I’ve been obsessed with Sinead O’Connor since she tore up the pope. I wrote about her memoir, Rememberings, and the recent documentary Nothing Compares for the Century. She’s one of the most famous lapsed Catholics (another obsession of mine) but what intrigues me most is how many elements her life story shares with the hagiographies … More Desperately seeking Sinéad

Toni Morrison said that language “arcs toward the place where meaning may lie,” but life also arcs toward language. This is beautifully explored in the movie Arrival, when a linguist’s apprehension of an alien language shapes her own experience of time. But it is terrifying when language lies, oppresses, steals, and erases—and life distorts in … More On Robert Macfarlane, and how the words we use define us

There’s no woman so disparaged in Catholic and Christian circles—by men and women alike—as the angry feminist, the perceived man hater, the baker of “rage cookies,” as one popular columnist once described feminist writers. The angry woman is easy to mock. She has no real power. Anger makes us an even more prominent target. I … More The Prophetic Anger of Women

I’m back from three days in Grand Rapids, where I reconnected with spiritual writing friends and colleagues from all over the country for the 2018 Festival of Faith and Writing. The weather was pitiful, because Michigan, but the company was as delightful as ever. I don’t know how they do it, but the festival organizers … More Festival of Faith and Writing 2018: I think we need a password

Wherein we struggle to define exactly what it is I do, and David Dault settles on “curator of artistic communities for curious and wandering souls.”  I like that title. Click to listen.