Join Collegium Institute and Dappled Things: A Quarterly of Ideas, Art, and Faith for our online Global Catholic Literature Seminar on Caryll Houselander’s The Dry Wood. This novel is a part of a new series of books from the Catholic University of America that seeks to recover Catholic Women Writers, especially those of the Catholic literary revival in Great Britain. Houselander, famous for her spiritual writings, weaves together the lives and travails of a group of parishioners united by the death of their saintly pastor. Faced by suffering and worldliness, the various characters in this modernist narrative struggle to step into a supernatural world.
In this seminar, we will consider diverse expressions of the universal call to holiness and the literary challenge of representing the saints amidst us. In considering the novel we will ask about the role of literature in depicting and fostering holiness. Can literary works be a form of spiritual writing? Can novels successfully portray the holy? What is the role of suffering in a life of holiness?
Schedule and Presenters:
We will gather on Zoom on the following Mondays in March from 7:00pm–8:30pm ET.
March 6: Chapters 1–7. Presentation by Jessica Hooten Wilson (Author and Seaver College Scholar of Liberal Arts at Pepperdine University)
March 13: Chapters 8–13. Presentation by Julia Meszaros (Author, Lecturer at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and Co-Editor of Catholic University of America’s new Catholic Women Writers series)
March 20: Chapters 14–18. Presentation by Julia Meszaros
March 27: Chapters 19–24. Conversation facilitated by Katy Carl (Author and Editor-in-Chief of Dappled Things magazine)
Registration Fees & Deadlines:
Early Bird Registration (ends Friday February 10 at 11:59pm): $65
Regular Registration (ends Monday February 27): $75
Collegium Institute will provide copies of the book to all participants in the United States. International participants are welcome to join, but please note that we can't guarantee that we will be able to send you a copy of the text if you live outside of the US.