This funding will support Christian Wiman to curate “Equipment for Living: An Anthology of Poems,” an approximately 350-page anthology of poetry, short selections of prose, with commentary by Wiman throughout. The project is based on the premise that poetry may be a form of spiritual technology, a tool that, if designed well, can help people to develop a sensibility to deeper realities and to connect with it in their lives. The commentary and reflections will guide the reader through the experience of words on a number of key themes, including (among other things) love, vocation, calling, hope, joy, devotion, and the transcendent.

Wiman is a poet, a former Guggenheim Fellow, and professor at Yale Divinity School. Quoting the 20th century poet and literary critic Kenneth Burke, Wiman sees poetry as "equipment for living”, and adds that it is also “for praising and repenting and coming to terms with one’s suffering. And one’s death.” This project is driven by two working assumptions: first, many contemporary people have lost the language to speak of the ultimate concerns of their lives; and second, poetry can be a strong means of recovering and clarifying the main questions of a life well-lived, as well as provoking people to act on these discoveries.   

Topically, the anthology will be in the vein of the “Life Worth Living” undergraduate course taught at Yale University. Stylistically and structurally, it will be similar to another anthology edited by Wiman titled “Joy: 100 Poems.” The anthology will be designed to realize Wiman's vision of poetry as "a new (old) form of genuine spiritual experience, but also a book that could help people of all faiths, or no faiths, live a meaningful life."