Webinar: Employing Historical Saints and Mystics in Your Creative Work with Shannon Evans

Join Shannon K. Evans, author of “The Mystics Would Like a Word,” for a webinar on employing saints and mystics in your creative work.

As Catholic creatives, we likely all have saints and mystics who influence our art. But what if we seek to center these historical figures in the work itself — whether fiction or nonfiction writing, iconography, music, graphic design or any other medium? Making art about saints can be hard to do well, introducing troubling historicity and a temptation to fall back on reductive cliches. But if handled with curiosity and imagination, even the most familiar saint can become magnetic again, speaking to a new generation through your unique work of art.

Topics covered:

• How do we cut through stereotypes and cliches to reach the deep inner life of the character?
• Is it possible to examine the lives and writings of the mystics and saints without the filter of our own agenda?
• How do we preserve historical context while drawing out parts most resonant for us today?
• How do we distinguish myth from fact — and how can we use myth rather than discard it?
• What do we do with problematic content?

If the registration fee poses a challenge for you, please email Mike at medialab@jesuits.org.

About the Presenter
Shannon K. Evans is the author of “The Mystics Would Like a Word: Six Women Who Met God and Found a Spirituality for Today” and serves as the spirituality and culture editor for the National Catholic Reporter. She and her family make their home in central Iowa.