Have you picked up your copy of Gary Fincke's prize-winning collection of short stories, Sorry I Worried You?  This is the Lutheran Writers Project newest addition to our Book Council Selections, and is a great choice for book clubs, church classes, pastors, and readers of all persuasions.  Dan Chaon writes “There’s a lovely, hilariously wry sense of humor at work here, but there’s also a truly heartfelt compassion for the lives of ordinary working folks—those little failures and triumphs that make a reader gasp in both recognition and wonder. This is a remarkable collection.”

Carol Gilbertson’s latest project is collaborating with New York composer Philip Wharton.  Her poem “Night Rising” was the inspiration for “Nightrising,” Wharton’s Composition for Flute, Oboe, and Strings (2008), which premiered in Moscow, Idaho, in July 2008.  Her poem, “Birds,” received honorable mention in the summer 2008 New Millennium Writings Poetry Competition and is forthcoming in New Millennium Writings, 2009-10.

Lois Shepherd has a new book out:  If That Ever Happens to Me: Making Life and Death Decisions after Terri Schiavo.  Lois is Professor of Law and Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities.  A great book for end-of-life discussion at churches.

St. Olaf sends word that Steven Schroeder has a new book of poems out with Cherry Grove Collections, entitled Six Stops South.

The Boston Globe writes: "[W]e all set our sights on the Great American Novel...[and Maltman] comes impressively close to laying his hands on the grail...wonderfully nuanced...beautifully expressed."  To learn more about Alex-award winning author Thomas Maltmann--who is married to a Lutheran pastor--visit his website

"In Drift of the Hunt (Nobodaddies Press, Sacramento, CA, 2006) Craig Paulenich reveals a mythic world, the world of the Goat-Man--who is part Ted Hughes, part Seamus Heaney, part Phil Levine and James Wright, part Golem, part Grendel.  Here is exquisite, profound and cautionary poetry born of both romance and earth, of dark magic and of even darker factories and mineshafts.  These poems will haunt you, deliciously, for a very long time."--Gail Wronsky.  Craig Paulenich is an associate professor of English at Kent State University and faculty with the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (NEOMFA).   Information on forthcoming readings is available at www.ysu.edu/neomfa.

For the best in new science ficiton, try David Oppegaard's The Suicide Collectors.  Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, writing "Eloquent prose and haunting characters lift Oppegaard's astonishing debut..." Visit his website for information on more awards, as well as another novel coming out soon. 

 

 

John Graber has written an incredible book of poetry, Thanksgiving Dawn, published by Blue Begonia Press.  A lifetime of work, of struggle, and worth every word. 

 

Paula Carlson is co-contributing editor of four volumes in a series titled Listening for God, by AugsburgFortress. In each volume, Peter Hawkins and Paula focus on 8 authors of various faith journeys.  Paula is a vice president at St. Olaf College.

 

Paul Hedeen's novel The Knowledge Tree is "a tour of Berlin--and of the human heart--that lights both the dark corners and the familiar haunts."  Paul is a professor at Wartburg College.

 

Emily Rapp's memoir, Poster Child, is now available in paperback from Bloomsbury USA. Although she is a Lutheran pastor's kid, readers might be surprised by the various antics described in this coming-of-age tale. She is currently teaching writing and literature at in the Los Angeles area. Visit her website.

 

More from the cutting edge:  Nadia Bolz-Weber has written Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television (Seabury, 2008).  A wild ride, and if that’s enough, try her "sarcastic lutheran" website (who knew--sarcasm? Lutheran?)—and while your surfing, take a look at what she’s doing to bring more imagination to our church, at her church, the house for all.

More unusual:  Frank Honeycutt’s newest book: Marry a Pregnant Virgin: Unusual Bible Stories for New and Curious Christians (Augsburg Books, 2008).  He’s pastor at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Columbia, SC.

Carol Rauch Albright writes about the dialogue between religion and science; author or co-author of five books, you can read about her work at carolalbright.net

Sunday by Sunday is the first in a three book fiction series--a journal by Rose Harris of congregational life in her small town. Written by pastor Christy Fossum, you can find out more, or subdcribe to quarterly updates here.

Amy Viets’ first book, Making Faith Fun was published by ACTA Publications in 2006.  The book provides activities to help families weave their faith into the mesh of their lives, as they drive in the car, shop, do chores, and go about their daily routines. Her second is Let Me Sow Light: Living With a Depressed Spouse, co-written with Bernadette Stankard.  More on this at the website. Amy is the Director of Children’s Ministry at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Overland Park, Kansas.

 

It’s hard for this to sound like good news, but Augsburg Fortress announced that they will focus on its "two most important callings"-- group-use materials for congregations,
such as faith formation and worship materials, and textbooks and monographs for higher education, said Beth A. Lewis, Augsburg Fortress president and chief executive officer.  This means that Augsburg will not accept or sell new titles in its consumer-oriented book line, though it will continue to market stocks on hand; it will close nine bookstores; it will no longer provide bookstore operations at synod assemblies and most large ELCA churchwide events.  Tough times, we’re sure.  But for writers, and readers, this means a narrowing of the ministry—one that will hard to rebuild. 

 

The loss of Augsburg means we won't have more books like these two:  Called by God to Serve--devotions for church leaders--or Christ in Your Marriage--both by author and pastor Paul Walters. 

Founding Director of the Lutheran Writers Book Club, Mark Mustian, has sold his second novel to Putnam, in a very nice deal. Here’s the press from Publisher’s Lunch:  Armenian-American novelist M.T. Mustian's THE GENDARME, pitched as The Madonnas of Leningrad meets The Bastard of Istanbul, about a 92 year old Turkish-American man suffering from dementia, who suddenly starts having vivid dreams about his role in the Armenian genocide of 1915, and of the young Armenian woman he fell in love with and spared -- and how he sets out in secret to find her to beg her forgiveness. Since then, his agent has sold Spanish, French, Brazilian, Greek,  Italian, and Israeli translation rights as well.

 

John Munday and Frances Wohlenhaus-Monday have a series of books that stem from the murder of their daughter, ranging from help for other bereaved parents to a new novel.  Check out their website for more infomation.

 

Robert Schultz's The Madhouse Nudes, one of the Lutheran Writers Book Club's first selected titles, has been reissued in paperback by Simon & Schuster. His new work of nonfiction, We Were Pirates:  Robert Hunt--A Torpedoman's View of the Pacific War, will be issued by the Naval Institute Press in Spring 2009.  He is currently at work on a new collection of poems, some of which are forthcoming in New York Quarterly and Subtropics.  For more information visit www.robertschultz.us.

Barbara Crooker  was featured on the Writer's Almanac!  You can listen to a podcast here.  Her book of poems, Line Dance, was published by Word Press (Cincinnati) in January, 2008. She has many ongoing public readings and educational events; you can find out where she'll be next with this link.

Poet Jill Essbaum, who gave a raucous reading at the Called to Create conference, has been lately seen in obscure European locations, blogging underground rock star Nick Cave.  Wild reading, if you like, at this site. And then there's the new book of poems she has out from No Tell Motel, Harlot.  The editors of this website urge careful reading.

More Like Not Running Away, a novel by Paul Shepherd, Lutheran Writers Project founder, was the subject of a feature interview in Homiletics.

Check out Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal, a spiritual and practical story of discovering a simpler life, by Anne Basye.

Bestselling Christian romance author and speaker Gail Gaymer Martin has a website and blog where you can find upcoming news of her books and appearances.

A number of Lutheran Writers Project authors have poems in the anthology, Simul:  Lutheran Voices in Poetry, edited by Mark Patrick Odland.

Poet and Christian Century poetry editor Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner teaches at Wheaton College.  A list of her publications can be found here.

Poet Patrick Hicks is a dual citizen of Ireland and the US.  He teaches creative writing at Augustana and is the author of Finding the Gossamer. 

Mosquito Conversations, Lauri Anderson's eighth book of fiction, focuses on the colorful lives of the denizens in the Mosquito Inn bar in the fictional Misery Bay that has been the setting for several earlier books by Anderson, who hails from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.  He's published seven books of fiction, and has been compared to Faulkner and O'Connor.  He and his books have appeared on national television in Finland. You can contact him at lauri.anderson@finlandia.edu.  Check out his writing projects and those of others in the Finnish-American community at finnala.com.

Shirley Dyer Wuchter has completed three books, arranging her late husband's sermons according to the seasons of the church year. Sermons of Rev. Dr. Michael D. Wuchter, heard in parish and campus settings, are now in print in collections for fall, winter, and spring.  Growing in Christ, Shining Through the Darkness, Uplifting Christ Through Autumn, www.csspub.com

Wittenberg professor D'Arcy Fallon has a memoir, So Late, So Soon, about living in an isolated religious commune in Northern California.