BNG’s first webinar of the new year has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 3 p.m. Central time, as Executive Director Mark Wingfield converses with Carey Newman, senior editor at Fortress Press and author of a new book on the art of writing.
Mango Tree: The Artistry and Alchemy of Writing explores the inside trade of how good books are written and published and what aspiring writers should know about writing more clearly and convincingly.
Carey Newman
Academically trained as a New Testament professor, Newman found his way into book publishing three decades ago after he refused to accede to the demands of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention seminaries.
He became acquisitions editor for the Presbyterian publishing house Westminster John Knox Press in Louisville, Ky., where he oversaw the prestigious Old Testament Library, New Testament Library, and the Interpretation commentary series, among other notable books. He followed that with a long tenure as director of Baylor University Press in Waco, Texas, where he turned a sleepy academic press into a top-tier publisher attracting nationally known authors.
Now, still living in Waco, he works with Fortress Press, the Lutheran publishing house based in Minneapolis.
Among the notable writers who has endorsed Mango Tree is theologian Walter Brueggemann, who wrote that Newman “offers us his mature, energizing exposition of the making of a book.”
“A remarkable feature of this book is that Newman’s own style of writing is itself generative of the kind of writing about which he writes,” Brueggemann said. “Such writing constitutes an artistry that requires learning a craft, being aware of the utilization of genre and the development of plot.”
Not only do Wingfield and Newman both work daily in the world of words, they are longtime friends who share an easy repartee. The webinar will invite listeners into their ongoing dialogue about words that matter and what BNG calls “change-making conversations.”
The webinar is free but advance registration is required. Sign up here.