It’s April! National Poetry Month! So now I can debut my list of Living Lutheran Poets & Hymnists for my expanding living Lutheran author page. Please let me know additional names or places to purchase (a few of these seem to have books out of print). Here they are: Living Lutheran Poets & Hymnists!
- Baue, Fred
- Bird, Chad
- Briehl, Susan
- Carver, Matthew
- Cherwein, Susan Palo
- Clark, Lisa
- Culli, Ben
- Ehlke, Roland Cap (publishes non-poetry through Northwestern)
- Fish, Robin D Jr
- Geisler, Carol
- Gotsch, Gwen
- Hill, Kathryn
- Howard, Roger
- Jones, Andrew
- Karsten, Wilfred
- Klages, Kelly
- Kornacki, Alan Jr.
- Lindschinger, Hildegard
- Pavlechko, Thomas
- Prange, Peter
- Preus, Mark
- Raabe, Nancy
- Reinhardt, Kurt, My Light and My Salvation
- Reske, Peter, a Senior Music Editor at CPH
- Schultz, Michael
- Starke, Stephen
- Tiefel, James
- Weber, Rachael
- Wismar, Gregory
I’m sure there are more. It’s just so hard to publish poetry! And, if you do, how do people learn about it except by word of mouth?
Then there are hymns, tucked into choir selections or Lenten series. It can take years before a new hymnist is sung by the masses! Most people are unaware of the heritage that continues to course through our church as more and more write and compose. (And, going through a hymnal and reading names for a project like this has its limits—not everyone is google-able! (Yet.) So it’s been kind of tricky for me to find Lutheran poets & hymnists I know, for a fact, are still living.)
And, for a list of my sort, should poets, hymnists, and songwriters all be together? I have no idea! What do you think? Are there criteria for text that objectively differentiate between hymns, songs, and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19)? Unless I’m convinced otherwise, I may leave them separate, sorting names simply by whatever the submitter calls them: songwriter, hymn writer, etc.
I can admit neither poetry or song is the common language it once was. Even so, I aspire to this list and maybe you can join it, too! Otherwise, don’t worry. I’ll be happy to categorize you under something else. 🙂
I’m very thankful we can support our writers (and even more writing) in this way.
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