Abram Van Engen

Abram Van Engen is the Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities, chair of the English Department, and professor of religion and politics (by courtesy) at Washington University in St. Louis. He has written or edited five books and multiple articles on religion and literature, focusing especially on seventeenth-century Puritans and the way they have been remembered and remade in American culture. His second book, City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism (Yale, 2020), won the Pelikan Prize and the Peter Gomes Memorial Prize, and his most recent book, Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church (Eerdmans, 2024) won the 2024 Best Book Award in Culture, Poetry, and the Arts from Christianity Today. Van Engen also co-hosts an award-winning podcast called Poetry For All, designed to introduce great poems to a broad audience.