Participant Voices

The following writing samples, composed by our summer writing workshop participants, will give you a small glimpse into the experience of being at the Collegeville Institute.

• Flannery O’Connor’s Double Mind

  Susan Sink

  
  "As a person socialized as white in a racist culture, O’Connor does not intuitively grasp the psychic damage done by slavery ... and this lack of understanding and experience shows up in the stories as well as in the letters."

• The Spiritual Practice of Conversation

  Andrea Roske-Metcalfe

  
  A Lutheran pastor describes how certain kinds of conversations can be considered a spiritual practice, particularly when done across religious traditions.

• Seeing with God’s Eyes

  Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew

  
  Karen González has written a "hermeneutics of immigration" in her new book The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong.

• Midday Prayer

  Jamie Howison

  
  Jamie Howison reflects on his experience praying with the monks at Saint John's Abbey Church, while on a writing retreat at the Collegeville Institute.

• Believing and Belonging

  Karissa Knox Sorrell

  
  I was unsure if Collegeville was the right place for me. But my time there gave me the hope that I can be a spiritual person.

• Finding My Introvert

  Chuck Appleby

  
  I cannot remember the exact moment of recognition, but I think it occurred early afternoon on the second full day of our writing workshop. I rediscovered time.

• Thimbleberries

  Taylor Brorby

  
  Thimbleberries were not on my mind when I applied for a writing workshop at the Collegeville Institute. I wanted time set apart from the busyness and business of everyday life. I wanted a view of a lake, fenced-in by maple trees. I wanted to be in a community where I felt the ease of saying, Yes, I am a writer.

• Suspended Sentences

  Ingrid Rasmussen

  
  Ingrid Rasmussen drafted this piece as an exercise in writing suspended sentences, while participating in the writing workshop Words that Sing II: Advanced Writing with Mary Nilsen.

• Hopes and Fears from Collegeville Institute

  Adam Copeland

  
  In this post, Adam Copeland addresses his fears at the start of a week-long writing workshop with 12 strangers.