Oakland University to offer Faith in Detroit Summer Writing Workshop June 11-14

The Oakland University Center for Public Humanities, in partnership with Christ Church Cranbrook’s Lilly Endowment-funded Faith in Detroit initiative, is offering its inaugural Faith in Detroit Summer Writing Workshop to provide support, instruction, inspiration and community for aspiring and established writers.

Hosted June 11-14 on the Christ Church campus in Bloomfield Hills, the four-day workshop will feature generative sessions, panel discussions, a craft talk and a keynote address by award-winning author and Yale-educated scholar Emily Bernard.

Currently a professor at the University of Vermont and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, Bernard’s acclaimed essays and books, including the Los Angeles Times Isherwood Prize winner “Black is the Body,” explore the complexities of American identity. Her work is frequently featured in prestigious publications like The New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine.

During the workshop, Bernard and other professional writers will share advice and strategies for crafting, polishing and publishing personal stories of faith. All workshop sessions are free and open to the public. Participants are welcome to join for a single session, a single day or the full workshop.

For more information, or to register for the workshop, visit oakland.edu/cas/humanities/faith-in-detroit and click on the Faith in Detroit Summer Writing Workshop section.

Oakland University and its Center for Public Humanities (CPH) joined with Christ Church Cranbrook, and several other community partners, on a $5 million grant to bring to life “Faith in Detroit: Building Resilience and Hope Through the Christian Practice of Storytelling,” a Lilly Endowment National Storytelling Initiative grant.

“We were thrilled when Fr. Bill Danaher invited us to join his collaboration because the storytelling initiative aligns perfectly with our Center for Public Humanities mission to provide high-quality humanities programming to the local community,” said Kathleen Pfeiffer, professor of English and Creative Writing and associate director of the Center for Pubic Humanities. “With so much faculty expertise in the humanities at OU, we work to create events that bring all this talent and knowledge to our neighbors, connecting with their lived experience to demonstrate how the humanities invite reflection, engagement and dialogue. We're especially pleased that the nature of our collaboration invites a variety of groups into the Faith in Detroit community – there's space for OU students, faculty and staff alongside Metro Detroit's many neighbors.”

Faith in Detroit is a collaborative storytelling ecosystem led by Rev. Dr. William Danaher, who is the executive director of this initiative and the rector of Christ Church Cranbrook. The project empowers Metro Detroiters to tell compelling faith stories about their personal journeys, their communities and the contexts in which they have experienced deeper meaning, connection and transformation.