Speakers for the 2010 Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends
Joseph Pearce
The internationally acclaimed author of 14 books, which include bestsellers such as G.K. Chesterton: Wisdom and Innocence (Ignatius, 1997), Literary Converts (Ignatius, 2000), Tolkien: Man and Myth (Ignatius, 2001), Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile (Baker Books, 2001), and Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc (Ignatius, 2002), Joseph Pearce is a world-recognized biographer of modern Christian literary figures. Pearce's books have been published and translated into over eight languages. Click here for a list of Joseph Pearce's books.
Pearce converted to the Catholic faith in 1989 as a result of "becoming friends" with several 20th-century literary figures he researched who had been Christians, and ultimately converts to Catholicism - particularly G.K. Chesterton. As a younger man, Pearce was "extremely anti-Catholic" and even had opposed Pope John Paul II's visits to England. His earlier viewpoint gradually shifted as he learned more about the writings and beliefs of the literary converts he would eventually profile.
As Writer in Residence and professor of literature at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida since September 2001, Pearce also serves as Editor of the Saint Austin Review, a trans-Atlantic monthly cultural review. A native of Great Britain, Pearce relocated to the United States in 2001 to serve at Ave Maria University. He is also contributing writer to a number of newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada.
An accomplished tutor, teacher and speaker, Pearce has participated and lectured at a wide variety of international and literary events at major colleges and universities in the U.S., Britain, Europe and Canada. He is also a regular guest on national and international television and radio programs, and has served as consultant for film documentaries on J.R.R. Tolkien and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Robert Trexler
Robert has been the editor of the bi-monthly CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society since 2000 (The New York C. S. Lewis Society celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009 and has the distinction of being the oldest C. S. Lewis Society in the world). Robert has contributed reviews and articles to such publications as Touchstone Magazine, The National Catholic Register, Seven, North Wind: The Journal of George MacDonald Studies, and Wingfold. His presention for the George MacDonald Centenary conference (2005) at Baylor University on Lilith was published in the book George MacDonald: Heritage and Heirs (Zossima Press). Robert also compiled and distributes Ever Yours, George MacDonald, a CD ROM containing MacDonald's complete and unabridged works.
By day, Robert is a copywriter for a religious organization. By night (and weekends) he is busy as the managing partner of Zossima Press, an independent publisher featuring books that explore the intersections of faith and literature. Their titles include Why I Believe in Narnia (Como), C. S. Lewis and Philosophy (Barkman), C. S. Lewis: Views From Wake Forest (Travers), The White Page Poems (Aberlin), In the Near Loss of Everything: George MacDonald's Son in America (June 2009, Slusser)The Deathly Hallows Lectures (Granger), Repotting Harry Potter (Thomas), Harry Potter & Imagination (Prinzi). Although current titles focus on the writings of C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald and J. K. Rowling, new books discussing the authors G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien and Madeline L'Engle are planned for the near future.
An enthusiastic student and collector of MacDonald books, Robert has collected over 20 different editions (by 15 different illustrators) of Macdonald's most frequently published book, At The Back of the North Wind. Beginning with the illustrations by the Pre-Raphaelite artist, Arthur Hughes in 1868 and ending with Lauren A. Mills, in 1988, Robert's PowerPoint presentation gives a glimpse of the changing trends in children's book illustration over a period of nearly 130 years. The little-known but important connections between Pre-Raphaelite ideas and MacDonald's writing are also introduced in Robert's talk entitled "The Illustrations of At The Back of the North Wind: From Pre-Raphaelite to the Present."
Some attractive and unusual copies of At The Back of the North Wind from Robert's collection will be displayed at The Center for the Study for C. S. Lewis and Friends. The display will include MacDonald autographs, a book from MacDonald's personal library with his distinctive William Blake bookplate, Greville MacDonald's personal copy of the 1924 centennial edition of Lilith (with Greville's bookplate), and nine original color plates from Jessie Wilcox Smith's edition of At The Back of the North Wind(1919).
Devin Brown
Devin Brown is a Lilly Scholar and Professor of English at Asbury College where, in addition to other literature classes, he teaches a course on C. S. Lewis. He is also the recipient of the Frances White Ewbank Award, Asbury's highest teaching honor. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina and a Master's degree in creative writing from the University of Florida. He has done further study at Oxford University, University College Dublin, and Laval University in Quebec.
Brown has published 4 books- Not Exactly Norman, a novel written for young people, Inside Narnia: A Guide to Exploring The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, released in 2005, Inside Prince Caspian, released in 2008, and Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which will be released shortly before the movie in 2010.
He has also published numerous articles on C.S. Lewis, and presented papers at many venues including Oxford, London, the University of Wroclaw in Poland, the University of Kentucky, Belmont University, and the University of Surrey in England. He is also currently a contributor and a member of the Advisory Board for The C. S. Lewis Bible to be released by HarperOne in November, 2010.
In summer of 2008, Devin served as the Scholar-in-Residence for Summer Seminar at The Kilns, C. S. Lewis's home just outside of Oxford, England. Here he slept in Lewis's bedroom each night, and taught a class which met in Lewis's library. Most recently, Brown was a plenary speaker for the 12th Annual C.S. Lewis and the Inklings Conference held at Calvin College, March 26-28, 2009.
Peter Schakel
Peter Schakel is another of our keynote speakers. He received his B.A. from Central College in Iowa and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught at Hope College since 1969 and for the past twenty-five years has been the Peter C. and Emajean Cook Professor of English. He has written or edited seven books on C.S. Lewis, including Imagination and the Arts in C.S. Lewis (University of Missouri Press, 2002), The Way into Narnia: A Reader's Guide (Eerdmans, 2005), and Is Your Lord Large Enough? (InterVarsity Press, 2008).
