The Fine Delight is now available for Kindle and other e-readers/devices!
Visit the Amazon link above to preview the first 15-20 pages of the book, and to purchase your own copy!
Friday, May 3, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
THE FINE DELIGHT at The Millions
The Millions has published a "preview" of The Fine Delight.
"Counter and Strange: Contemporary Catholic Literature"
Here's their pull quote from the article:
"Counter and Strange: Contemporary Catholic Literature"
Here's their pull quote from the article:
"How to account for any possible perceived dearth of
contemporary Catholic literature and art? I have learned the problem is
one of definition. In the same way that paradox is endemic to Catholic
doctrine, Catholic imaginative literature remains a conundrum to many
critics, both Catholic and secular."
Have a read, and join the conversation!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Book Now Available (and Special Offer)
Thrilled to announce that The Fine Delight is now available for purchase!
And, in collaboration with Wipf and Stock, the book can be ordered at a 40% discount off the cover price until Friday April 19!
Follow this link to order!
And, in collaboration with Wipf and Stock, the book can be ordered at a 40% discount off the cover price until Friday April 19!
Follow this link to order!
Friday, April 5, 2013
Coming soon...The Fine Delight in print!
Thrilled to announce that Cascade Books is in the final stages of cover and content production of the print version of The Fine Delight! The book will be available very soon.
When I started this website on Christmas Day, 2010, I led-off with this brief post:
The Fine Delight exists to document, not proselytize; to observe and not judge. Representations of any and all aspects of Catholicism (Roman, Anglo, and more) in imaginative literature (novels, short fiction, poetry, non-fiction) will be complimented by interviews and reviews, all intended to enhance the existing information on the topic.
Our name comes from the first line of Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins's final sonnet, "To R. B.":
"The fine delight that fathers thought."
Since then, the work related to this website and the book have been a pure delight: an investigation into a thriving and complicated literary world.
I consider the forthcoming publication of the print version of The Fine Delight as a beginning: the world of Catholic literature is organic, constantly changing and moving, and I am lucky and thankful to be in that literary world.
When I started this website on Christmas Day, 2010, I led-off with this brief post:
The Fine Delight exists to document, not proselytize; to observe and not judge. Representations of any and all aspects of Catholicism (Roman, Anglo, and more) in imaginative literature (novels, short fiction, poetry, non-fiction) will be complimented by interviews and reviews, all intended to enhance the existing information on the topic.
Our name comes from the first line of Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins's final sonnet, "To R. B.":
"The fine delight that fathers thought."
Since then, the work related to this website and the book have been a pure delight: an investigation into a thriving and complicated literary world.
I consider the forthcoming publication of the print version of The Fine Delight as a beginning: the world of Catholic literature is organic, constantly changing and moving, and I am lucky and thankful to be in that literary world.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Lenten Links
Lent: the best time to meditate, reflect, reconsider, heal, and proof the print version of The Fine Delight!
Coming your way later this year...
*
While proofing The Fine Delight, I've also been reading Why Priests? by Garry Wills.
Intellectually, I like to think of Lent as a time to be pushed against, and to push back. Wills is the perfect person for this. I don't agree with many of his conclusions, but I appreciate his inquiries.
*
But, in a grander sense, Pope Benedict's resignation has left Catholicism at levels, and in all spheres, in a more pointed and heightened level of self-reflection.
Lent is the time for this, and I'm sure the Pope Emeritus knows that fact as well as anyone.
*
A fascinating meditation on the complicated Catholicism of Roger Ebert, from the storied critic himself.
*
And, happy to report that the debut non-fiction collection of Fine Delight interview contributor Joe Bonomo will be released in the upcoming months.
This Must Be Where My Obsession With Infinity Began will be published by Orphan Press.
Coming your way later this year...
*
While proofing The Fine Delight, I've also been reading Why Priests? by Garry Wills.
Intellectually, I like to think of Lent as a time to be pushed against, and to push back. Wills is the perfect person for this. I don't agree with many of his conclusions, but I appreciate his inquiries.
*
But, in a grander sense, Pope Benedict's resignation has left Catholicism at levels, and in all spheres, in a more pointed and heightened level of self-reflection.
Lent is the time for this, and I'm sure the Pope Emeritus knows that fact as well as anyone.
*
A fascinating meditation on the complicated Catholicism of Roger Ebert, from the storied critic himself.
*
And, happy to report that the debut non-fiction collection of Fine Delight interview contributor Joe Bonomo will be released in the upcoming months.
This Must Be Where My Obsession With Infinity Began will be published by Orphan Press.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
"Lent" by Paul Lisicky in Four Way Review
Excellent new fiction from Paul Lisicky, "Lent," in Four Way Review.
Check the interview roll along the side of the page for The Fine Delight's conversation with Paul.
From the story:
"The church was dark, completely dark. It gave Father Jed a thrill to think of one of those perpetual latecomers stalled at the vestibule. The dark made things scary. The dark made the first reading, the story of Abraham and Issac, scary. The dark made the second reading, the story of the Red Sea parting, even scarier. What kind of God would exact such a price on humans? Father Jed knew that doubt was acceptable. Doubt was of a piece with faith. You could not have faith without doubt. Faith was active, dynamic, but doubts on the night of the Easter Vigil? It was unseemly, as unseemly as the young men from Our Lady of the Martyrs, who hefted the cross of Good Friday on their shoulders across the Safeway parking lot, knowing full well they were in a Jewish neighborhood. Father Jed couldn’t see any of the faces of the people. Their candles were snuffed out. The Chilean wine palms shadowed the windows from outside, purpled, ghosty. Then the lights went on. Sister Ray was incensing the chancel and transepts, with the bowl she held high, her troop of six dancers behind her. They were leaping, reaching, turning, flashing through the smoke. Their gestures said, Our God is a good God. Our God is a friend to the stranger."
Check the interview roll along the side of the page for The Fine Delight's conversation with Paul.
From the story:
"The church was dark, completely dark. It gave Father Jed a thrill to think of one of those perpetual latecomers stalled at the vestibule. The dark made things scary. The dark made the first reading, the story of Abraham and Issac, scary. The dark made the second reading, the story of the Red Sea parting, even scarier. What kind of God would exact such a price on humans? Father Jed knew that doubt was acceptable. Doubt was of a piece with faith. You could not have faith without doubt. Faith was active, dynamic, but doubts on the night of the Easter Vigil? It was unseemly, as unseemly as the young men from Our Lady of the Martyrs, who hefted the cross of Good Friday on their shoulders across the Safeway parking lot, knowing full well they were in a Jewish neighborhood. Father Jed couldn’t see any of the faces of the people. Their candles were snuffed out. The Chilean wine palms shadowed the windows from outside, purpled, ghosty. Then the lights went on. Sister Ray was incensing the chancel and transepts, with the bowl she held high, her troop of six dancers behind her. They were leaping, reaching, turning, flashing through the smoke. Their gestures said, Our God is a good God. Our God is a friend to the stranger."
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Jim Shepard on Flannery O'Connor
Fantastic recollection by Jim Shepard on Flannery O'Connor's peculiar and powerful conception of the epiphany in fiction (a concept, and word, oversimplified in part by misreadings of James Joyce's early fiction).
"We have to value the moments when a person is everything we'd hope this person would be, or became briefly something even better than she normally is. We need to give those moments the credit they're due. The glimpse of this capacity is part of what allows you to write characters who are so deeply flawed. Given that so much great literature is about staggering transgression, knowing that that capability of striving for something better is crucial for keeping you reading."
Now that's a Catholic conception of literature most can applaud.
Also a treat to see photographs of Shepard's annotations of selected pages in the story.
"We have to value the moments when a person is everything we'd hope this person would be, or became briefly something even better than she normally is. We need to give those moments the credit they're due. The glimpse of this capacity is part of what allows you to write characters who are so deeply flawed. Given that so much great literature is about staggering transgression, knowing that that capability of striving for something better is crucial for keeping you reading."
Now that's a Catholic conception of literature most can applaud.
Also a treat to see photographs of Shepard's annotations of selected pages in the story.
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