Writing Beyond Boundaries

There are lines surrounding each of us -- lines that demark life and death, hope and despair, spiritual and material, old ways of thinking and new ways of thinking. The writers in this year's Symposium make us consider what lies beyond those borders. And if we can think differently about them, maybe we can live differently, too.

The 2009 Writer's Symposium by the Sea was held February 2-6, 2009, at the San Diego campus and featured special guest Christopher Buckley , a political satirist whose work has appeared in The Atlantic , the New Yorker , and elsewhere. He is the author of several novels, including Thank You For Smoking , which became a major Hollywood film. 

Other guest speakers included Dr. Pauline Chen , author of Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality ; Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway and The Hummingbird's Daughter ; movie producer of Bridge to Terabithia fame, David Paterson; lyricists Richie Furay and PLNU alum Greg Laswell, science writer Karl Giberson, and Christian activist, Brian McLaren.

If you would like to be included on the mailing list, please send your mailing address via email to Edie Chapman, event coordinator, at echapman@pointloma.edu .

To view interviews from past symposiums, go to www.ucsd.tv/writers for a complete listing.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Literature, Journalism and Modern Languages and the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies, Cultural Events, The Society of Professional Journalists, and The City Club of San Diego .

2009 Speaker Biographies

Christopher Buckley is a political satirist whose work has appeared in The Atlantic , the New Yorker , and elsewhere. He is the author of several novels,including Thank You For Smoking , which became a major Hollywood film. Other recent satirical novels include Florence of Arabia and Supreme Courtship . He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Forbes Life magazine, served as a speech writer for President George H. W. Bush and was recently fired from his column in The National Review , a magazine founded by his father William F. Buckley, for his support of now President-Elect Obama.

Pauline W. Chen , a liver transplant and liver cancer surgeon, is the author of Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality, a New York Times bestseller that is being translated and sold in a dozen countries across the world.
When Pauline Chen b`gan medical school, she dreamed of saving lives. What she could not predict was how much death would be a part of her work. Almost immediately, she found herself wrestling with medicine’s most profound paradox–that a profession premised on caring for the ill also systematically depersonalizes dying. Final Exam follows Chen over the course of her education and practice as she struggles to reconcile the lessons of her training with her innate sense of empathy and humanity. It is a superb addition to the best medical literature of our time.

Dr. Chen graduated from Harvard University and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her surgical training at Yale University, the National Cancer Institute (National Institutes of Health), and UCLA, where she was most recently a faculty member in the Department of Surgery. In 1999, she was named the UCLA Outstanding Physician of the Year.

Dr. Chen, whose work has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, has written for a number of publicans, including The Virginia Quarterly Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Prevention Magazine. She also speaks regularly to medical and general audiences across the country, including more recently the Association of American Medical Colleges and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Luis Alberto Urrea , born in Tijuana, Mexico, to a Mexican father and American mother, is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. His 2004 non-fiction work, The Devil’s Highway , which told the story of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in addition to being named the best book of the year by The Los Angeles Times . Urrea’s most recent book, The Hummingbird’s Daughter , is the culmination of 20 years of writing and research of the life of Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as The Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc. Urrea’s other titles include By the Lake of Sleeping Children, In Search of Snow, Ghost Sickness and Wandering Time.


David Paterson - Most screenwriters will tell you they feel a personal connection to the scripts they write, but David Paterson has a whole other layer of attachment. His most recent effort, the 2007 movie Bridge To Terabithia , is based on the Newberry Medal-winning novel written by his mother, Katherine. With a background in acting and playwriting, and with only one other feature screenplay under his belt, Paterson embarked on the difficult task of adapting the book in a way that would satisfy both his mother and its legions of fans. It took screenwriter David Paterson a long time -- 14 years from the time he first bought the film rights to his mother's book -- to see Bridge to Terabithia brought to life on the big screen.



Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists.
A frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, McLaren has appeared on many broadcasts including Larry King Live, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and Nightline. His work has also been covered in Time (where he was listed as one of American's 25 most influential evangelicals), Christianity Today, Christian Century , the Washington Post, and many other print media. One of his most recent books, Everything Must Change , showed his ability to see the world through unconventional eyes. His earlier book, A New Kind of Christian set him apart as a new kind of thinker. He has written or co-written more than a dozen books.
His public speaking covers a broad range of topics including postmodern thought and culture, global mission, pastoral survival and burnout, inter-religious dialogue, ecology, and social justice.



Rock ‘n Roll legend Richie Furay is a pioneer of folk-rock and country rock music. He was the founder of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, bands whose style influenced the likes of the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and who continue to influence both rock and country music today. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Furay is coauthor of For What It’s Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield in addition to Pickin' Up the Pieces .

Greg Laswell , a PLNU alum, is an alternative singer/songwriter from San Diego, California. Laswell was the lead singer of the Escondido, CA based alternative rock band Shillglen. In 2001, they released their first and only album Sometimes I Feel. After Shillglen's breakup, Laswell released his first solo album in 2003, the critically acclaimed Good Movie . In 2004, Laswell won the San Diego music Award for Best Local Recording and was later nominated for 2005's Best Alternative Artist. Laswell's follow up album Through Toledo was released on July 11, 2006 through Vanguard Records. Spring 2008 Laswell was touring across Europe on the final leg of the Hotel Cafe 2008 Tour with fellow Hotel Cafe artists; Cary Brothers, Brian Wright, Catherine Feeny, Tom McRae, and Jim Bianco. July 8, 2008 he released Three Flights From Alto Nido . His music is often played on the television show Grey's Anatomy.


Karl Giberson, science writer and author of Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution, will meet with science, religion and journalism students in the afternoon to discuss science writing. Intelligent design, creationism, and evolution have always been hot topics for debate in America. Creationism and intelligent design are usually seen as the province of religious people, while evolution belongs to scientists. Giberson hopes to illuminate the tension that divide these two communities and to contribute to improved communications.

Karl Giberson is a well-known scholar of science-and-religion. He was the founding editor of Science & Theology News and editor-in-chief of Science & Spirit magazine for four years. He has published over a hundred articles, reviews, and essays, both technical and popular, and written four books: Worlds Apart: The Unholy War Between Science and Religion , Species of Origins: America's Search for a Creation Story (with Don Yerxa), Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists Versus God and Religion (with Mariano Artigas), and Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (forthcoming, 2008). Giberson, who has a Ph.D. in physics from Rice University , is a professor at Eastern Nazarene College , where he teaches interdisciplinary honors seminars and the history of science.