tion that comes with that sense of a human’s sinfulness, a relation to a deity, an actual progress or narrative motion from one state of relation- ship to another. I watch secular writ- ers make a motion from the begin- ning to the end of their narrative, which in some ways merely opens up the thesis with which they began: “they are all sad people.” What hap- pens in the book is a demonstration of sadness.
Jim Bodeen
Lutheran connection: Member, Central Lutheran Church, Yakima, Wash. Genre: poetry. Titles: Eight books, including This House: A Poem in Seven Books (Tsunami Press, 1999). Bio: Bodeen is a retired high school teacher; founder of
Blue Begonia Press; a frequent teacher at Holden Village, near Chelan, Wash.; and a companion of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church. Bodeen says his pre- ferred position is “inside the theology and outside of the institution.”
I don’t have to have ultimate answers as either a poet or as a fol- lower of Jesus. The poet is not the ultimate authority. The poet is a necessary ingredient in the relation- ship between God and man. Kind of like John the Baptist, the poet is not the light, but he reflects the light. He might be the wick or the wax in the candle. Necessary.
My friend Jody says the poet sat by the king like a jester because the king knew that the poet would tell him the truth. The poet had an hon- ored place. Times have changed, but the job description remains the same:
22 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
tell the truth. Los poetes son los ebrios de
dios—“poets are God’s drunks.” I’m comfortable with this because of the true nature of the intoxication, which is a synonym for inspiration, and it helps me understand that the world is going to see us as the drunks that we are.
Rene Steinke
Lutheran connection: Daughter, niece and granddaughter of pas- tors; mother’s relatives were church organists. Graduate of Valparaiso [Ind.] University. Asso- ciate member, Grace and St. Paul Lutheran Church, New York City. Genre: Fiction. Titles: Holy Skirts
(Harper Perennial, 2005), a finalist for the National Book Award; The Fires (Wil- liam Morrow, 2000). Bio: Steinke teaches creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, N.J., and at the New School in New York.
Growing up as a minister’s daugh- ter has a lot to do with my evolution as a writer because you meet so many people unlike yourself in a small con- gregation. That got me interested in people’s internal lives. The thing that inspires me to write is to understand the characters.
Now I am writing about funda-
mental Christians from Texas. I am about as far away from that as it’s possible to be and still be in the same faith. Fundamentalists are often sati- rized and stereotyped. I am trying to write about two characters in a way that shows their humanity, vulner- ability and internal conflict.
Lutheran connection: Lutheran by marriage; high school Sunday school teacher; mem- ber of St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Tal- lahassee, Fla. Genre: Fiction. Titles: The Gendarme (Amy Einhorn Books/ Putnam, 2010). Bio: A lawyer and a
city commissioner, Mustian’s writing career has its roots in an early midlife crisis and curiosity about his Armenian roots.
My heritage is Armenian way back, but I never knew much about it. After reading about the Turkish expulsion of the Armenians in 1915, I ended up writing my novel from the point of view of a gendarme (soldier) escorting people out of the country. I wrote this because I wanted the story to be told and for people to know about this part of history. I was also fascinated by what happened to the faith of survivors because many could not reconcile a loving God with what had happened. The other big question in the book, told from the [viewpoint] of a sort of perpetrator, is: is there redemption no matter what you’ve done? I was raised Baptist, and when I first came into the Lutheran church and was going over doctrine with the pastor, I said, “Let me get this straight. I can be a mass murderer, convert on my deathbed, and I’m saved?” The answer was yes. It was so hard to get around that. That is something the book explores.
Mark Mustian
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