Breaking the Academic Mold

Applications for this jointly sponsored Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute workshop are closed.

This writing workshop is for scholars of religion and theology who have written exclusively or primarily in the scholarly genre for other scholars of religion but long to share their knowledge or personal experience in a more creative way with a wider audience.

Many scholars yearn to speak to a broader audience through creative nonfiction, blogs, op-eds, and memoir. Many scholars want to write with more clarity and imagination. Participants in this workshop will develop their writing voice in service to topics they care about, and for which they have passion and curiosity. A combination of plenary, small group and individual instruction, our week together will help scholars free the creative spirit, structure their writing more effectively, and speak on the page in a truer, more engaging voice. Our focus will be on releasing the professors’ voice to the public square, giving permission to be imaginative, and finding new ways of being inspired.

No previous experience publishing in creative writing genres is needed.

Due to COVID precautions, workshop participants are asked to be fully vaccinated and to show proof of vaccination before arriving on the Collegeville Institute campus.

Workshop Goals

• To create a collaborative learning cohort of teacher-scholars to expand and deepen scholarly writing
• To navigate the intersecting challenges of creative writing as an academic
• To develop new practices of creative writing in the service of teaching and scholarship of religion and theology
• To explore strategies for the authentic voice while thriving in institutional, political and personal contexts
• To write and receive feedback while also being in conversation with other creative writers

Participant Eligibility

• Tenure track, continuing term, and/or full-time contingency teaching full time in college, university, or seminary
• Must be teaching in religion and theology or related fields
• Job description or contract that is wholly or primarily inclusive of teaching
• Teaching in accredited college, university, seminary in the United States, Puerto Rico or Canada
• Personal commitment to participate fully in workshop with 100% attendance in all sessions
• Little to no experience with publishing in creative genres, but great interest in learning to write in creative genres

Workshop Leaders

Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in Time, People, O: The Oprah Magazine, and numerous other outlets. She directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Alma College. When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published, she was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and hailed by Henry Louis Gates Jr. as “one of the best writers of her generation.” Her other books include The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton, Unforgivable Love, Love’s Long Line, and This Child of Faith. Scott holds degrees from Harvard and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

Donald Quist is author of two essay collections, Harbors, a Foreword INDIES Bronze Winner and International Book Awards Finalist, and TO THOSE BOUNDED. His writing has appeared in AGNI, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, and was Notable in Best American Essays 2018. He is creator of the online nonfiction series PAST TEN. Donald has received fellowships from Sundress Academy for the Arts, Kimbilio Fiction, and served as a Gus T. Ridgel fellow for the English PhD program at University of Missouri. He is Director of the MFA in Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

The Collegeville Institute will cover travel expenses to and from the workshop within the continental United States, all workshop fees, and room and board. International travel costs, and travel from Hawaii and Alaska may be shared between the Collegeville Institute and the workshop participant. Those who join the workshop will be expected to reside at the Collegeville Institute throughout the entire term.

Application Materials

The application deadline for this workshop has now passed.