Elijah Meeks is the Digital Humanities Specialist at Stanford University, as well as the author of the Cybil-nominated novel, Son of the Great River. The focus of both his scholarship and his creative work is on the link between nature and society.

What is the link between your spirituality and your creativity?

I feel compelled to take heed of the injunction in the Qu'ran to examine my world, to which my response mirrors that of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Abdus Salam: "the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze."  The process of then trying to relate that dazzlement, whether in writing or digital media, is what drives my creativity.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Existence itself is to me a most incredible thing--an interconnected web of dependencies that defies illustration.  But still I try.

What will you be hoping to take away from the CSP event?
I'm hoping to meet thoughtful Muslims who recognize the value and power of artistic achievement.  I would very much like to work together with such a group to develop an organization that promotes and supports such people and their values.

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