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Karen E.B. Elliott

Home Featured Authors & Panelists Featured Participant Lineup 2026 Karen E.B. Elliott

Dr. Karen E.B. Elliott has served preparatory school and college students for 30 years. Through literature, she and her students navigate their relevancy and faith in a technocratic world. Elliott holds an EdD from Northeastern University, an MA from New York University, and a BA from Ithaca College. As a lifelong learner, Elliott has done intensive study at Oxford University focusing on Shakespeare, Medieval Literature, and Victorian Realism. She loves her students and her work.

 

Schedule

9:30 am to 10:15 am
State Library, Fifth Floor, Capitol View Room
Demons of Our Own Making: Southern Gothic Hauntings and Family Secrets
David Armand, Walk the Night: A Novel
Emily Carpenter, ASpell for Saints and Sinners: A Novel
with moderator Karen E.B. Elliott

1:30 pm to 2:15 pm
State Library, Third Floor
Finding Your Faith in Literature: Why Some of the Greatest Stories are Relevant, Personal, and Transformative
Karen E.B. Elliott with moderator Emily Carpenter

2:30 pm to 3:15 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Finding Your Faith in Literature: Why Some of the Greatest Stories are Relevant, Personal, and Transformative

In an era where organized religion gets a bad, but too-often deserved reputation, Elliott explores secular literature as a means for soul-searching. As a seasoned professor, she shares why these particular books mattered to herself and her students over the years, and how each text offers a contemplative, scholarly, humorous, and philosophical path toward the true nature of God and the relevance of faith. Her doctoral research delves into the value of pedagogical practices which leave much-needed room for critical thinking and self-reflection, and her book—scholarly but personally—addresses how students and her readers, who are laden with social media and a western educational system which has long outlived its purpose, have found literature to be relevant and transformational. As a tenured literature professor, her book addresses the need for particular stories which have helped generations of readers navigate their relevancy as human beings and their faith in a post-industrial, and self-interested world.