One of the many hats I get to wear in my professional life (and, I might add, perhaps the most stylish of them) is as co-director of the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. Established in 2016, the CCFW builds on many years of love and hard work by lots of folks in the Calvin English department who founded and developed the Center’s signature event, the biennial Festival of Faith and Writing, back in 1990. Over its history, the FFW has welcomed around 15,000 readers and hundreds of renowned writers to campus.

If you’re not familiar with the Festival, here’s a new video that tries to capture a little of FFW’s magic:

Over the last almost decade, the CCFW has been fortunate to be able to expand our offerings–more lectures and workshops, a film, a podcast, to name just a few of our initiatives–but it’s true that the Festival remains at the heart of what we do.

So, as a longtime RJ writer, I’m going to assert my old-timer prerogative to use my space today (as I’ve done before here) to share our speaker list for the 2026 Festival of Faith & Writing (16-18 April 2026).

In case you’re wondering: the selection process is quite rigorous—we had hundreds and hundreds of nominations in this cycle. The FFW committee reads and researches and reads and researches, listens to podcasts and watches YouTube videos, considers reviews and explores interviews, weighs the budget and much more, as we work to build a compelling and diverse list. This year, our goal was to be done in time for your summer reading as well as for your book club selections in the coming year. I’m quite delighted at the range of topics and genres we’ve captured here. We also prioritized voices mostly new to the Festival—it’s astonishing how much good work is going on at the intersection of literature and belief, both broadly defined.

But equally important, at the CCFW, we want to invite readers to participate with us in cultivating and celebrating conversation. We see dire consequences to the denigration and even disappearance of talking together; instead, we hope to stem that tide by being unapologetically committed to engaging each other well. As we assert in our speaker policy:

We believe that we all have much to learn from other people’s stories, both those that align with our own experiences and those that do not. Any voice speaking in love deserves a hearing. We believe charitable disagreement is a hallmark of truth-seeking and that respectful critique can be a form of generosity. Our primary criteria for inviting speakers is not whether we agree with them but rather that their work is compelling, the product of careful thought, goodwill, and moral courage.

It’s a privilege to help steward this great gift of a gathering for a short while. I hope you’ll consider joining us next year to make our conversation even richer.

In the meantime, happy reading!

Cover photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash