Friday Links
St. Thomas Aquinas from an altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli
March 7, 2025
Ayako Sono, Novelist Who Infused Works with Christian Ethics, Dies at 93
Michael Lucchese on T. S. Eliot and the Need for Lent
Auden’s Island: The poet in the postwar era by Alan Jacobs
David Perell and Dana Gioia in conversation
Heidie Sensema: Smash the Small Cosmos
Lindsay Schlegel on Eight Publishers You Might Want to Follow
Ayako Sono, Novelist Who Infused Works with Christian Ethics, Dies at 93
Sono is the Catholic author of several works, including Miracles, a wild, delightful pilgrimage story. If you haven’t read it, now is a good time to grab a copy and read it. May her memory be eternal.
Michael Lucchese on T. S. Eliot and the Need for Lent
In the following years, Eliot came to understand that the crisis of modernity he sought to articulate was not only cultural and civilizational, but also deeply spiritual. In 1925 – exactly one hundred years ago – he published a poem titled “The Hollow Men” expressing this dimension of the all-encompassing crisis. Although not yet a believer when it was written, “The Hollow Men” reveals the deep longings of Eliot and his generation that only Christianity could satisfy.
Auden’s Island: The poet in the postwar era by Alan Jacobs
Thanks to the power of backshadowing, we who know about Auden’s departure from England, his return to Christianity, his localism and cosmopolitanism, may well feel that, equipped with that knowledge, we can look at his early career and see all the ways it pointed to his later one. But if we deprive ourselves of that knowledge and look at the first decade of Auden’s career with unprejudiced eyes, what do we see? Jenkins believes that we see a poet whose entire conception of his calling is bound up with his Englishness, with the history and destiny of his native island.
David Perell and Dana Gioia in conversation
This conversation is long and detailed and fantastic. If you have a long drive coming up, this is the perfect podcast for everyone in the car.
Heidie Sensema: Smash the Small Cosmos
Where are the Brian Doyles of today? I wrote in my notebook last month. And by that, I meant: Where are the literary Christian writers who aren’t overly cynical or overly sentimental? Where are the artful narratives born out of Christian belief?
I wrote this question while sitting in the lobby of a conference center that was hosting thousands of faith-interested writers for a weekend-long arts festival. I’d just returned from the conference’s exhibit hall—a room of booths staffed by editors and publishers and literary magazine representatives—where I’d gone looking for the heights of the Christian literary scene. I wanted to see what I might find there, if there might be a place for me in it.
Lindsay Schlegel on Eight Publishers You Might Want to Follow
. . . I’ve pulled together a list of eight publishers I recommend learning about and ordering from to transform your shelves and your reading life (which means your whole life, and the lives of those around you, really). Join their email lists, request their catalogs, follow them on social media.
