On Friday, July 24th we were honored to host award-winning and much-beloved novelist and essayist, Marilynne Robinson. This wide-ranging conversation covered the art of writing as a means of exploring truth and engaging the questions around learning to live well, to love others, and to create a home and community in an often fractious world. Robinson, known for her keen observations on humanity and religion, has plumbed the depths of the human spirit in her novels, including the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lila, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead. We hope you enjoy this conversation on “Story, Culture, and the Common Good.”

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from July 24th, 2020.

Marilynne Robinson’s Novels | Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, Lila

Article in Breaking Ground from our event

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Marcel Proust
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Paul Harding
Walt Witman
William Faulkner
John Calvin
Jonathan Edwards
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
Piers Plowman, by William Langland

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

• Sacred and Profane Love | A Trinity Forum Reading by John Donne
   
• Bulletins from Immortality | A Trinity Forum Reading by Emily Dickinson
   
• Confessions | A Trinity Forum Reading by Saint Augustine
   
• Brave New World | A Trinity Forum Reading by Aldous Huxley

Marilynne Robinson is a novelist, essayist, and teacher, one of the most renowned and revered of living writers. Her novels Housekeeping, Gilead, Lila, and Home have been variously honored with the Pulitzer Prize, National Books Critics Circle Award (twice), a Hemingway Foundation Award, an Orange Prize, The Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and the Ambassador Book Award. She’s also the author of many essays and non-fiction works, including her work, “Mother Country,” and her essay collections, “Death of Adam,” “Absence of Mind,” “When I was a Child I Read Books,” “The Givenness of Things,” and “What Are We Doing Here?”. She’s the recipient of the National Humanities Medal and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to her writing, Marilynne has spent over 20 years teaching at the Iowa Writers Workshop, as well as at several universities.

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music!