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  Reading Merton in the Rain, a plenary lecture by Scott Russell Sanders at the 15th General Meeting of the ITMS, held at St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY, June 16, 2017.

  Scott Russell Sanders is the author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including Hunting for Hope and A Conservationist Manifesto. His most recent books are Earth Works: Selected Essays (2012) and Divine Animal: A Novel(2014). A collection of his eco-science fiction stories entitled Dancing in Dreamtime and a new edition of his documentary narrative, Stone Country, co-authored with photographer Jeffrey Wolin, were published in 2017. Among his honors are the Lannan Literary Award, the John Burroughs Essay Award, the Mark Twain Award, the Cecil Woods Award for Nonfiction, the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Indiana University. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington, in the hardwood hill country of Indiana’s White River Valley.
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  Harpo and the Clown of God: The Seven-Storied Friendship of Thomas Merton and Robert Lax, a plenary lecture by Michael N. McGregor at the 15th General Meeting of the ITMS, held at St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY, June 16, 2017.

  NB: The live presentation included a slideshow that is not included because of copyright limitations. Michael N. McGregor is the author of Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax (Fordham University Press, 2015). His writings on Lax and Merton have appeared in a variety of publications, including Poetry, Poets & Writers Magazine, Notre Dame Magazine, The Merton Annual, and The Merton Journal. In 2017, he retired as a Professor of Creative Writing and English at Portland State University.