included fiction and non-fiction, including A Beggar in Jerusalem, The Testament, The Fifth Son, All Rivers Run to the Sea, and The Sea is Never Too Full. For his literary and human rights activities, he has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US Congressional Gold Medal, the National Humanities Medal, the Medal of Liberty, and the rank of Grand-Croix in the French Legion of Honor. In 1986, Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for Peace. He died in 2016.Rewrite Radio is a production of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, located on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Theme music is June 11th by Andrew Starr. Additional sound design by Alejandra Crevier.You can find more information about the Center and its signature event, the Festival of Faith and Writing, online at ccfw.calvin.edu and festival.calvin.edu and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Today on Rewrite Radio, we bring you Nikki Grimes, speaking at Festival 2018 about the potential story and poetry have to teach us empathy. Drawing examples from her own work, Grimes talks about the way that words can connect people across time and across cultures.The 2017 recipient of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for a “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children,” Nikki Grimes has written many award-winning books for children and young adults, including Bronx Masquerade, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award in 2002. Her books Jazmin's Notebook, Talkin’ about Bessie, Dark Sons, The Road to Paris, and Words with Wings each received a Coretta Scott King Honor. In addition, the National Council of Teachers of English honored her with its Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children in 2006.Grimes’s other books include the Dyamonde Daniel chapter book series, as well as New York Times bestseller Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. Her most recent books are One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance and The Watcher. Her memoir, Ordinary Hazards, is written in verse for young adult and adult readers and will be available in October 2019.In addition to her work for children, Grimes has written articles for Essence, Today’s Christian Woman, Image, and The Journal of Arts & Religion, among others. During a six-year stint in Sweden, she hosted a radio program for immigrants, Grunslöst, as well as another program for Swedish Educational Radio, and during the 1970s, Grimes co-produced and hosted The Kid’s Show on WBAI FM in New York.Rewrite Radio is a production of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, located on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Theme music is June 11th by Andrew Starr. Additional sound design by Alejandra Crevier.You can find more information about the Center and its signature event, the Festival of Faith and Writing, online at ccfw.calvin.edu and festival.calvin.edu and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Today’s episode, a recording from the very first Festival in 1990 and it features Will Campbell. Campbell, a Baptist minister, is perhaps best known for his involvement in the Civil Rights movement, first through the National Council of Churches and then through the Committee of Southern Churchmen, through which he published Katallagete, the New Testament Greek for “be reconciled.” He was on the front lines of integration efforts: one of the four people who escorted the black students who integrated the Little Rock public schools, the only white person present at the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, and a marcher with King in Birmingham and Selma. His activism led him as well to protest other issues, such as Vietnam and the death penalty. Campbell was the author of numerous works, and his memoir, Brother to a Dragonfly, was a National Book Award finalist in 1978. He was also a pop culture icon: the inspiration for the character Will B. Dunn in the cartoon Kudzu. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Campbell the National Humanities Medal. He passed away in 2013.Rewrite Radio is a production of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, located on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Theme music is June 11th by Andrew Starr. Additional sound design by Alejandra Crevier.You can find more information about the Center and its signature event, the Festival of Faith and Writing, online at ccfw.calvin.edu and festival.calvin.edu and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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