Please Note: the Early Arrival Track Sessions begin on Friday morning, November 8, and take place before the main conference begins that evening. The discounted cost for these tracks is included in the early arrival track registration packages. For more details, see our Registration page.

Inklings 101 Track

Interested in knowing more about the Inklings?  Perhaps Lewis and Tolkien have influenced you through their writing and you want to learn more?

Then come to sessions with you in mind: the Inklings 101 Track.

It is great for those who know Lewis’s books and thought but are interested in Tolkien, as well as other Inklings like Charles Williams.  The focal points of the track will be the thought and worldview of the Inklings’s books, as well as the impact their friendship and fellowship had on their writing. We will touch on major biographical events and books as well as the key themes of reason, imagination, and faith that informed their academic lives.

These three track sessions will also include time for Q&A and promise to inform and delight folks with any level of interest in the Inklings.

• Inklings 101 Track Session 1: “Life, Works, and Where to Go From Here”
• Inklings 101 Track 2: “J. R. R. Tolkien: His Life, Works, & Legacy”
• Inklings 101 Track 3: “Inklings and Influences: Key Writers in Lewis’s Life”
• Breakout: “‘The staff work of the Omnipotence:’ Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis”
• Breakout: “Warren Hamilton Lewis: My Favorite Inkling”

Writers Track

Centered on you — the writer — the Writers Workshop Track will build your relationships with other writers and professionals in the writing community while you learn practical tips and techniques to improve your writing and its reception. This will be an experience to stimulate your intellect, enlighten your spirit, and delight and refresh your imagination.

Our vision is to bring together and disciple a community of writers in the spirit of C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, whose works continue to inspire and influence thousands. Our mission is to actively recapture the essence of community Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their fellow writers enjoyed and create it afresh in our current culture.

Come join us for our presentations, workshops, and interactive group sessions for the jump-start, dusting off, or home-stretch encouragement you’ve needed to move forward with your writing. We all know that writing well is, in part, a talent. But moving from God-given gift to a finished — and perhaps published — product requires self-discipline and dogged perseverance, as well the encouragement and feedback of others.

We offer an affirming atmosphere for learning from respected authors, reading and commenting on one another’s work, and discussing specifics for creating a writing life that is more than a rainy-day hobby. Writers of all expertise levels are welcome to come celebrate the creative life — and the privilege of working in community.

• Writers Track Session 1: “The Word, and the words: Christ and the writer’s vocation”
• Writers Track 2: “C.H.A.N.G.E. and Every Writer”
• Writers Track Session 3: “Finding your form – finding your freedom; how form and craft can liberate your writing”
• Sprinklings Writing Feedback Groups
• Breakout: “Marks of a Christian Writer”
• Breakout: “The Baron Journals – A Collaboration of Art and Poetry Rooted in Faith”

Academic Roundtable

The Academic Roundtable at the 2013 C.S. Lewis Fall Conference, November 8-10, 2013, will be a community of interdisciplinary scholarly engagement and discussion within the broader context of the event. Each Roundtable will consist of scholars from various fields who will meet in breakout sessions during the Conference. Each particular Roundtable group will be limited to twelve scholars. Depending upon the number of participants in the Academic Roundtable, more than one group will be formed to meet during the breakout session times.

Each participant will read his or her paper to the Roundtable for discussion and feedback during the sessions. All papers, limited to a 20-minute presentation time, shall be scholarly in nature, with the author’s unique thesis clearly set within the context of existing scholarship on the subject matter. After each presentation there will be a brief time of discussion prompted by the other members of the Roundtable. Each member is expected to participate in each session of the Roundtable group and to fully engage the discussion.

The theme of the Conference points to the friendship between Lewis, Tolkien, and the other Inklings. Papers written for presentation during the Academic Roundtable will explore a wide-ranging set of issues, of influences, and of insights generated by their relationship and diverse output of literature. Academics from every discipline are invited to participate.