PUBLICATION DATE: September 15, 2026
In Who’s Afraid of the Still Small Voice? Cassandra Nelson reflects on coming of age as a teacher and a mother at a time when both vocations—and, worse, the children they serve—are increasingly under threat. In four linked essays, Nelson cuts through the fog of the culture wars to untangle what is at stake in ongoing debates surrounding American education. Her reflections approach trigger warnings, DEI, edtech, and other controversial topics with uncommon depth, nuance, and generosity of spirit.
The daughter of an immigrant mother and a proud graduate of public K–12 schools, Nelson draws on a lifetime of reading and her own personal experiences as a doctoral student in literature at Harvard University, an assistant professor of English at the United States Military Academy, and a stay-at-home mom to argue for a recovery of values essential to teaching and to learning: competence, care, and a respect for tradition and the individual conscience.
Equal parts vulnerable and incisive, this faith-filled book gathers momentum with each finely wrought sentence. Readers who want to make a difference in the lives of children and young people today are invited to slow down, quiet the noise in our heads, and listen to the still small voice that is patiently waiting to guide us, even in these turbulent and unprecedented times.
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CASSANDRA NELSON is a fellow in literature at the Lumen Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and an associate fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Before that, she taught literature and composition at the United States Military Academy. She received her BA in English and MA in Editorial Studies from Boston University and a PhD in English literature from Harvard University. She is the author of A Theology of Fiction (Wiseblood Books, 2025) and
editor of Samuel Beckett’s More Pricks than Kicks (Faber and Faber, 2010).