Author Deb Lund and a dinosaur friend reminisce about the inspiration for Dinosailors, a children’s book she wrote after sailing with the Shifty Sailors chantey singers.
Walter Wangerin Jr.
Lutheran connection: ELCA pastor and son of a Lutheran pastor. Genre: Fiction, poetry, plays, chil- dren’s books. Titles:More than 30 books, including his most recent Naomi and Her Daughters (Zondervan, 2010). The
Book of the Dun Cow(HarperOne, 2003) won the National Book Award for sci- ence fiction in 1980. Bio: He is a senior research professor at Valparaiso [Ind.] University.
JEFF HIGH
son said: “What [Martin] Luther calls ‘the living word’ in the 21st century takes seriously the challenges of the world, including doubt, heartache, pain and physical disease. It’s writ- ing that faces the world fully and
completely.” In this article, we highlight 11 writers who are Lutheran—and who are facing the world fully and com- pletely through their poetry, fiction and memoirs.
When The Book of the Dun Cow was published, it was known that I was Christian. I think that didn’t matter then because I was a pastor of an inner-city black congregation, and as far as prejudice went, it was an acceptable act to be working in an inner city. If I had come from a large suburban congregation, it wouldn’t have been. I would have been aston- ished if anyone saw “Lutheran” in the book. For the first time I saw it was natural to see sacrifice for the sake of the people. That sense of sacrifice has continued. The whole issue of con- fession and repentance as a saving act I have found in my writing. When somebody approaches the writing process as a faithful person, in a sense there is a clearer direc-
For a study guide, see page 26. October 2011 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52