Lynn Szabo is Professor Emerita at Trinity Western University, B.C., Canada. She taught in the English department and served as the Department Chair and English Stream Coordinator for the Master in Interdisciplinary Studies and Humanities, Faculty of Graduate Studies. Her areas of scholarly expertise include American Literature and Creative Writing.
She is a distinguished scholar of the poet, mystic and political activist Thomas Merton, an emerging, significant figure in twentieth-century American literary studies. She is the editor of the first comprehensive selection of Merton's poetry, In the Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton.
As an Americanist, her other recent work includes a focus on the nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson and the modern novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Additional areas of scholarship include Poetics, Genre studies, Literature & Spirituality and Christian mysticism.
Lynn has an interest in convergences in spiritual and intellectual thought. She is well-travelled and has spent considerable time in the United States and in Europe. In particular, she has devoted many years of scholarship to the study of Thomas Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani, outside of Louisville, Kentucky and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. Her strong interest in and dedication to the work of Merton-- Catholic monk, writer and activist-- has taken her to his childhood homes in the south of France and the town of Prades. Lynn enjoys explorations of the geographic, intellectual and spiritual and can often be found reading, researching or discussing. She has a deep enjoyment of music and in particular, relishes the piano music of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Debussy and Paganini. Lynn has played the piano throughout her life. Outside of her research and passion for teaching, mentoring and spiritual direction, Lynn enjoys attending lectures and concerts, tea with family and friends and taking in the beauty of Vancouver.
“The more words I have, the more distinct, precise my perception becomes—and such lucidity is a form of joy.”
“If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”
“Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being. Between the silence of the world and the silence of God. When we have really met and known the world in silence, words do not separate us from the world, nor from other men, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality. ”
Academics and Publications
Lynn Szabo is Professor Emerita of the English Department of Trinity Western University: a liberal arts university in B.C., Canada. She taught English and Creative Writing to both undergraduate and graduate students. Lynn served as both Chair of the Department and English Stream Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies and Humanities. She mentored directed studies students, graduate students and teaching assistants, including supervising graduate theses and guiding students through the Ph.D. application process and their studies. She has also served as Chair of the Editorial Board of [spaces], the university’s literary journal.
PUBLICATIONS:
Lynn’s publications include books, scholarly articles and poetry. In The Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton was published in 2005. Other select publications include the following:
In the Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton. Lynn R. Szabo, ed. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2005.
"Hiding the Ace of Freedoms: Thomas Merton's Cables to the Ace." The Merton Annual 15 (Winter 2002): 203-221.
"Thomas Merton: A Man for our Times." Canadian Theological Review 20 (Fall 2001): 2-15.
"The Sound of Sheer Silence: A Study in the Poetics of Thomas Merton." The Merton Annual 13 (2000): 204-13.
"The Mystical Ecology of Merton's Poetics" in Thomas Merton: Monk on the Edge. Ross Labrie and Angus Stuart, eds. Vancouver, BC: The Thomas Merton Society of Canada, 2012.
Szabo, Lynn R. “Thomas Merton’s Divinations for a Twenty-first Century
Christian Reader. “In Christian Thought in the Twenty-first Century. Douglas Shantz, ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade Press, 2012.
Nelson, H., Szabo, L.R. and J. Zimmermann, eds. Through a Glass Darkly: Suffering, the Sacred and the Sublime in Literature and Theory. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2010.
Lynn has written numerous articles, personal essays, memoirs and book reviews in the genres of non-fiction and creative writing.
Education: B.A. (Hons) (University of Saskatchewan); M.A. English (University of British Columbia)
ACADEMIC HONOURS AND AWARDS:
Rooted and Reaching Faculty Award (2013) (TWU)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1998-2008)
Priscilla and Stanford Reid Trust: Award in support of Conference on Christianity and Literature (2007) (TWU)
Dean's Innovative Teaching Award (2005) (TWU)
Canada Council for the Arts Grant (2004)
Shannon Fellowship, International Thomas Merton Society (1997)
Please contact Lynn directly for further information regarding additional awards, grants, scholarships, published material and book reviews/interviews.
ACADEMIC MEMBERSHIPS:
Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English
Member (former Vice-President), International Thomas Merton Society
Member, Editorial Board The Merton Annual
Chair, Editorial Board [spaces]. Literary Journal (TWU)
Member, Canadian Association of Chairs of English (2005-2009)
Member, Christianity and Literature Study Group