I’ve been wanting to check out Calvin College’s biennial Festival of Faith and Writing (FFW) at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI for some time. This year, after learning that Yann Martel, Michael Chabon, Mary Gordon, and Elizabeth Berg were just some of the scheduled speakers, I finally took the plunge and signed up for the three-day conference (and at the early-bird discounted registration fee of $165, a bargain).

I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect at the FFW. As one of my writing friends commented, writers in general can be a quirky crew; throw religion into the mix and no telling what you’ll get. But those I met out of the roughly two thousand, mostly Christian, at-tendees were an open-minded and down-to-earth bunch, dedicated to discussing and celebrating good literature, improving their craft, and learning more about how different faith traditions, perspectives, and cultures inform the works of great artists.

To give you an idea of just how different in scope and concentration the FFW is from other writing seminars, here are some titles of session topics: “Is Fiction Moral?,” “Literary Fiction: A Place for Faith?,” “Truth and Beauty: Visual Artists in Conversation,” “Writing Poems from Different Parts of the Soul,” “Faith in Oneself: The Writer Versus Hollywood,” “Writing for the Middle-School Reader: War, Trouble, and Calamity,” “The Eagles are Coming: Faith, Fairy Tales, and Fantasy,” and“The Perfect Book Proposal.”

And what other writing seminar can you find morning prayers and jazz vespers on the itinerary? Because there were so many great sessions — a mix of readings, panel discus-sions, lectures, and intimate interviews — scheduled concurrently, I also appreciated that the Festival recorded many of these sessions and have made the audio recordings available for download exclusively for Festival participants.

A few negatives. The manuscript submission option: one draw for me was the Festival’s invitation to participants to submit a pitch letter and writing sample of a finished manuscript prior to the Festival to be read by agents and editors attending the conference. If an agent or editor was interested in what they read, they would contact the participant and set up a time to meet during the Festival. During one agent/editor panel, I learned that these agents and editors hadn’t had time to look through these submissions. I was also disappointed in the lack of diversity among the publishers and exhibitors represented at the conference.

The Festival overall was well coordinated and the campus was beautiful and easy to navigate, and for those staying at nearby hotels, shuttle buses were provided to and from the campus and off-site events. A Festival coordinator said on the first day of the conference that it was the Festival’s hope that we not hear anything that sounded too familiar or too comfortable, because that would mean the Festival hadn’t succeeded in stretching us. I can definitely say that my thinking — and faith — was stretched and challenged during my short time at Calvin. In fact, the FFW was one of the first writing seminars I’ve ever attended where I left feeling as though my humanity was enriched as much as, if not more than, my writing.

The next FFW is slated for April 15-17, 2010. For more information, check out the Festival’s website at: www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival