The former editor-in-chief of Harper’s Magazine will visit campus next week as part of the English department’s Visiting Writers Program.

Christopher Beha will read from his forthcoming book, “Why I Am Not an Atheist,” at 8 p.m. on Oct. 16 and lecture on “The Statues in the Temple: Notes on the Novel as a Secular Art,” followed by a reception and book signing at 8 p.m. Oct. 17. Both events will be in the Hoynak Room of the Dow Center.

Beha, who resigned as editor of Harper’s this month, is the author of several books, including his novel “An Index of Self-Destructive Acts,” which was nominated for the 2020 National Book Award.

Associate Professor of English Dutton Kearney said he and other faculty of the English department had been familiar with Beha for years through his novels and work at Harper’s Magazine.

“He’s interviewed a lot of writers, and he’s been on a lot of panels,” Kearney said. “He seems to really be interested in the intersection between faith and culture and literature.”

Harper’s is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. Its first issue came out in 1850.

Kearney said he thinks Beha’s work resonates with the mission of the college. 

“His outlook on the world is compatible with what we do here at the college from a classical liberal perspective,” Kearney said. 

According to Kearney, Beha’s work looks at the interplay between faith and the secular world and the ways in which they point toward each other. 

“His characters are really longing for meaning,” Kearney said. “It’s their quest for that, sometimes it’s religious meaning, sometimes it’s that I want my life to be significant.”

Director of Academic Services Christy Maier said she has read two of Beha’s novels and is currently reading “An Index of Self-Destructive Acts.”

“His novels are my favorite types of books: enjoyable and accessible, but also thought-provoking,” Maier said.

Beha’s work engages the culture and can help students learn to do the same, according to Maier.

“Beha uses fiction to ask the biggest epistemological and philosophical questions of our day,” Maier said. “He is a man of faith, but he avoids easy answers. Beware, his books are not PG-rated. Most students are going to leave the Hillsdale bubble eventually, and Beha provides one example of how faithful people can engage the larger culture meaningfully. Also, he knows how to tell a good story.”