[Image: Saint Augustine, c. 1450/60, Master with the Banderoles, courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection. In the public domain.]
This will be a short one; it’s a full day here, for reasons you can read more about in just a second.
Today I’m bringing you a couple of pieces I’ve written elsewhere: a newer one, about the classical roots of St. Augustine’s way of talking about his own tumultuous, on-fire heart, and an older one, about the risks and gifts of writing within a tradition and my contemplative realist approach to my first novel.
Tomorrow evening at 7:15 CT, I’m giving a reading to kick off the Summer Literary Series at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. If you’re in the area, I do hope you’ll join us!
For the near future, you can be looking forward to more close readings of some of the writers contemplative realism learns from—for example Flaubert, Marquez, Henry James, Toni Morrison, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Ron Hansen, Richard Bausch, George Saunders, Caroline Gordon, Sigrid Undset, Flannery O’Connor, and Alice Thomas Ellis, among others. That series should take us through the rest of summer and into the fall.
How are you staying cool (or how are you on fire) these hot days? I always love to hear from you in the comments.
Sorry I am going to miss you at UST! I had originally thought I could visit a friend for a week and attend the nighttime events (including your reading), however, family matters and other duties have made it necessary that I be in Boston as much as possible. I was able to spend a week in Blowing Rock, NC at a literary retreat discussing The Brothers Karamazov. It was somewhat cold and rainy. Damping for outside fellowship opportunities but definitely creating an appropriate somber and reflective ambiance for the novel. I have done a lot of reading thus far, but I will likely just share all that in my next Substack post because I don't want to go on and on in your comm box! Love seeing your posts when they come up. Wishing you a prolific literary summer!