Creating community at the Catholic Imagination Conference

I recently attended the Catholic Imagination Conference, which was hosted this year at Notre Dame University. The conference is a gathering of writers, artists, musicians, students, and educators who rally around their desire to make art, engage the beauty of the Catholic faith, and explore the sacramental imagination of the Church. This year, about 1,200 people attended.

During the weekend, I cornered the founder, Dana Gioia, and he graciously took time to provide some background to the conference. “I created the first Catholic Imagination literary conference 10 years ago in Los Angeles when I was teaching at the University of Southern California,” he says. “I felt at the point, many American Catholic writers felt isolated…They felt no context in their literary work in regard to their faith. So, we brought them together in L.A.”

Photo by Peter Ringenberg | Courtesy of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture

Catholic creatives have been benefiting from the subsequent conferences ever since. Gioia explains that although the gathering was smaller in its beginning stages, it was nevertheless a great success; “We had about 400 people there. We had a roster of really distinguished writers: the late Kevin Starr, Tobias Wolff, Ron Hansen, Angela O’Donnell, Paul Mariani, and others, and I didn’t really have to do anything because once people saw each other … educated, committed Catholics who were writers and aspiring writers, they were full of joy.”

I can personally attest to the sense of joy. I’ve been a writer for about 15 years now and, over that time, I’ve met a lot of new friends as I’ve published my work in various places, published a book, and edited submissions at Dappled Things Magazine, but I had met very few of those friends in person. All our communication was online. I was unprepared for how delightful it actually was to finally meet in person. Most of the conference was spent talking to old friends in person for the first time. I cannot tell you how encouraging the experience was.

Photo by Peter Ringenberg | Courtesy of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture

“I realized almost immediately we were creating a community,” says Gioia, “…I don’t think I’m being delusional or rosily optimistic to say that the work of the conference is really so far underway that we have now a self-conscious, committed, optimistic Catholic literary movement going on in the United States. They feel the sense of common purpose. They’re seeing these new institutions, presses, and magazines, and they feel confidence about the future.”

Goia’s words are echoed by John-Paul Heil, a fellow editor at Dappled Things, who says he loves the conference because it’s an “amazing example of human beings creating art in the image and likeness of God, art that makes us more human, and it’s an incredible experience to be around such people.” Denise Trull, who writes the Inscapist, puts it in her characteristically effusive way when she says the weekend was, “an overflowing bounty of consolation.”

Photo by Peter Ringenberg | Courtesy of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture

The lectures, of course, were top-notch. I personally loved every second of J.J. Wright’s musical performance, Elizabeth Lev talk about art, and the bounty of Tolkien-inspired lectures. The conference is worth it just for the talks. However, when I reviewed my notes from interviews, the memories of conversations I had, and my own lingering appreciation for the weekend, it’s clear that the Catholic Imagination Conference is all about the people. How wonderful it was to be around talented, passionate, encouraging people. We shared meals together, prayed together, and bonded over our shared appreciation of everyone’s work.

As a confirmed introvert who finds himself becoming more and more reclusive as he ages, I’m glad I finally convinced myself to go. The conference isn’t only for a select few. You don’t have to be a professional writer to attend. It’s for anyone who strives to live the beauty of the faith and express yourself through creativity. Ultimately, it’s the creation of a community. And that, perhaps, is the most beautiful creation of all.

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