Introducing Close Reads on the Road!
A summer event
Dear friends,
One of the highlights of our year is always the Close Reads retreat, where we gather with twenty of you for a week of great books and good food and delightful conversation. It’s inspiring and encouraging and beautiful and we hope everyone gets to come to one someday. But we know that a week is a long time and the cost for such an event isn’t feasible for everyone. So we’ve been talking. And planning. And we’re excited to announce our first weekend Close Reads event: Close Reads on the Road, if you will.
As that image (the handiwork of Graeme Pitman) makes clear, Heidi, and Tim, and Sean, and I will all be there and we’ll be leading conversations on some truly wonderful southern short stores. We’ll be discussing authors like Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Caroline Gordon, Carson McCullers, Doris Betts, Wendell Berry, and William Faulkner. And we’ll be discussing the relationship between one’s place and one’s faith, and the role of Southern Literature in American culture at large (and thus the role of faith in American culture at large, too).
Of course, we’re most excited about spending time you in the same space where Tim goes to church each week! (This event is limited seats, so don’t wait to claim one if you want to come.)
Click here to claim a spot and to find more details.
We’re also going to be gathering on that Friday evening at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company for a performance of the very fun “Complete Works of William Shakespeare.” This is included in the registration for the event and includes dinner! Imagine getting to watch Shakespeare with Tim . . .
And then on Saturday afternoon, the event will conclude with a live recording of an episode of the show.
We hope that this event captures the spirit of the Close Reads community at-large—the generosity, the excitement, the creativity, the intelligence—we see in the comments section and the Facebook page and at the annual retreat. We hope to host a contemplative but invigorating event that matches what we shoot for in each episode.
See you there. Can’t wait.
I'm missing the retreat this year so this will be a consolation. We have family in the area so I can do this! Sounds amazing.
I am so glad you are doing this! I can't go, but just wanted to let you know this is a great idea. I have some great friends in the Atlanta area, and if you do this again maybe I can go sometime in the future. Hope everyone has a great time!