The Indelible Mark: The Writer and a Catholic Childhood

Q: What do you do with a Catholic childhood?
A: You write about it.

The temptations, excitements, satisfactions and angst of going from childhood memories to written text are explained by writers who have done it—readings and discussion with four distinguished writers who had Catholic childhoods.

WHO: Fordham Center on Religion and Culture
WHAT: The Indelible Mark: The Writer and a Catholic Childhood
WHERE: Fordham University, Pope Auditorium, 113 West 60th Street
WHEN: 6 to 8 p.m. | Tuesday, December 9, 2008
RSVP: Free and open to the public CRCevent@fordham.edu, (212) 636-7347

Patricia Hampl, poet and memoirist, author of A Romantic Education, Virgin Time and most recently The Florist’s Daughter. She is Regents Professor and McKnight Distinguished Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches in the English department’s MFA program.

Stuart Dybek, author of three collections of short stories, I Sailed with Magellan, The Coast of Chicago and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, and two collections of poetry, Streets in Their Own Ink and Brass Knuckles. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic and in Best American Fiction and Best American Poetry. He is distinguished writer in residence at Northwestern University, and was a 2007 MacArthur fellow.

Lawrence Joseph, poet, critic, essayist. His books of poetry include Into It, Codes, Precepts, Biases, and Taboos, Before Our Eyes and Shouting at No One, which received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowships. He teaches law at St. John's University School of Law and wrote Lawyerland, a book of prose.

Valerie Sayers, author of five novels, Who Do You Love and Brain Fever--both named "Notable Books of the Year" by the New York Times Book Review--Due East, How I Got Him Back and The Distance Between Us. She has received a Pushcart Prize for fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She is on the creative writing faculty at the University of Notre Dame.