Best-selling author, podcaster and professor Dr. Kate Bowler is the featured speaker for the annual Abilene Christian University Brown Library fundraising dinner. Table sponsorships and individual tickets are available for “Incurable Optimism: Friends of ACU Library Dinner With Kate Bowler” March 3 at the Hunter Welcome Center.  

Bowler studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering and whether or not we’re capable of change. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel and The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. After being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35, she penned the New York Times best-selling memoir Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) and her latest, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). 

She also hosts the “Everything Happens” podcast featuring warm, insightful and often funny conversations with people like Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Lamott about what they’ve learned in difficult times. Bowler lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina, and teaches at Duke Divinity School.

“If you’ve read any of Kate’s books or listened to her podcast, you know she brings a contagious cheer to our challenging time. Having been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer years ago, her perspectives on chronic health challenges, parenting, loss, grief and disappointment touch a universal nerve,” said James Wiser, associate professor and dean of library services and educational technology at ACU. 

Proceeds from this dinner will benefit the Friends of the ACU Library endowment. Sponsorships, tables and limited individual seats are available. If you or your organization are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact Wiser at 325-674-2344. For more information about the event visit acu.edu/katebowler.

— Wendy Kilmer

Feb. 21, 2022