Reflections on A Spiritual Journey with Brother Paul Quenon and Jon Sweeney in conversation with Fenton Johnson
Presented by The Kentucky Book Festival and Kentucky Humanities, this program is part of the main festival on November 2.
Book signing in Spirituality section within Joseph Beth.
Abbey of Gethsemani’s Brother Paul Quenon to discuss book at Kentucky Book Festival on Nov. 2
The 2024 Kentucky Book Festival announces a rare opportunity to hear Brother Paul Quenon discuss his most recent book, A Matter of the Heart: A Monk’s Journal, 1970 – 2022. Quenon will be in conversation with his editor, Jon Sweeney, and award-winning Kentucky author Fenton Johnson at 11:15 a.m. Nov. 2 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington Green as part of the festival, which runs all day.
As a monk at Kentucky’s Abbey of Gethsemani, Brother Paul entered with Thomas Merton as his novice master before studying theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. A Matter
of the Heart mingles meditations, insights and wanderings with Quenon’s experiences in nature and community. He offers sketches of monastic life—saintly, comical and poetic moments in a multi-colored, diverse and surprising memoir of life inside the enclosure. In addition to his memoirs, Quenon has published 10 books of poetry. His longtime publisher, Jon M. Sweeney, is an award-winning author of 40 books on spirituality, mysticism and religion. A recent inductee to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, Fenton Johnson is the author of three novels and four works of literary nonfiction, most recently At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice.
All three authors will be available to sign books after the presentation.
Brother Paul Quenon
A Matter of the Heart: A Monk’s Journal, 1970 – 2022
One of Thomas Merton’s former novices, Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO, entered the Abbey of Gethsemani at 17, studied theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and taught and lived at a monastery in Nigeria. After five decades of life at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky and ten published books of poetry, his A Matter of the Heart mingles reflections, meditations, insights, and wanderings with outward experiences in nature, community, and sketches of monks-saintly, comical, or strange-poetic moments, for a multi-colored, diverse, and surprising display of what it is like to live “an enclosed life.
Jon M. Sweeney
My Life in Seventeen Books: A Literary Memoir
Former bookseller and longtime publisher Jon M. Sweeney is an award-winning author of forty books on spirituality, mysticism, and religion. With history and anecdotes centering around books such as Thoreau’s Journal, Tagore’s Gitanjali, Martin Buber’s Hasidic Tales, and Tolstoy’s Twenty-three Tales, he demonstrates how and why there is magic and enchantment that takes place between people and books.
Fenton Johnson
Scissors, Paper, Rock
A contributor to National Public Radio, Harper’s Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine, Fenton Johnson has received numerous literary awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lambda Literary Awards in both fiction and creative nonfiction. and his induction into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. Scissors, Paper, Rock delves into the complexities of human relationships, identity, and the search for self-discovery. Kentucky Humanities selected the novel for its 2024 Kentucky Reads to serve as a focal point for community-wide book discussions that promote a shared literary experience and celebrate the diverse voices and stories that shape Kentucky’s rich cultural landscape.