What would it be like to get writing advice from a master such as C.S. Lewis, learning from his experiences? While San Diego residents and Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) students will not get the chance to speak one-on-one with Lewis, who died in 1963, Eugene Peterson is just as good, according to Dean Nelson, director of the university’s Writer’s Symposium by the Sea.
“I would put Eugene Peterson in the same camp of quality of thinking and writing as C.S. Lewis,” Nelson said. “He hasn’t done the kind of fiction work that Lewis did, but you read Peterson’s stuff and that is deep and challenging and remarkable quality.”
PLNU will host the 12th annual Writer’s Symposium Wednesday, Feb. 21 through Friday, Feb. 23, featuring guest speakers Anne Lamott, Eugene Peterson and Wesleyan scholars John Tyson, Tom Albin and Patrick Eby, as well as a special performance by New York Metropolitan Opera bass-baritone Brad Garvin.
This year’s symposium is co-sponsored by three organizations on the PLNU campus: the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies; the Department of Literature, Journalism and Modern Languages; and the Center for Pastoral Leadership.
“We’ve kind of combined three different groups at the university this time for this event,” Nelson said.
He explained that the journalism program typically hosts the symposium, but combining with other organizations helped to expand it.
“It’s going to reach into audiences beyond what we typically reach into,” Nelson said.
Typically, the symposium consists of book writers and appeals to the writing community of San Diego and PLNU. That tradition continues this year with Lamott as a guest speaker.
“Anne Lamott has been here before and she really connected with our audience in a remarkable way,” Nelson said, adding that she may be the first person that the university has asked back.
Lamott, a California author, has written several works of fiction and nonfiction. Most of her work is autobiographical, with self-deprecating humor and no-holds-barred emotions. Her works include “Bird by Bird,” “Traveling Mercies,” and the upcoming March 2007 release “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith.”
An intimate gathering with Lamott on Feb. 21 sold out in January, but she will also speak that morning at 9:45 a.m. in Brown Chapel at the First Church of Nazarene on campus. The event is open to the public, and will also serve as part of a scheduled Ash Wednesday service.
In the past, the symposium has received guests such as Amy Tan, Ray Bradbury, Bill Moyers and Joseph Wambaugh.
The Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies is including “Dinner and Discussion of Charles Wesley’s contribution to our Spiritual Life” on Thursday, Feb. 22, featuring Wesleyan Scholars Tyson, Albin and Eby.
Charles Wesley is “one of the significant lyrics writers or hymn-writers of our history,” Nelson said. Some of Wesley’s best-known hymns include “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
According to Nelson, working with the Wesleyan Center “helped us kind of broaden the perspective of the symposium from just writers talking about writing to include some experts who are kind of breaking down “¦ [Wesley’s] lyrics and talking about the text of it and why what he had to say was significant and why it’s still significant today.”
The Wesleyan Center continues its contribution with “A Concert of Wesley’s Hymns with Brad Garvin” shortly after the dinner and discussion, but with a separate admission fee.
The Center for Pastoral Leadership is a group on campus that makes connections and builds relationships with local churches as well as churches beyond San Diego, Nelson explained.
Peterson, author of “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” and a translation of the Bible called “The Message Bible,” will participate with “An Afternoon with Eugene Peterson.”
“He’s going to have a real draw among those pastors in the area,” Nelson said of Peterson.
Nelson explained that when looking for guest speakers, symposium organizers seek writers who could be a model for PLNU students.
“We want somebody who is a writer whose work has stood some kind of test of time or has generated a really sizeable audience for reasons of quality,” he said.
He also said that while PLNU is a Christian university, it does not look specifically for Christian writers.
“Whether they’re Christian or not is not of consequence to me, personally. It’s whether their writing is something our students could model and be inspired by,” Nelson said. “So in other words, we don’t give someone a God test to see if they would qualify to be a part of our writer’s symposium; we give them a quality test.”
The symposium began in 1995 with Wambaugh, a local mystery and police thriller author. In fact, it was Wambaugh who inadvertently created the format for the symposium.
“He didn’t want to give an address or give a speech or anything,” said Nelson, adding that Wambaugh agreed to an informal question-and-answer session. “It sort of takes the pressure off the writer to come up with something grand and just lets us kind of pick their brain about what they do.”
The symposium is also videotaped and aired on UCSD-TV every year. For channel information, visit www.ucsd.tv/about-where.shtml.
“Dinner and Discussion of Charles Wesley” is Thursday, Feb. 22, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Cunningham A/B with admission of $10.
“A Concert of Wesley Hymns” is Thursday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. at Crill Performance Hall with admission of $15.
“An Afternoon with Eugene Peterson” is Friday, Feb. 23, at 2 p.m. at Crill Performance Hall with admission of $15.
Attendees must register for events no later than Friday, Feb. 16, at www.pointloma.edu/writers.
For more information, visit the above PLNU Web site or call (619) 849-2297.