Festival of Faith & Writing

Calvin College

Festival of Faith & Writing

The Festival of Faith & Writing is a biennial gathering of readers and writers hosted by Calvin College. At the Festival, our goal is to provide a vibrant community where people come together to discuss, celebrate, and explore the ways in which faith is represented in literature and how it plays out in our world today.

The next Festival will take place on April 15-17, 2010. To keep up-to-date with what's happening with the Festival, please sign up for our newsletter.

Festival 2008 took place at Calvin College on April 17-19, 2008.

Recent Updates

(9.04.08) We are pleased to offer--free of charge--several recordings of sessions from the 2008 Festival of Faith & Writing for the general public. One of these--a conversation between Sefi Atta and Diane Glancy--was not posted previously for Festival attendees. Enjoy!

(6.16.08) Audio recordings of several sessions from this year's Festival are now available for Festival attendees only. The downloadable mp3 files are accessible on a password-protected page on our website. Attendees will need to use the login and password that they received via e-mail in mid-June. (If you attended the Festival but didn't receive this e-mail, please contact us.)

(5.20.08) There was recently an article about the 2008 Festival in the Wall Street Journal. Also, Calvin College's Student Activities Office has posted audio recordings of conversations with Sam Beam of Iron and Wine and Caedmon's Call from this year's Festival on their website under Mic'd Up.

(4.24.08) Calvin Theological Seminary has posted an audio recording of Elizabeth Strout's conversation with Neal Plantinga which occurred during Festival 2008. Strout's book Abide with Me was recently selected as the seminary's "Book of the Quarter."

(4.22.08) Thank you to all of you who attended Festival 2008. We were truly pleased to welcome so many eager participants to Calvin's campus to celebrate the intersections of faith and writing. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

(4.22.08) We have received many requests for audio recordings of sessions from this year's Festival. Click here to access a list of all of the sessions that were recorded.

(4.22.08) Our audio-visual team is currently working on cleaning up the audio recordings. We will send an announcement out to Festival attendees via e-mail as soon as these are available. We will also post the announcement here on our website.

(4.22.08) Many people are writing about Festival 2008. Here are a few of them:

Bookish Pilgrims Gather at Calvin College by John Wilson, Books and Culture

All ideals of the world by Enny de Bruijn, Reformatisch Dagblad

Calvin's Identity by Chris Meehan, Christian Reformed Church- Church Beat

What I Discovered at Calvin by Edward Gilbreath, on his blog

Thoughts on faith and writing, a blog about Festival 2008

I've Only Been Wrong Twice, another blog about the Festival

(4.16.08) The opening plenary session will be available via live video stream (RealPlayer required) at noon on Thursday.

(4.16.08) A note about Registration Desk hours: The registration desk for Festival 2008 will be over at the Prince Conference Center during the entire Festival. We will be open from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. each day. You can go there if you have any questions.

(4.15.108) A map to the overflow parking lot at the Church of the Servant is now available, as is a campus map that includes all Festival venues.

(4.15.08)There is an open invitation out to bloggers attending Festival 2008 to be part of an online group blogging about this year's event. Check out the two places where these blogs are centralized at http://ffwblog.wordpress.com and http://www.iveonlybeenwrongtwice.com.

(4.7.08) Registration for the Festival of Faith and Writing is full. Tickets for the plenary sessions are still available.

(4.4.08) Registration for the Festival Circles is now closed.

(3.31.08) An updated Festival schedule is now posted.

(3.27.08) Due to overwhelming response, we have now closed online registration for all pre-registered workshops.

(3.24.08) The online order form for boxed meals is now available. The deadline for boxed meal orders is Monday, April 7.

(3.24.08) Online registration for Festival Circles will close on Friday, April 4.

(3.10.08) Registration for Festival 2008 will officially close on March 21, 2008.

(3.10.08) The deadline for manuscript submissions is March 17, 2008.

(3.10.08) The Iron & Wine concert is sold out.

(2.29.08) The $165 registration rate will be available through March 2nd. (After that, the rate will be $180. The student rate will remain at $80, however.)

(2.1.08) We're pleased to announce several recent additions to the Festival roster: young-adult novelist (and recent Newbery Honor recipient) Gary Schmidt, preacher and writer Rob Bell, poets Thom Satterlee and Linda Nemec Foster, and short-story writer Uwem Akpan. Look for more information on each of these individuals on our website in the coming days.

(2.1.08) We also announce with disappointment that Gail Godwin is no longer able to participate in the Festival. She sends her sincere regrets and hopes to join us at another time.

(2.6.08) Our plenary schedule is now set. Tickets for the plenary addresses will go on sale at the Calvin College Box Office for $10 on February 15.

(1.24.08) If you plan to book a hotel room for the Festival, please note that the rates advertised on the accommodations page of this website are only good through the middle of March. After that time, prices will go back up to the regular rates for each hotel. If you have any questions about hotels, please feel free to contact Shannon at the Festival office at ffw@calvin.edu or 616.526.6770.

(12.8.07) We are now accepting manuscript submissions. If you would like to take advantage of our online book proposal system, and you have registered for Festival 2008, please follow the guidelines to submit your manuscript.

(12.10.07) The Christian music group Caedmon’s Call will be in concert at Calvin College on April 17, 2008, at 9:00 p.m. Thanks to a special arrangement with Calvin’s Student Activities Office, Festival attendees may purchase tickets at the discounted rate of $15 ($20 for the general public) through the Calvin College Box Office (616.526.6282). When you call, please identify yourself as a Festival attendee to receive the discounted rate.You will be required to show your Festival badge at the door on the night of the concert.