Lead Presenter/Facilitator: Rodney Clapp, Editor, Cascade Books
Date/Time: Monday, June 2, 2025 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: Drawing on nearly fifty years’ work editing newspapers, magazines, and books, Rodney Clapp offers tips and guidance for the span of the writing process—from nurturing an idea, to effective writing, to publication. This workshop will focus on book writing and publication. It will be of special interest both to scholars and those writing for a more general or popular readership. Clapp will begin with a discussion of arriving at and cultivating a book idea. He will then discuss what makes for successful (and enjoyable) writing. Finally, he will zero in on crafting appealing proposals and presentations to book publishers. Throughout, he will provide glimpses behind the “Wizard of Oz’s” curtain, with what happens in the sometimes mystifying process of writing and publishing books. Clapp will encourage questions and suggestions from participants, who are free to bring their own ideas and experiences into the discussion.
Rodney Clapp is an editor at Cascade Books, focusing on the subjects of theology, theological ethics, and popular culture. He has been an editor at Oklahoma newspapers, Christianity Today, InterVarsity Press, Evangelicals for Social Action, and Brazos Press (which he cofounded). For five years, he wrote the American Soundings column for The Christian Century. He is the author of ten books, most recently Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom. Other, award-winning, titles include A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society and Tortured Wonders: Christian Spirituality for People, Not Angels. He has lectured at dozens of universities throughout North America, including the University of Virginia, Duke Divinity School, Baylor University, and Middlebury College. He now lives in Sweet Home, Oregon, with his spouse, Sandy, and a beloved chocolate labradoodle, Ury. Connect with Rodney here.
Registration Fee: $45.00