Darkness – Bonnie Thurston
ISBN: 9781788641883
£7.99
To interrogate darkness at this moment in history is not only timely, but vital and Bonnie Thurston does it with an honesty and precision that holds our attention. From the darkness of a melancholy disposition to darkness that shelters us safely, from sleepless nights and their moons to trusting in the return of the light on the darkest day and longest night, these pieces are poised, precise, full of sensory details, insightful and shot through with hope. There is fear and grief here, but it will not have the last word.
Like Henry Vaughan nearly four centuries ago, Bonnie Thurston interrogates and celebrates the gifts of night-time: the expansion of vision beyond tight borders, the animated silence of wood and landscape, the changing moon (‘sliced’, in one of her most vivid images, as if by a mother sharing a pie between two children). This is a deep and steady poetic voice, arising out of a deep and steady familiarity with darkness – both in loss and in discovery.
Rowan Williams
Author Biography
Bonnie Thurston, a native of southern West Virginia, lives quietly near Wheeling, WV having resigned the William F. Orr Professorship in New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 2002. She earned the B.A. in English (First Honors) from Bethany College, and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia. She has done post-doctoral work in New Testament at Harvard Divinity School; Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany; and the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem.
Bonnie has written or edited eighteen theological books and many articles, and taught at the university level for 30 years. She was ordained in 1984 and has served as co-pastor, pastor, or interim of five churches and twice in overseas ministries. She is an experienced spiritual director and retreat leader. Her poetry frequently appears in periodicals, and she has authored three volumes of verse. Bonnie is a widow, an avid reader, gardener and cook, enjoys classical music (especially opera and liturgical music) and loves the West Virginia hills.
Bonnie’s collections, A Place to Pay Attention, and Not Sonnets, observations from an ordinary life, are also published by Cinnamon Press together with her prize-winning pamphlet, Forgotten Futures