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April 2014

April 29, 2014

The Heaven of Animals: A Coin in the Mouth

Guest Post By Jen Hinst-White “I have this mystical-schmystical idea,” one of my writing teachers...

April 24, 2014

Voices in the Methow Valley

Spring in the Methow Valley of Northeastern Washington comes quietly, a gradual warming, winter grass...

April 15, 2014

Oasis: An Observation from The Way of Saint James

I almost passed it by. When the offer came in January, I was too busy...

April 10, 2014

Keeping Up with the Writing Joneses

By the time this post runs, I’ll be in Grand Rapids at the Calvin Festival...

April 04, 2014

The Notecards of Paradise: 25 Years of Image

To celebrate Image’s twenty-fifth anniversary we are posting a series of essays from people who...

April 01, 2014

My Dinners with Philip Levine

“Poetry makes nothing happen,” W.H. Auden famously claimed—famously and perhaps disingenuously, for if nothing else...

March 2014

March 25, 2014

Letter to Stephen Dunn

Dear Steve, I’ve had to look away for most of three decades now—away from your...

March 20, 2014

Scott Cairns and his Idiot Psalms

Guest Post By Angela Doll Carlson W.H. Auden has said, “A poet is, before anything...

March 19, 2014

Stumbling into the Waterfall: 25 Years of Image

To celebrate Image’s twenty-fifth anniversary, we are posting a series of essays from people who...

March 14, 2014

In the Kingdom of the Ditch

I used to find “nature poetry” boring. Descriptions of wind through the trees, hilltop vistas,...

March 10, 2014

Tuesday Morning at the Old Asylum, Part 1

It’s probably not okay to call it the insane asylum. It’s officially the Village at...

March 05, 2014

Risen Words

A book was sleeping inside me. It was somewhere deep and warm, somewhere just beneath...

February 2014

February 28, 2014

Blaze: David Wilcox Opens the Heart, Part 2

This interview with singer-writer David Wilcox, whose new album blaze released this week, is continued...

February 27, 2014

Blaze: David Wilcox Opens the Heart, Part 1

David Wilcox describes himself as a “father, a husband, a citizen and a songwriter…a traveler—an...

February 13, 2014

The Contemporary Literature & Faith Debate: Weblinks

As many of our readers know, there has been a lively debate over the past...

January 2014

January 30, 2014

The Second Coming of Flannery O’Connor

The ongoing conversation about contemporary literature and faith that I have been having with Dana...

January 16, 2014

Pleasure Milker

Guest post by Jen Hinst-White The mind is always elsewhere, won’t stay put. Whose merciful...

January 15, 2014

Waking My Mother: Lost and Found

When someone dies, we say to the surviving family members, “I’m sorry for your loss.”...

January 09, 2014

The Contemporary Novel of Belief, Part 2

In yesterday’s post I wrote about author and critic Paul Elie’s contention that few contemporary...

January 08, 2014

The Contemporary Novel of Belief, Part 1

Writing a response to a published essay can be seen as public service, a way...

January 07, 2014

The Problem With Waiting, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. Gioia seems to be suggesting two conditions necessary for a resurgence...

January 06, 2014

The Problem with Waiting, Part 1

I don’t have much time. I’m sitting in a coffee shop less than a mile...

January 03, 2014

A Baby and a Book Burning

I’ve always wanted to have class by the fireplace, she said. Great, let’s do that....

October 2013

October 22, 2013

Only God is an Atheist, Part 1

When she was twenty-one years old, far from home and as yet uncelebrated, Flannery O’Connor...

October 17, 2013

Honor Thy Mother

It came to me one quiet afternoon, a couple weeks after we were home from...

October 16, 2013

How to Write in a Sick Person’s Body

Guest Post by Paige Eve Chant Not too long ago, just as spring was turning...

October 15, 2013

Why Should Darkness Seem Truer Than Light?

In her memoir, Pieces of Someday, my friend and periodic "Good Letters" guest writer Jan...

October 11, 2013

Leaving the Edges Wild: An Interview with Over the Rhine, Part 2

By Meredith Holladay Guest Post Today I continue yesterday’s conversation with Linford Detweiler about place,...

October 10, 2013

Leaving the Edges Wild: An Interview with Over the Rhine, Part 1

Guest Post By Meredith Holladay September 3 marked the release of Over the Rhine’s newest...

October 08, 2013

When a Friend Dies

I received this group email not long ago: Our beloved Beth has passed away. We...