2024 Catholic Literary Arts Classes/Events

The short story is the most exacting form of fiction. Unlike the novel, the short story offers no leisure for misstep or digression. It must hit its target quickly and surely or else fail—which is especially true of an author aiming, in the words of Milan Kundera, to “discover a hitherto unknown segment of existence.” Yet its very brevity makes it capable of revealing moral and spiritual truths with particular brilliance and clarity, which we will observe and discuss in classic short stories from four diverse authors.

The course will consist of four weekly Monday evening sessions, each 1 hour + 15 minutes focusing on one short story: Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”; Gustave Flaubert, “A Simple Heart”; Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”; and James Joyce, “The Dead.” In week three, we will read two short stories.

Dr. J. Larry Allums is Senior Consultant and Board Member of the MacMillan Institute and Executive Director Emeritus of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. He earned his M.A. In Literature and his Ph.D. in Literature and Political Philosophy from the University of Dallas’ Institute of Philosophic Studies. He has edited a volume of essays on epic poetry, The Epic Cosmos, and published articles and book chapters on Dante, ancient Greek and Roman literature, and writers of the American Southern Renascence, including William Faulkner, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Caroline Gordon, and others. 

To register, follow this link.

Research and discussion will aid students in exploring the process of running a literary magazine from the administrative, editorial, and big-picture perspectives. Authors submitting to magazines will benefit from a better understanding of how to best work with editors.

What is a literary magazine and how does it run? Why is it important? These questions and others will be answered throughout this class by Ryan Wilson, Editor-in-Chief of Literary Matters. Over the course of three sessions, Mr. Wilson will explain the administrative side of running a literary magazine, the editing process, and helpful steps to begin setting up your own magazine, or working for such a magazine.

Under the direction of Mr. Wilson, students will be encouraged to research other literary magazines in order to guide their understanding of the process. Whether you wish to work in editorial, communications, fundraising, or on the board of a literary magazine, you will glean important considerations for your current or future work. 

Ryan Wilson is Editor-in-Chief of Literary Matters (literarymatters.org) and author of The Stranger World (Measure, 2017), winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize, of How to Think Like a Poet (Wiseblood, 2019), of Proteus Bound: Selected Translations (Franciscan UP, 2021), and of In Ghostlight: Poems (LSU, 2024). His work appears widely in periodicals such as 32 Poems, First Things, Five Points, The Hopkins Review, The New Criterion, Quarterly West, The Sewanee Review, and The Yale Review, and his poems have been anthologized in Best American Poetry, Christian Poetry in America Since 1940, and elsewhere. Co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Contemporary Catholic Poetry (Paraclete, 2024), he teaches at The Catholic University of America and in the M.F.A. program at The University of St. Thomas – Houston.

To register, follow this link.

Do you wish you were more involved with a community of Writers of Faith? 

Join us for a social hour of introductions and camaraderie at one of CLA’s Spring Happy Hours. Conducted via Zoom and moderated by Maura Harrison, the sessions will invite participants to report on recent publications, upcoming calls for entries, and opportunities for collaboration and/or critique.  To get everyone talking, each Happy Hour will have a general topic for discussion. Then we’ll see where the topics lead us.

Maura H. Harrison is a writer and artist from Fredericksburg, VA. Her written and visual works have appeared or are forthcoming in Dappled Things, Ekstasis Magazine, The St. Austin Review, Solum Journal, Windhover, Trampoline: A Journal of Poetry, Amethyst Magazine, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and others. She has received recognition in poetry competitions sponsored by Catholic Literary Arts (CLA) and the Society of Classical Poets, most recently receiving first place recognition for her poem, "Mary, Please Come and Intervene," in CLA's 2023 Marian Advent Prayer Contest. 

Register here for the February 23, 2024 Happy Hour.

Register here for the April 26, 2024 Happy Hour.

Presentation and discussion will prompt students to try techniques in using concrete and abstract writing to create unique poems.

William Carlos Williams famously said, "No ideas but in things," and Ezra Pound, "go in fear of abstraction." In this highly interactive workshop we will explore the balance between showing and telling, between the use of the concrete and the abstract.

Participants will learn: how to direct "the gaze of the poem" to hover close on a single image or pull back to provide a panoramic view; to understand how image works at both the literal and figurative level; and how image can anchor abstract concepts. We will then use techniques that allow us to adjust the mood or tone of the poem as well as guide the reader's pace in experiencing the poem. We will try our hand at various techniques through in-class exercises and take home challenges.  Feedback on student work is provided.

Tamara Nichol-Smith’s poetry has appeared on two Albuquerque city bus panels, one parking meter, numerous radio shows, a spoken-word classical piano fusion CD, and in several publications, including The Examined Life Journal, Catholic Arts Today and America. Her poem on Saint Jerome is part of the display of the Guttenberg Bible installed at the University of Saint Thomas. Tamara is a member of Catholic Literary Arts and a contributor to the “Joy of Catholic Poetry” presentation done at parishes, schools, and universities.

To register, follow this link.

Join moderator, Lindsay Schlegel, in visiting with three editors in Catholic children’s literature.

Catholic Literary Arts presents an evening with editors representing three of the leading publishers of Catholic children’s books. Each editor will speak about her philosophy of writing for kids, as well as what she’s looking for in a submission. Our hope in connecting writers with editors is that over time, publishers can find new talent for their lists and our faithful writers will find a home for their work.  There will be a Q&A portion of the event, so bring your questions!

The Editors

Kate Camden is the acquisitions editor for OSV Kids books and an editor for the OSV Kids magazine. She is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford and has worked in Catholic publishing and media since 2011.

Haley Stewart is an award-winning writer and the Editor of Word on Fire Spark, a new imprint for young readers. She is the author of The Grace of Enough, Jane Austen's Genius Guide to Life, and The Sister Seraphina Mysteries and the host of Word on Fire's Spark the Imagination Podcast.

Sister Maria Grace Dateno, a Daughter of St. Paul, is a children’s book editor and author for Pauline Books & Media. She has an MA in theology from The Catholic University of America and has served in several of the Pauline Books & Media Centers around the country.  She is the author of the six-book Gospel Time Trekkers series (easy-reader Biblical time travel stories), as well as several catechetical and devotional works for kids and adults, including The Mass Explained for Kids.

The Moderator

Lindsay Schlegel has worked in children’s book publishing for nearly twenty years, serving in various roles at Borders Books and Music, Candlewick Press, the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, Abrams Books for Young Readers/Amulet Books, and the Children's Department at Simon and Schuster, before moving to freelance work. Her editorial clients have included HarperCollins, and Our Sunday Visitor, among others. She has written for Word on Fire, America, CatholicMom.com, Verily, The Windhover Journal, and more. She is the co-author of two books for adults. Her first picture book, with a working title God's Glorious Garden, is forthcoming in Spring 2025.

To register, follow this link.