Saturday May 3, 2025
10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
Sanctuary at St. Paul's United Methodist Church
10401 Armory Ave., Kensington MD 20895
Questions? Contact Pastor Joey: joeyhm@stpaulsk.org
Come enjoy a community conversation with book author Jeff Chu, in conversation with Kaitlin Curtice, about Jeff's new book Good Soil published by Convergent, an imprint of Penguin Random House. This series of humorous and thoughtful reflections cover the practical and spiritual lessons he learned (and unlearned) while being part of a working farm during his seminary training. For nature lovers, foodies, and anyone who has sought more fulfillment, this book shows how love flourishes when all do their part to cultivate acceptance and nurture friendship.
This is a FREE event but RSVPs are requested.
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RSVP for Good Soil
There will be a book signing following the talk.
Copies of Good Soil will be available for purchase at the talk through a partnership with Politics & Prose. Purchasing the book is not required for this author event.
More about Good Soil:
In his late thirties, Jeff Chu leaves his job as a magazine writer and enrolls at Princeton Theological Seminary. There he takes a class at the “Farminary,” a twenty-one-acre working farm where students learn to cultivate the earth while examining life’s biggest questions. In this book, Chu unpacks what he learns about creating “good soil”—both literally and figuratively—drawing lessons from the rhythms of growth, decay, and regeneration that define life on the land, as well as through the chickens, goats, and zinnias that seasonally share that space.
In a series of reflections, Chu introduces us to the cast of characters, human and not, who become his teachers. While observing the egrets that visit the pond, the worms that turn waste into fertile soil, and the Chinese long beans that get passed over in the farm’s CSA, Chu also considers our desire to belong, our relationship with food, and the significance of his own roots. What is the earth trying to tell us, if we’ll only stop and listen?
In gorgeous, transporting prose, Good Soil helps readers connect to the land and to one another at a time when we all seem more drawn to the distractions of modern technology.
What other people are saying about Good Soil:
“Part memoir, part meditation, Good Soil is an extraordinary work of grace and courage that announces Jeff Chu as a major figure in an emerging field of modern and rigorous Christian thinkers. And he’s funny: Baby chickens with eyeliner! Progressive fundamentalists! Passive-aggressive bok choy! If Wendell Berry and David Sedaris had a love child, they could only hope he might be as fine a thinker and as funny a writer as Jeff Chu.” —Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Amity and Prosperity and Circle of Hope.
About Jeff Chu:
Jeff Chu is an award-winning journalist and editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure. He is the author of Does Jesus Really Love Me? and the co-author, with the late Rachel Held Evans, of the New York Times bestseller Wholehearted Faith. A former staff writer at Time and editor at Fast Company, he has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Modern Farmer. In his weekly newsletter, “Notes of a Make-Believe Farmer,” Jeff writes about spirituality, gardening, food, travel, and culture. He lives with his husband, Tristan, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
About Kaitlin Curtice:
Kaitlin Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives. She also speaks on these topics to diverse audiences who are interested in truth-telling and healing. As an inter-spiritual advocate, Kaitlin participates in conversations on topics such as colonialism in faith communities, and she has spoken at many conferences on the importance of inter-faith relationships. Kaitlin leads workshops and retreats, as well as lectures and keynote presentations, ranging from panels at the Aspen Climate Conference to speaking at the Chautauqua Institution and at universities, private retreat centers, and churches across the country. She is also the author of Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God, a book selection read by the Better Humans Book Club at St. Paul's in 2021.
