Alexander Pope – English poet; a Roman Catholic in a period when that was potentially unsafe in England (the early 18th century) Katherine Anne Porter – on-again and then off-again convert J. F. Powers American writer of stories about clerical life Tim Powers – American fantasy novelist, author of On Stranger Tides Timothy Radcliffe – Dominican Order lecturer, writer, and professor Piers Paul Read – contemporary but orthodox Catholic British novelist; vice president of the Catholic Writers Guild Anne Rice – American writer; after a long separation from her Catholic faith during which she described herself as atheist, she returned to the church in 1998 and pledged to use her talents to glorify God; in 2010, she recanted her faith, declaring that she was going to follow Christ without Christianity, out of solidarity for her gay son David Adams Richards – award-winning Canadian novelist, essayist and screenwriter; from New Brunswick Francis Ripley – English priest; wrote about the faith Richard Rohr – contemporary American Franciscan friar Frederick Rolfe (alias Baron Corvo) – late-19th- and early-20th-century novelist; a failed aspirant to the priesthood Raymond Roseliep – American priest and poet Kevin Rush – American lay Catholic, playwright of award-winning stage play, Crossing Event Horizon, about a Catholic high school guidance counselor's midlife crisis, and novelist, author of Earthquake Weather, a novel for Catholic teens, and The Lance and the Veil, an adventure in the time of Christ. S–Z Anna T. Sadlier – Canadian writer, translator Mary Anne Sadlier – Irish author George Santayana – Spanish-American philosopher and novelist; baptised Catholic; despite taking a sceptical stance in his philosophy to belief in the existence of God, he identified himself with Catholic culture, referring to himself as an "aesthetic Catholic" Steven Schloeder – American architect and theologian; wrote book Architecture in Communion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998) William Shakespeare – regarded by most to be the greatest playwright and poet in the English language, as well as being one of the greatest writers in the world; although disputed, a growing number of biographers and critics hold that his religion was Catholic John Patrick Shanley – screenwriter and playwright; educated by the Irish Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Charity Patrick Augustine Sheehan – Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, Catholic priest, novelist essayist and poet; significant figure of the renouveau Catholique in English literature in the United States and in Europe Dame Edith Sitwell –