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Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

November 2015

November 25, 2015

Talk to Me in Letters

Dearest Cal: Please never stop writing me letters—they always manage to make me feel like...

November 12, 2015

Sleeping in Slave Quarters at Sweet Briar College

From my office window I can see the pale yellow plantation house, its sharply pitched...

October 2015

October 13, 2015

Lucia Berlin: A Master of Catholic Fiction, Part 2

By Jenny Shank Continued from yesterday. Catholic imagery appears throughout Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for...

October 12, 2015

Lucia Berlin: A Master of Catholic Fiction, Part 1

By Jenny Shank In September, Lucia Berlin’s posthumous collection of selected short stories A Manual for...

September 2015

September 25, 2015

The Harboring Silence, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. The following editorial statement from issue 86 of Image is adapted from...

September 24, 2015

The Harboring Silence, Part 1

The following editorial statement from issue 86 of Image is adapted from a commencement address...

September 14, 2015

Thou Shalt Not Kill Time: The Ethics of Storytelling

By Daniel Taylor Is The Great Gatsby a crime novel? (There’s a murder.) Crime and Punishment?...

August 2015

August 19, 2015

Downturned Face, Upturned Eyes

There is no writing more precious and self-indulgent than the essay about the difficulty of...

June 2015

June 18, 2015

A Holy Habitation for Life’s Story

By Allison Backous Troy May the Lord bless thee out of Zion; and so shalt...

June 04, 2015

A Place Where We Can Talk

By Brian Volck "Somewhere is better than anywhere." —Flannery O'Connor In my sophomore year of college,...

May 2015

May 21, 2015

While My Pen Gently Weeps

My daughter Gracie was helping me prepare dinner one evening. We were doing the bœuf...

April 2015

April 28, 2015

Death Comes for the Deconstructionist: An Interview with Daniel Taylor

By Caitlin Mackenzie Daniel Taylor’s recent novel, Death Comes for the Deconstructionist, is a postmodern “whodunit”...

April 14, 2015

Who Needs to Read Anymore?

At the community college where I teach—actually in the state capitol two hours away—a massive...

March 2015

March 31, 2015

Wearing God: A Conversation with Lauren F. Winner, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. Image: A lot of history makes its way into your new book...

February 2015

February 25, 2015

I Belong to Jesus

Today we are happy to welcome back former Good Letters blogger Sara Zarr as a...

January 2015

January 27, 2015

Kissing Sideways

“I want to write,” people often tell me, eager to talk about the myriad ways...

January 08, 2015

Girl Meets God in the Classroom, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. On the first day of my class “Spiritual Autobiographies: Theirs and Ours,”...

October 2014

October 29, 2014

Greg Wolfe Made Me a Better Writer: 25 Years of Image

Guest post by William Coleman To celebrate Image’s twenty-fifth anniversary we are posting a series of...

October 27, 2014

Riding the Waves

My sons argue over Avengers characters. The littlest insists he’s Captain America. Another claims Hawkeye....

August 2014

August 29, 2014

Fiction is Truer than Fact

In Jill Lepore’s extraordinary biography of Ben Franklin’s sister Jane, Book of Ages, a short...

August 19, 2014

Susan Sontag, Simon Weil, and the Pursuit of Seriousness

I could stare for many hours at that famous 1975 picture of Susan Sontag lying...

July 2014

July 09, 2014

A Christian Writer Drops the F-Bomb: 25 Years of Image

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

January 2014

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...

September 2013

September 06, 2013

From Luci Shaw to Brother K: My Life with IMAGE

Guest post by Lucas Kwong “Art, Faith, Mystery.” These watchwords have formed the center...

August 2013

August 15, 2013

Genius(es) Wanted

Guest Post By Santiago Ramos Where do literary geniuses come from? Or should the question...

May 2013

May 24, 2013

David Foster Wallace Kills My Darlings

“You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” –C.S....

February 2013

February 05, 2013

The Value of What I Teach

“Inch your way through dead dreams to another land.” —“Box of Rain,” Robert Hunter, lyrics;...

January 2013

January 23, 2013

Commonplacing

Encore Guest Post by Ann Conway Here in central Maine, the world has come down...

January 18, 2013

The Boy Who Believed in Airplanes

This is Jeffrey Overstreet’s last post as a regular contributor to Good Letters. We thank...

November 2012

November 30, 2012

The Cost of Writing the Truth

I remember my mother used to go to bed for the day. The blackness of...