Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Part 2: Poet, Professor, Scholar, Editor

Today I’m concluding my interview with Jill Peláez Baumgaertner. Dr. Baumgaertner is Professor of English and Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies at Wheaton College. She has written several books of poetry: My Father’s Bones (Finishing Line Press, 2006), Finding Cuba (Chimney Hill Press, 2001), Namings (Franciscan University Press, 1999), and Leaving Eden (White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 1995). She has also published a textbook/anthology, Poetry (HBJ, 1990); and Flannery O’Connor: A Proper Scaring (Cornerstone Press, 1998). She has been a Fulbright scholar, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has won many awards. She is past president of the Conference on Christianity and Literature and serves as poetry editor of The Christian Century.

You can read two of Jill’s poems here:
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertnerhow.html
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertneruprooted.html

Her article on poetry here:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/bc/2000/novdec/8.32.html

And a review of her book, Finding Cuba, here:
www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/craigreviewbaumgaertner.html


LeAnne: Your Ph.D is in Renaissance and Seventeenth-Century literature, yet you wrote a book on Flannery O'Connor. Tell me about the book and about why you feel drawn to her life and work.

Jill: Flannery O’Connor has a lot in common with John Donne, the subject of my dissertation. They both understand that the cross is the center of our faith—that one cannot skip over Good Friday on the way to Easter morning (which many Christians try to do). And the cross is ugly and violent and powerful and scary, but it is also death defeated even though God himself on that cross had to experience the silence of God. Flannery O’Connor deals with all of this and she avoids sentimentality and the pretty religious experience. She understands that we would rather not confront God, that it is often more comfortable not to receive revelation, so her characters are often pushed to the brink before they finally see the blazing light that is God.

LM: What projects are you working on right now?

JB: I’m editing a collection of letters from the front in World War II. A young Army/Air Force chaplain writes home to his new bride and tells the story of combat and life in the trenches, the liberation of the camps, life in liberated France and with Patton’s army. They’re remarkable letters—love letters, adventure letters, spiritual direction letters—everything. And they were written by my father-in-law.

Jill Peláez Baumgaertner: Saying the Unsayable

Jill Peláez Baumgaerter is Professor of English at Wheaton College, where she began teaching in 1980; six years ago she was appointed Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies. She holds the B.A. degree from Emory University, the M.A. from Drake University, and the Ph.D. degree in English from Emory. She is the author of several books of poetry: My Father’s Bones (Finishing Line Press, 2006), Finding Cuba (Chimney Hill Press, 2001), Namings (Franciscan University Press, 1999), and Leaving Eden (White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 1995). She has also published a textbook/anthology, Poetry (HBJ, 1990); and Flannery O’Connor: A Proper Scaring (Cornerstone Press, 1998). She has been a Fulbright scholar, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is the winner of the White Eagle Coffee Store Press’s poetry chapbook contest, the Goodman Award, an Illinois Arts Council Award, and the Illinois Prize of the Rock River Poetry Contest. She is past president of the Conference on Christianity and Literature and serves as poetry editor of The Christian Century.

You can read two of Jill’s poems here:
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertnerhow.html
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertneruprooted.html

Her article called "Poetry: Why Bother" here:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/bc/2000/novdec/8.32.html

And a review of her book, Finding Cuba, here:
www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/craigreviewbaumgaertner.html


LeAnne: There’s so much I want to cover with you, Jill. First of all, tell me why you write poetry and then describe your latest chapbook, My Father's Bones.

Jill: I write in order to figure out how to say the unsayable, to put into language that which goes beyond language, to make myself pay attention.

My latest chapbook deals with loss. Its center is the twelve-poem sequence, “Requiem,” which was written in the weeks and months after September 11 which coincided with the death of my godson, a very special young man. In “Requiem” I write meditations on the parts of the funeral mass, so it is highly liturgical, and what I learned in writing it was that the liturgy takes you on a journey and brings you up on the other side of the cross.

LM: As poetry editor of The Christian Century, what advice do you have for aspiring poets?

JB: Avoid cliches and abstractions, be disciplined, pay attention. Upset the ordinary and always connect with something larger than yourself. And don’t send off poems until you have revised them at least ten times.

LM: Why should Christians read good literature?

JB: Good literature is the word made flesh. It enlarges our experience. Since most of us live pretty provincial lives, it introduces the world to us and allows us to live vicariously through the lives of well-drawn characters. We learn how to live and how to love and how to die in good literature. It exercises our imaginations and that is very important for Christians because without imaginations we cannot have faith.

On Thursday more from Jill Peláez Baumgaertner.

Giving Thanks

“The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” Psalm 126:3

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 106:1

“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:8-9

What great things has He done for you? What good things has He filled you with? Maybe these questions will help guide you as you give thanks this week. I have a long, long list of things I’m grateful for, and on that list are the people who read my blog, write supportive emails and comments, and share their knowledge and passion for the arts with me. Thank you all. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Coming soon: a poet, a publisher, and more

Recognition and Discovery

Have you read, heard or seen a work of art lately that articulated something you knew all along or that led you to discover something new about yourself? Here are a few quotes to get us thinking about the roles of recognition and discovery in art.

“When we read the poem, or see the play or picture or hear the music, it is as though a light were turned on inside of us. We say: "Ah! I recognise that! That is something which I obscurely felt to be going on in and about me, but I didn't know what it was and couldn't express it. But now that the artist has made his image--imaged it forth--for me, I can possess and take hold of it and make it my own, and turn it into a source of knowledge and strength." Dorothy Sayers, "Towards a Christian Aesthetic"

“One of our most ordinary reactions to a good piece of literary art is expressed in the formula, ‘This is what I always felt and thought, and but have never been able to put clearly into words, even for myself.’” Aldous Huxley, "Tragedy and the Whole Truth"

“We read primarily to discover ourself--above all, perhaps, to discover what St. Augustine refers to as the dark corners of the heart.” Simon Lesser, Fiction and the Unconscious

“We read books to find out who we are...A person who has never listened to nor read a tale or myth or parable or story, would remain ignorant of his own emotional and spiritual heights and depths, would not know quite fully what it is to be human.” Ursula Le Guin, The Language of the Night

A Poem about True Love

Fifty years ago this month, my parents said their wedding vows in front of family and friends. On Saturday they renewed those vows, again in front of family—only this time their children and grandchildren were in attendance. It was a small and beautiful ceremony. Mom and Dad wrote tributes to each other that touched on a love that had grown and deepened through good and bad times. With tears and laughter intermingled, they told stories we had never heard before. The pastor, who had also been married fifty years, spoke from experience about how young love matures over a lifetime. He read well-known and well-loved passages of scripture and prayed prayers of blessing over my parents and our family.

All of us had a special part to play. One son-in-law sang a solo and played CDs of beautiful classical music selections; the other escorted our mother into the room where our father was waiting. Both men also captured special moments on film and video. The grandchildren shared favorite Bible verses. My sister read 1 Corinthians 13, and I read an excerpt from a poem by James Russell Lowell, simply titled “Love.” I like what this poem says about the humility and longevity of true love. I hope you enjoy it too. Congratulations, Mom and Dad.

LOVE
By James Russell Lowell

True Love is but a humble, low-born thing,
And hath its food served up in earthen ware;
It is a thing to walk with, hand in hand,
Through the everydayness of this workday world,
Baring its tender feet to every flint,
Yet letting not one heart-beat go astray
From Beauty's law of plainness and content;
A simple, fireside thing, whose quiet smile
Can warm earth's poorest hovel to a home;
Which, when our autumn cometh, as it must,
And life in the chill wind shivers bare and leafless,
Shall still be blest with Indian-summer youth
In bleak November, and, with thankful heart,
Smile on its ample stores of garnered fruit,
As full of sunshine to our aged eyes
As when it nursed the blossoms of our spring.
Such is true Love, which steals into the heart
With feet as silent as the lightsome dawn
That kisses smooth the rough brows of the dark,
And hath its will through blissful gentleness,
Not like a rocket, which, with passionate glare,
Whirs suddenly up, then bursts, and leaves the night
Painfully quivering on the dazed eyes;
A love that gives and takes, that seeth faults,
Not with flaw-seeking eyes like needle points,
But loving-kindly ever looks them down
With the o'ercoming faith that still forgives;
A love that shall be new and fresh each hour,
As is the sunset's golden mystery,
Or the sweet coming of the evening-star,
Alike, and yet most unlike, every day,
And seeming ever best and fairest _now_...

Bryan Coley and Barbara Nicolosi: Bringing Hope to Hollywood

Christians and Hollywood--a topic that intrigues me and, I hope, you too. This week I'm focusing on this topic by looking at two people who started organizations that offer screenwriting programs: Bryan Coley, founder and artistic director of Art Within (www.artwithin.org), and Barbara Nicolosi, co-founder and board member of Act One (www.actoneprogram.com). I wrote an article about Bryan and Barbara that appeared in the July/August issue of Today's Christian magazine. Here it is:

Materialism. Drugs. Infidelity. Narcissism. When Christians talk about Hollywood, we usually shake our heads and go on about how terrible it is. Because it seems so blatantly anti-Christian, we've written it off rather than embraced it as the true mission field it is.

At least two people, however, have caught God's vision for making a difference in Hollywood. While many in the church consider Hollywood hopeless, Bryan Coley and Barbara Nicolosi represent a growing number of Tinseltown insiders who offer the hope of Christ.

To read the rest of this article, go to http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2007/004/13.34.html

Doug Allen, Part 2: PlayRight

Today I’m concluding my interview with worship leader, singer/songwriter, musician, and actor Doug Allen.

LeAnne: You also sing and play outside of the church. Have you faced challenges because of your faith?

Doug: I’m in two bands that play primarily at corporate parties and wedding receptions. As far as facing challenges, I try to remember that we as Christians are called to be in the world, not of the world. Sometimes at a secular event, the best witness for Christ can be one who just simply shines their light. I love the quote by St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel wherever you go and when necessary, use words.”

LM: In addition to your music, you also act in community theater productions. Recently, you along with three other partners formed a theater company called PlayRight Productions. What are your goals for this company? Has your faith influenced the type of shows you have chosen to do?

DA: I do love to act. We started PlayRight as a group of Christian actors and musicians who wanted to produce wholesome, family oriented plays in the Atlanta area. We also wanted to start a theatrical company that encouraged Christians to use their gifts to glorify God in churches and in secular venues alike—to be a company where cast members are encouraged to pray and have devotions with one another before every show. We like to choose shows that share the Good News of Christ but we also include other subject matter as well. For 2008 we are performing Smoke on the Mountain, Cotton Patch Gospel and Sanders Family Christmas and possibly Narnia, all of which have a strong Christian message. You can find us at www.playrightproductions.com.