Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson will address this year's graduates and receive an honorary degree at Commencement on May 27. Members of the Holy Cross Community are anticipating her visit to campus, and have commented on her work and writing.
"Marilynne Robinson's novels compel me as a reader in a way different from any other contemporary fiction. Their pace — glacial, and sense of proportion — vast, make them seem almost the residue of an ancient time, like starlight that has only now reached earth. Yet they radiate a humanity that is current, close, and achingly precise. While reading Robinson, I often have the sensation of grasping more of the world than usual, its illimitable nature and its fine-grain both, and also of feeling more tender toward it." — Leah Hager Cohen, visiting professor of English, William H.P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters
"Marilynne Robinson's work reclaims the interior life that much of our contemporary culture seeks to erode. Hers is a testament of faith in the dignity of the human person. Even at the level of style her prose invites us to encounter graces we have learned to forget in the noise of daily living. Her words do more than represent a viewpoint or a story: they enact human experiences of memory, of loss, and of forgiveness with a fidelity that, in our intellectually and spiritually impoverished moment, amounts to prophecy." — Jonathan Mulrooney, associate professor of English
“For a number of years, a poet friend told me that I absolutely had to read Marilynne Robinson’s book, ‘Housekeeping.’ I kept this book on my mental list, but it wasn’t until her novel ‘Gilead’ took the literary world by storm in 2004 that I followed my friend’s advice. ‘Gilead’ left me breathless. Robinson’s writing was spare and to the point, but with whole worlds of meaning packed into simple sentences, settings, and events. I often feared that if I told friends too much about the book, they might often conclude inappropriately that it’s not for them. It is deeply theological and filled with ideas and conversations about belief and what is most important, something that is extraordinarily difficult to pull off in a novel. For all the focus on ideas and theology, it is one of the most deeply human books I know. More than a few times, when reading ‘Gilead,’ I felt almost as if my whole pattern of breath was different, as if I were breathing yet holding my breath in suspense. Few books will ever have the power for me that ‘Gilead’ has.” — Thomas Landy, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture
"In addition to being an extraordinary writer, Marilynne Robinson has been a teacher of writing for many years at the University of Iowa. Here's something she said about what she wants to impart to her students: ‘I want them to know that they have their own testimony to offer, that if they are good observers, if they are thoughtful people, if they have the courage to evaluate things independently they will give the world something new, something worth having.’ I suspect that her Commencement address will be truly memorable for the Holy Cross Community." — Ellen Ryder, director of Public Affairs
Related Information:
Weeks Before Robinson Delivers Commencement Address, Holy Cross Community Reflects on Her Writing
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