dan wakefield author
P H O T O C R E D I T: I N D I A N A H U M A N I T I E S
A month before Dan’s December 1985 article, Returning to Church, was published in the New York Times Magazine, he went to his first private retreat at Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, Mass. Over the years, Dan, who lived in Boston and is a member of King’s Chapel, returned often to the Benedictine monastery. In October 2021, he spent a week there in prayer and quiet reflection. Prayer was a thread throughout his Creative Renewal experience. In Indianapolis, he and another member of a prayer group at St. Thomas Aquinas Church spent six weeks contemplating passages from the Bible–including verses from Luke, Isaiah, Psalm, and others. A brief excerpt from Dan’s notes: Week 6: God’s call to me Day 3: Jeremiah 29: 11-14 “I know the plans I have for you.” Good! What are they??? During his visit to Boston, Dan caught up with friends and found spiritual refreshment in a surprising way. Theresa Mackin, a member of the L Street Brownies, a 120-year-old swimming club in South Boston, invited him to join the club for a cold-water plunge at M Street Beach. She said that when you get out of that cold water, it’s a feeling that’s like being high. So I felt that, too–this great elation. It’s the last thing I expected, but it was one of the great things of my whole experience. Last November, Dan finished a book, Kurt Vonnegut: The Making of a Writer, that will be published in October by Triangle Square Books for Young Readers/Seven Stories Press. Written for young adults (Dan invited feedback from students at Shortridge High School, his alma mater), the book traces Vonnegut’s life from childhood to when he sold his first short story. Dan introduces readers to Ida Young, a Black woman who served as the cook and housekeeper for the Vonnegut family. Vonnegut had called her a “great influence”; she read stories to him and taught him to read. Young died in 1963. She’s buried in Crown Hill Cemetery without any marker so I hope when the book comes out, maybe something can be done about that, so everyone can see what a contribution she made. 50
ISSUE#11
CR E AT I V E R EN EWA L A RTS F ELLOWSH I P
P H O T O C R E D I T: T H E R E S A M A C K I N
" None of (my Creative Renewal experience) turned out like I had planned, but it turned out in the same ballpark." Dan Wakefield
