Book Report #1: What one reader says about Lost & Found in the Cathedral of Cinema

Today is my birthday, and I want to celebrate it by sharing some good news with you.

I have just completed work on my sixth book, Lost & Found in the Cathedral of Cinema: A Spiritual Journey, which, if all goes according to plan and the world as we know it has not yet fully descended into chaos, Broadleaf Books will release in May 2026. The good people at Broadleaf and my agent Alexander Field have shown extraordinary patience with me as wave after wave of disruption and loss have complicated my work on this manuscript. But it is now complete. And I am hoping that readers will enjoy the fruit of our labors.

I have reason to be optimistic.

Over the summer, I sent the book to 25 writers, artists, and, yes, filmmakers who have become guiding lights for me. I hoped that maybe a few of them — five? six? — would find the time to read it. It was a lot to ask. We had a very short window of time in which they could read it and respond. And it is a huge book — so much larger than I envisioned.

I am surprised, delighted, and deeply grateful that more than 20 responded. And what they are saying about this work helps me believe that those eleven years of writing — writing through graduate school, writing during a career change, writing through a pandemic, writing through family crises and the loss of three of my four parents, writing during a decade of societal collapse — might have been worth it after all.

This isn’t the first time I’ve spent more than a decade writing a book before finalizing it with a publisher. I started writing Auralia’s Colors in 1996 and it was published in 2007. I managed to publish a new book each year for the three years after that, but that was an unhealthy practice. I determined not to rush to write another book, but to take the time necessary to make something I felt was as good as I could make it. And this one, especially, I needed to get right — because it is, in part, the story of my life.

I drafted the first chapters of Lost & Found in the Cathedral of Cinema when I began work in the Creative Nonfiction track of Seattle Pacific University’s MFA in Creative Writing program in 2014. I have dedicated my new book to the memory of that program. SPU’s MFA program gave me the most meaningful and inspiring experience I’ve ever known in Christian education. It’s hard to believe that it’s gone. It’s such a shame that they cut a program that remained profitable by every measure and produced so many exemplary, accomplished, faith-driven writers. To lose this bright light of excellence and grace, an ideal expression of the university’s values and mission statement, and then to lose so many other Humanities programs since then (Languages, Journalism, Classics, Theatre, and more) — these have been, and still are, heavy heartbreaks. It’s been difficult to go on writing through so much disillusionment. I hope this book stands as a testimony to the good work that was done there, since that fruitful tree has now been cut down and erased from the landscape.

So I’m thrilled to share the first feedback from a reader, someone whose work has been a tremendous inspiration for me: none other than a writer and director responsible for three of the greatest animated films I have ever seen — The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers.

In fact, Kells would easy stand on my list of 50 all-time favorite films. That film figures heavily in the book itself. The film’s narrative — a braid of history and fantasy celebrating the glory of what is arguably the world’s most beautiful work of art, The Book of Kells — is a celebration of the power of the art to shine light in the darkness. It’s an affirmation, in my view, that any school offering truly Christian will embrace the value of artistic imagination as essential, and build up, rather than burn down, programs in the Humanities.

Tomm Moore has been generous with me before. A few years back, he spent more than an hour discussing his work with me and my dear friend, Dr. Lindsay Stallones Marshall, and answering questions from more about twenty of my students in SPU’s Film & Faith course. That has proven to be one of the highlights of my teaching, as well as a highlight of my students’ undergraduate experiences. (They’ve said so in their course evaluations!)

So it means more to me than I can adequately express that Tomm Moore took the time to consider my new book this summer, and that he’s offering this recommendation in response.

“Jeffrey Overstreet writes about movies in an engaging and inspiring way — full of enthusiasm, curiosity, and heart. He finds surprising and beautiful connections between his own faith and the stories we experience on screen, whether it’s the playful joy of The Muppets, the quiet grace of The Black Stallion, or the magic and mystery of The Secret of Kells. His reflections are easy to read yet deeply moving, making you want to revisit old favorites with fresh eyes. I’m truly honored that my own work is part of this thoughtful celebration of cinema.”

— Tomm Moore, writer and director, The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers

You can pre-order Lost & Found in the Cathedral of Cinema here, at Broadleaf Books.

You can also pre-order from one of my favorite independent bookstores — like Third Place Books.