Member Spotlight: Larry Donell Covin Jr

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing, when done well, is an invitation into places and spaces with diverse people and contexts, of which one might otherwise not have such privilege, outside the reach of a book. Writing, is able to emancipate both writer and reader, to engage with each other on their own predetermined conditions. It is intimate!

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? The discipline of writing through repetition is as significant as inspiration. Often, in my writing, the discipline of writing is antecedent to inspiration.

What is your favorite time to write? I prefer to write early in the morning, when the day is fresh and pristine, when the burdens of the day have not yet awoken.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? My best advice is to be an insatiable reader. Reading for content, as well as appreciation for the aesthetic of a well written line(s), will enhance the breadth and depth of a writer.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Being a scholar, and writer in the digital age, makes your teaching and presence both ubiquitous and omnipresent. One is teaching and inspiring through writing, someplace in the world, even as one sleeps. It is a wonderful time to be alive and literate.

Larry Donell Covin Jr.’s A Theology of Justice is out now with Wipf and Stock Publishers.