Saturday October 29: 3:10 pm - 4:30 pm

3:10 P.M. Spiritual Life Writing: The New Kid on the Block?

with Clarence Cachagee, Hollay Ghadery, Natalie Wigg-Stevenson, and Susan Scott. 


BSIA Room #143

$12.00

The word “spiritual” is freighted in literary circles. Why is that? Why is it that writers trying to plumb experiences with faith, spirituality, religion, or communities of practice find so little support for their work?

Join Clarence Cachagee, Hollay Ghadery, and Natalie Wigg-Stevenson for a lively session for skeptics and seekers to explore wise, whimsical, and worldly takes on an ancient genre–oral and written, personal and communal, private and shared. Moderated by Susan Scott.

  • CLARENCE CACHAGEE is an Indigenous Community Educator, helper, visionary, and author known for investing his whole self into his community. Originally from Chapleau Cree First Nation, and now calling Cambridge home, he is the visionary behind Crow Shield Lodge—a place for reconciliation, land-based teaching, and healing. North Wind Man is his memoir.

  • HOLLAY GHADERY is a multi-genre writer living in rural Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and her work has been published in various literary journals and magazines. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions’ MiroLand imprint in Spring 2021. Her debut collection of poetry, Rebellion Box, is due out with Radiant Press in spring 2023 and in 2024, her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, is set to be published by Gordon Hill. You can find her on Instagram @hollayghadery and Twitter @Hollay2.

  • NATALIE WIGG-STEVENSON is a scholar and creative nonfiction writer. The author of Transgressive Devotion: Theology as Performance Art lives with her family in Toronto (treaty 13 lands), where she teaches Contextual Education and Theology at Emmanuel College (Victoria University). Her memoir-in-progress explores Camino pilgrimage, fertility, and childbirth.

    Photo credit: Michael Barker

  • SUSAN SCOTT is a writer and TNQ contributing editor working at the creative intersection of story, spirit, self, and culture. Her latest book, Body & Soul, celebrates unorthodox approaches to the sacred.