Kathleen Norris

Best-selling author and award-winning poet Kathleen Norris explores the spiritual life through her experience as a respected poet; the geography of life in Lemmon, S.D.; the liturgical life of the Benedictines; and the pains of death. Inspired by the move to South Dakota, her first nonfiction book was the award-winning bestseller Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The Cloister Walk was prompted by immersion in the liturgy, ritual and community of St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota. She will speak from her latest book, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, a study of acedia, the ancient word for the spiritual side of sloth. She examines the topic in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality and her own experience.