By Susanna Childress and Caroline Triscik

Susanna Childress: Beginning Again

“It strikes me as a really important life-giving act to listen.”

— Susanna Childress

Listen in on our conversation with poet and professor Susanna Childress about our season of grief, the process of healing, and the hope that comes as we begin again.

After an incredibly long year of life in a global pandemic and acute awareness of racial injustice, I sat down with poet and professor Susanna Childress to consider how we begin again. Revisiting our previous podcast episode, we continue our conversation about grief and suffering, particularly noting the loss of Susanna’s two children in utero and her process of healing. We ponder together the intersection of creative work, efforts toward justice and faith, as well as how the Church has so often missed the mark and even contributed to greater pain. As we contemplate together the power of words, both in healing and truth telling, Susanna generously shares a portion of an essay she recently wrote where she wrestles with how to discuss death and injustice with her young children. I continue to be grateful for Susanna’s voice in this world and pray that our conversation offers hope to begin again.

— Caroline Triscik

 

You can listen on iTunesSpotify, or at All Shall Be Well: Conversations with Women in the Academy and Beyond. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.
 

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Photo by Candace McDaniel from StockSnap
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About the Author

Susanna Childress writes short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She authored poetry volumes Jagged with Love and Entering the House of Awe and a forthcoming collection of essays, Extremely Yours. She earned her Master's degree at University of Texas at Austin, her PhD at Florida State, and held a Lilly Fellows Postdoc at Valparaiso University. Currently she teaches at Hope College and lives with her family in Holland, Michigan.

Caroline served with InterVarsity since 2002 as a campus staff member in northwest Indiana and most recently in central Pennsylvania. She received her bachelor’s degree in English with a focus on creative writing from Purdue University in 2002 and holds a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling from Messiah College. Caroline, her husband, and their three children live in “the sweetest place on earth,” otherwise known as Hershey, Pennsylvania. In her spare time, she likes to read, discover new music, and attempt to train her exuberant Labrador retriever, Pax. Caroline is a clinical mental health counselor and a former associate with Women in the Academy and Professions.

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