Museum-supported book A Nation Wrestles with God explores 400+ years of spiritual transformation and imagination in the U.S. through the words of writers across genres and generations—from Stephen Colbert and Pope Leo XIV to President Barack Obama, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Albert Einstein, Joy Harjo, and dozens more
Chicago, Illinois (September 16, 2026) — The American Writers Museum (AWM) is thrilled to announce its current special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture is now extended through March 22, 2027. Featuring interactive displays incorporating more than 100 different creative works and writers spanning genres and mediums, American Prophets takes visitors on a journey through American spirituality and storytelling. The extension comes as AWM looks ahead to its 10th anniversary in 2027, a milestone year that will bring new opportunities to celebrate the Museum’s mission and the enduring power of American writers.
In conjunction with its American Prophets exhibit, AWM supported the publication of a related book released this summer, A Nation Wrestles with God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands (Restless Books). Edited by acclaimed writer and scholar Ilan Stavans, A Nation Wrestles with God is an ambitious new anthology of more than 100 writers spanning 400+ years of American history, exploring our country’s spiritual transformation and imagination across generations. Through sermons, speeches, poems, essays, manifestos, songs, comic strips, fiction excerpts, and political writings, A Nation Wrestles with God reveals how debates over faith and morality have shaped American political ideals and our cultural imagination. Featured writers include Pope Leo XIV, President Barack Obama, Stephen Colbert, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Albert Einstein, Joy Harjo and many more. A podcast recording of Ilan Stavans’ conversation about the book with religion scholar Reza Aslan during the 2026 American Writers Festival is available on the AWM website.
For more information on American Prophets at the American Writers Museum (180 N. Michigan Avenue, 2nd Floor) visit awmamericanprophets.org. AWM is open Thursday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $16 with discounts available for seniors, students and teachers.
Upcoming special programming for American Prophets includes a Thursday, December 3 event at AWM with minister, gospel artist, and scholar Charrise Barron, who will discuss her new book The Platinum Age of Gospel: The Years When Crossover Music Changed Everything, telling the story of how Black gospel music crossed over, reshaped American popular music, and transformed the culture at large. Books will be available for purchase and Barron will sign them following the program. In-person tickets are $8 and online tickets for the live-stream are free. For more details and tickets, visit awmamericanprophets.org
About American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture
In the interactive American Prophets exhibit, AWM visitors can listen to faith-inspired songs including Dolly Parton’s “The Seeker,” Chance the Rapper’s “Blessings,” and Frank Waln’s “7.” They can compare the imagined worlds and faiths explored in Star Trek, Black Panther and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, and laugh through an exploration of holiness in humor with clips from Taylor Tomlinson, Patton Oswalt, Hari Kondabolu and Joan Rivers.
Along with these interactive displays spanning genres and mediums, the American Prophets exhibit includes a selection of unique objects of religious significance to writers that can be tied to their works—from director Harold Ramis’ pocket-sized primer The Five-Minute Buddhist and author Flannery O’Connor’s rosary and holy water bottle, to songwriter Louie Pérez’s statue of the Santo Niño de Atocha, author Ursula K. Le Guin’s annotated copy of the Tao Te Ching, author and storyteller Brad Wagnon’s Cherokee turtle shell rattle, animator and director Sanjay Patel’s prayer bell, and many others.
AWM invites guests to explore how storytelling serves as a powerful lens for examining belief systems, personal identity, and the ever-evolving relationship between religion and American culture. Across time and tradition, prophets have been those who see what others can’t, voices with uncommon insight who guide us toward deeper understanding. The writers in American Prophets share that same visionary spark. They’re not prophets in the religious sense, but their words reveal extraordinary awareness of the world around them, insight born of belief, experience, and imagination. These writers invite us to see our culture, and ourselves, through new eyes.
Check the events calendar at awmamericanprophets.org for updates on American Prophets programming through March 2027.
American Prophets and the connected anthology A Nation Wrestles with God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands are supported by a generous $2.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative.
American Prophets press kit and images available HERE >>
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The American Writers Museum (AWM) is the first museum of its kind in the United States. The mission of AWM is to excite audiences about the impact of American writers—past, present and future—in shaping our collective histories, cultures, identities, and daily lives. The museum is located at 180 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, IL 60601, and offers something for every age group including permanent exhibits and special galleries highlighting America’s favorite works and the authors behind them. Tickets to the museum are $16 for adults, $10 for seniors, students, and teachers. Free for members and children ages 12 and under. To inquire about discounted rates for groups of 10 or more, including adults, student travel groups, and University students, visit AmericanWritersMuseum.org/visit/groups or call 312-374-8765. Museum hours are Monday, Thursday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information visit AmericanWritersMuseum.org or call 312-374-8790. Follow AWM on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. Although the Endowment maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana, it also funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.