What the Devil: Christian Imagination, Morality, and Two-Step Devil / Jamie Quatro

Mystics and prophets have reported receiving visions from the Divine for centuries—”Thus saith the Lord…”—Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, Catherine of Siena, or Julian of Norwich. The list goes on. But what would you think if you met a seer of visions in the present day? Maybe you have. What about a prophet whose visions came like a movie screen unfurled before him, the images grotesque and vivid, all in the unsuspecting backwoods setting of Lookout Mountain, deep in the south of Tennessee. Would you believe it? Would you believe him? The beauty of fiction allows the reader to join the author in asking: What if? That’s exactly what Jamie Quatro has allowed us to do in her newest work of literary fiction, *Two-Step Devil.* What if an earnest and wildly misunderstood Christian is left alone on Lookout Mountain? What if the receiver of visions makes art that reaches a girl who’s stuck in the darkest grip of a fraught world? What if the Devil really did sit in the corner of the kitchen, wearing a cowboy hat, and what if he got to tell his own side of the Biblical story? On today’s episode novelist Jamie Quatro joins Macie Bridge to share about her relationship to the theological exploration within her latest novel, *Two-Step Devil;* her experience of being a Christian and a writer, but not a “Christian Writer”; and how the trinity of main characters in the novel speak to and open up her own deepest concerns about the state of our country and the world we inhabit. Jamie Quatro is the [*New York Times Notable*](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/books/review/i-want-to-show-you-more-by-jamie-quatro.html) author of [*I Want to Show You More*](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/11/broken-vows), and [*Fire Sermon*](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/books/review/fire-sermon-jamie-quatro.html). [*Two-Step Devil](https://groveatlantic.com/book/two-step-devil/)* is her latest work and is the winner of the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing, and it’s also been named a *New York Times* Editor's Choice, among other accolades. Jamie teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program. SPOILER ALERT! This episode contains substantial spoilers to the novel’s plot, so if you’d like to read it for yourself, first grab a copy from your local bookstore, then two-step on back over here to listen to this conversation! **About Jamie Quatro** Jamie Quatro is the [*New York Times Notable*](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/books/review/i-want-to-show-you-more-by-jamie-quatro.html) author of [*I Want to Show You More*](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/11/broken-vows), and [*Fire Sermon*](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/books/review/fire-sermon-jamie-quatro.html). [*Two-Step Devil](https://groveatlantic.com/book/two-step-devil/)* is her latest work and is the winner of the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing, and it’s also been named a *New York Times* Editor's Choice, among other accolades. Jamie teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program. **Show Notes** - Get your copy of [*Two-Step Devil* by Jamie Quatro](https://groveatlantic.com/book/two-step-devil/) - [Click here to view the art that inspired Jamie Quatro’s *Two-Step Devil*](https://www.notion.so/FAITH-YALE-EDU-Management-be71c0f3a4ae415b8f5afa32f8cb657c?pvs=21) **Production Notes** - This podcast featured Jamie Quatro with Macie Bridge - Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa - Hosted by Evan Rosa - Production Assistance by Macie Bridge, Alexa Rollow, Zoë Halaban, Kacie Barrett & Emily Brookfield - A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about - Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give