This multi-author event offers a trauma-informed space of deep listening as together we explore ways of processing religious/spiritual trauma, abuse, and pain through writing. Through personal memoirs, fiction, and academic research, each of these (im)Pure Michigan authors has found their works to be avenues of processing and naming wrongs. Join us as together we lean into journeys of breaking free from pain and finding healing together.

Each session will consist of the authors sharing sections of their respective books followed by moderated Q&A and an opportunity to take home their works. GVSU students will receive a discounted rate for book purchases. 

Session 1: Breaking Up with Purity Culture will take place in the afternoon on the Allendale Campus and Session 2: Processing Religious Trauma Through Art will take place in downtown Grand Rapids on the GVSU Health Campus. Register here for one or both sessions.. 

The event will feature:

• Cait West - Michigan State graduate in creative writing and publishing, and author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy (2024).

• Dr. Sara Moslener - writer, researcher, and lecturer in Central Michigan University's Department of Philosophy, Anthropology, and Religion, and author of Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence (2015) and the forthcoming After Purity: Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America.

• Dawn Burns - assistant professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures, and author of fiction and creative nonfiction, including Evangelina Everyday (2022).

These conversations are brought to you by the Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., and GVSU's 2025 Sex Ed Week committee.