It’s Considerate To Be Literate about Religion

Description

It’s Considerate To Be Literate about Religion: Poetry and Prose about Religion, Conflict, and Peace in Our World

Written by Steven Cunningham

Illustrations by Susan Detwiler

ABOUT THE BOOK

It’s Considerate To Be Literate about Religion is a book of poems and prose. The  book shares the motif of using the names of things (nomenclature) to introduce topics that otherwise may be unfamiliar, such as the difference between the religious and the secular, or between a devotional approach to practicing a religion and an academic approach to studying religion, or among all the various ways one can be religiously literate and religiously illiterate.

The lyrical nature of the poems and the very engaging pencil illustrations by Susan Detwiler give each topic the traction needed to get readers right into the poems and on through the expansive “Learn More!” sections that follow each poem.

In addition, a lively preface explains the joy of creating words, such as “poemenclature”; a helpful introduction welcomes readers to the concept of religious literacy; a fulsome glossary defines terms used in the book; and a section of suggested further reading offers a wide variety of sources for those who want to learn more.

Author Dr. Steven Clark Cunningham was born in Denver, Colorado. After graduating from Creighton University with majors in chemistry and Spanish, he attended medical school at George Washington University. Having completed his residency in general surgery at the University of Maryland and a fellowship in surgery of the liver and pancreas at Johns Hopkins University, he currently works as Director of Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary Surgery and Director of Research at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He is currently completing his master’s degree in religion at Harvard University.

He has served as a contributing editor of Maryland Poetry Review, and his poems have appeared in that journal. In addition, his work won the literary-arts contest sponsored by the magazine The New Physician. His poems have also appeared in Chimeras, WordHouse Baltimore’s Literary Calendar, and in the anthologies Function at the Junction #2, Pasta Poetics, and Poems for Chromosomes.

Illustrator Susan Detwiler has illustrated several award-winning books for children, including After a While Crocodile, her sixth title for Arbordale Publishing, and Dr. Cunningham’s last book, Your Body Sick and Well: How Do You Know? She is the author/illustrator of Fine Life For A Country Mouse, a picture book published by Penguin Random House in 2014. Her illustrations have appeared in the children’s magazines, Highlights for Children and Ladybug and her artwork has been used for puzzles, games, and greeting cards. Susan was educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art and she and her artist husband live in Baltimore. She is a volunteer member of the MD/DE/WV chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators.