Apophatic Art Practice and Research

Connecting with the ineffable in times of flattening

Contributors Project / Editorial Team
  • Merel Visse
  • William Franke
  • Ryan Woodring
  • Béatrice Machet
  • Sarah Travis
  • Enaiê Azambuja
  • Sarah Tarkany
  • Peter Kline
  • Kythe Heller
  • Cailtin Gilson
  • Chelle Stearns

William Franke

Desert and Sea: Apophatic Land/Sea Scapes

William Franke is a philosopher of the humanities, a Dante scholar, and a professor of comparative literature at Vanderbilt University. The author of numerous books at the intersection of literature, philosophy, and theology, he lectures and gives seminars on his apophatic philosophy, with a focus on the revelatory power of poetic language, in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish on five continents. In 2025 with his former PhD students (now professors) he founded The William Franke Center for Apophatic Thought and Culture at the medieval Château de la Frogerie in France.