Vita Poetica Journal: Recent Episodes
Vita Poetica
A quarterly publication of the Vita Poetica Arts & Faith Collective, our online journal features creative work explored through a spiritual lens. Vita Poetica connects and upholds artists of faith, enlivening spiritual conversations through the arts. Learn more about us at www.vitapoetica.org.
Hosted by Vita Poetica Journal Editors Music by John Morris Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support
Assistant Interviews Editor Darby Brown speaks with dancers and choreographers Hope Blackburn and Jacob Shoup of Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet. A transcript of the interview is available here.
Hope Blackburn and Jacob Shoup are dancers and choreographers with Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet, a professional dance company of artist-theologians whose goal is to create spaces where art and faith can flourish. Ekklesia’s diverse repertory utilizes a full spectrum of emotional and physical vocabulary while addressing issues such as poverty, inequality, and human suffering.
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Rachel shares about her contemplative practice of journaling in "A Journal of Many Colors."
Rachel Berry resides in Richmond, Virginia with her sweet dog Phin. She spends her free time journaling, dancing on her treadmill, and spending time with friends and family.
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Cheryl Sadowski reads her essay, "Teachers, Sages, and Serpents," a review of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art's ongoing exhibit,The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas, which is on view in Washington, DC.
Cheryl Sadowski writes about art, books, landscape, and nature. Her essays, reviews, and short fiction have been published in Vita Poetica, The Ekphrastic Review, After the Art, and other publications. She is a 2023 Pushcart nominee and winner of a Grantchester Award by The Orchards Poetry Journal. Cheryl holds a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University and lives in Northern Virginia.
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Ping Yi Yee reads his poem, "Fortune Center," and Isabel Chenot reads her poem, "pain is not an ark."
Ping Yi Yee writes poetry, travelogues and fiction, and is in public service. His work has appeared in Litro, London Grip, Meniscus, La Piccioletta Barca, and Sideways, among others, and is forthcoming in Poetry Breakfast and Harbor Review. Ping Yi is from Singapore, and has also lived in Boston, MA, and Cambridge, UK.
Isabel Chenot has loved and practiced poetry for as long as she can remember. Some of her poems are collected in The Joseph Tree, available from Wiseblood books.
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Artist Alexis Eke shares about her digital artwork featured in our Spring 2024 issue, including on the cover. View her art can be viewed here.
Alexis Eke is an artist based in Toronto, Ontario. She illustrates surrealism portraits and comic illustrations using vibrant colors, to communicate the truth of Gods Word and increase the representation of black women in the creative industry.
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Bart Edelman reads his poem, "Crazy Eights," and K.D. Battle reads his poem, "Self-Help Sonnet I," from the Spring 2024 issue.
Bart Edelman’s poetry collections include Crossing the Hackensack (Prometheus Press), Under Damaris’ Dress (Lightning Publications), The Alphabet of Love (Ren Hen Press), The Gentle Man (Ren Hen Press), The Last Mojito (Ren Hen Press), The Geographer’s Wife (Ren Hen Press), Whistling to Trick the Wind (Meadowlark Press), and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993 – 2023 (Meadowlark Press). He has taught at Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal, and, most recently, in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others.
K.D. Battle is an ex-nuclear submarine mechanic, ex-lead singer, and an instructor of writing for all. He has taught for acclaimed institutions such as the Telling Room and is currently pursuing an MFA at Western Michigan University, where he is the Assistant Director of First Year Writing. He hopes you live a life of wonder and compassion.
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Gerburg Garmann shares about her multimedia project, Miriam, which includes a 72x48" painting and a soundscape in 5 movements. This painting, and the fifth movement of the soundscape, the "Coda," are featured in our Spring 2024 issue here. In this podcast episode, Gerburg shares the background behind this project, and the "Coda" of the soundscape.
Gerburg Garmann is a painter, poet, and former professor of Global Languages and Cross-Cultural Studies. Her scholarly publications appear in English, German, and French in international journals. Her artwork and poems have appeared in various magazines and anthologies around the world.
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Scott Hales reads his poem, "Holy Envy," and Kara Applegate reads their poem, "Misericordia."
Scott Hales is a writer, critic, and historian living in Eagle Mountain, Utah. His work has appeared in Religion and the Arts, BYU Studies, Irreantum, The Under Review, The Sandy River Review, and other academic and literary journals. His first collection of poetry, Hemingway in Paradise and Other Mormon Poems, was published in 2022.
Kara Applegate lives and writes in Salem, Massachusetts. They hold an MA in Theological Studies from Princeton Seminary, and their manuscript "On Certain Mornings" was awarded first runner-up in the 2018 National Federation of State Poetry Societes' College Undergraduate Poetry Competition. At the moment, their poetic interests include exploring queer embodiment and cultivating a sense of place in the midst of climate change. This is their first publication.
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Helen L. Conway reads her essay, "Shoah Shoes."
Helen L. Conway lives in St. Helens, UK. A former Judge, she holds an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is the author or joint-author of over a dozen books and numerous articles about law, art, mental health and coaching psychology. She is also an internationally exhibited and collected visual artist working in textiles and acrylics and is a qualified creativity and leadership coach.
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Maxim D. Shrayer reads his poems, "Artists' Quarter in Old Jaffa" and "Wailing Wall."
Maxim D. Shrayer is a bilingual writer in English and Russian, a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow, and a winner of a 2007 National Jewish Book Award. He was born in Moscow and left the former USSR in 1987. A professor at Boston College, Shrayer is the author of over twenty-five books, including four collections of Russian-language verse and two collections of English-language verse. His new poetry collection, Kinship, is forthcoming in 2024.
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James Roderick Burns reads his short story, "Standing Water." Please be aware this story contains brief references to physical abuse and the demonic.
James Roderick Burns is the author of one flash fiction collection, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and five collections of short-form poetry, most recently Crows at Dusk; a collection of four novellas – The Unregulated Heart – is also forthcoming in summer 2024. His stories have twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and he serves as Staff Reader in poetry for Ploughshares. He can be found on Twitter @JamesRoderickB, and his newsletter ‘A Bunch of Fives’ offers one free, published story a fortnight (abunchoffives.substack.com).
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Terry E. Hill reads his two poems, "This Too, Capricious" and "Calligraph for a Psalm Beginning with the Letter O."
Terry E. Hill is a physician in Oakland, California, with a long history of publishing in healthcare and a more recent history in literature, e.g., in The Healing Muse and the All Shall Be Well Anthology. He grew up in rural Georgia but earned his B.A. in literature from Reed College.
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Chris Drew reads his short story, "Saturday Night at the Dairy Queen," published in our Spring 2024 issue.
Chris Drew is an Associate Professor of English at Indiana State University, where he teaches creative writing and English teaching methods courses. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including Bellevue Literary Review, Quarterly West, Concho River Review, Mad River Review, The Sycamore Review, Red Wheelbarrow, and Big Muddy. When he’s not teaching or writing, Chris likes to watch random streaming documentaries with his wife, play music at the local farmers market, let his daughter fill him in on the latest Taylor Swift news, and play Dungeons & Dragons online with his high school pals.
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The Spring 2024 issue of the journal is here! Co-Editor Caroline Langston introduces some of the new works of this issue, which we'll be featuring here on the podcast in the coming weeks. The whole issue can be found in both text and audio formats on our website, at www.vitapoetica.org.
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Contemplative Practices Editor Samir Knego shares readers' responses to the theme of "Light" in the Winter 2024 issue.
The "Readers Respond" series features reflections and practices on a current theme, shared by Vita Poetica readers.Currently, we're accepting responses to the theme of "Breaking," which will be shared in the upcoming Spring issue. What traditions do you have around breaking bread? How have you broken a fast? What experiences have you had with heartbreak? How can we respond to the brokenness in the world around us? Share your responses with us through this quick form.
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Assistant Interviews Editor Darby Brown speaks with poet Wen-Juenn Lee in Australia.
Wen-Juenn Lee writes poetry on unceded Wurundjeri land. In her writing, she is interested in gaps, leaks and spillage, which often take the form of place, memory, and divinity. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Cordite Poetry Review, Going Down Swinging, among others. She was a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow for 2022, and previously served as a poetry editor at Voiceworks. She was awarded the Tina Kane Emergent Writer Award for this year.
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Jonathan Chan reads his poem "Ceremonial, Caleb Westbrook reads his poem "On a Shore Weighing What Matters," and Matt Stanley reads his poem "How Like a Child We Become When We Are Truly Surprised."
Jonathan Chan is a writer and editor. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated at Cambridge and Yale Universities. He is the author of the poetry collection going home (Landmark, 2022) and managing editor of poetry.sg. His poetry and essays have appeared in Ekstasis, Fathom, Inheritance, The Yale Logos, Poems for Ephesians, and the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity. More of his writing can be found at jonbcy.wordpress.com.
Caleb Westbrook is a high school teacher with degrees in both English and religion. He lives with his wife and two children in Antigua, Guatemala. His poetry has been published in Havik, Nassau Review, Glass Mountain, Time of Singing, and Grim & Gilded; and his essays have been published online for Ekstasis and Dappled Things.
Matt Stanley is a poet and artist from Baltimore. His works were recently published in Grand Little Things, Down in the Dirt, and the Seraphic Review, and will appear in the next issue of Lyric Magazine.
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E.R. Skulmoski reads her three poems, "In Catholic School"; "Daughters of Eve, Eat This Scroll"; and "Elegy."
E. R. Skulmoski was born in Vancouver and raised in Hong Kong. She currently lives in the Interior of British Columbia with her husband and four children. Her work has been published in Ekstasis, Foreshadow, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and SOLID FOOD PRESS. You can read more of her work here: https://ofisandwas.substack.com/
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Wayne Bornholdt reads his poem, "Recipe," and Susan Shea reads her poems, "Poet's Tea" and "The Good Portion."
Wayne Bornholdt is a poet and retired bookseller. He has degrees in philosophy and theological studies. He lives in West Michigan with his wife and two Golden Retrievers.
Susan Shea is a retired school psychologist, born in New York City, now living in a forest in Pennsylvania. Since she has returned to writing poetry this year, her poems have been accepted in a few dozen publications, including Avalon Literary Review, Ekstasis, Feminine Collective, and Across the Margin.
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Contemplative Practices Editor Samir Knego leads a guided "Meditation through a Window."
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Maxim D. Shrayer reads his poem, "My Woven Kipa," and Matthew E. Henry reads his poems, "found" and "subtlety: an assay."
Maxim D. Shrayer is a bilingual author and a professor at Boston College. He was born in Moscow and emigrated in 1987. His recent books include A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas and Immigrant Baggage, a memoir. Shrayer’s new collection of poetry, Kinship, is forthcoming in April 2024 from Finishing Line Press.
Dr. Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the Boston-born author of the full length collections the Colored page (Sundress Publication, 2022) and The Third Renunciation (New York Quarterly Books, 2023), the chapbooks Teaching While Black (Main Street Rag, 2020) and Dust & Ashes(Californios Press, 2020), and the micro-chapbook have you heard the one about…? (Ghost City Press, 2023). He also has a collection forthcoming from Harbor Editions (said the Frog to the scorpion). MEH is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal, an associate poetry editor at Pidgeonholes, an associate editor at Rise Up Review, and is the 2023 winner of the Solstice Literary Magazine Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize.
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Lory Widmer Hess reads her review, "Listening to Our Pain," which discusses the book Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing by Jen Soriano.
Lory Widmer Hess currently lives with her family in Switzerland, where she works with adults with developmental disabilities and is in training as a spiritual director. Her book When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey Through Healing Stories in the Bible will be published by Floris Books in 2024. Visit her website and blog at enterenchanted.com.
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Justin Lacour reads his poem, "Devil Music," and Conner Cowan reads his poems, "16. fire" and "24. wrapping paper."
Justin Lacour lives in New Orleans with his wife and three children, and edits Trampoline. He is the author of Hulk Church (Belle Point, 2023).
Conner Cowan is an English teacher at Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach, Florida. Poetry is one of the few things that keep him grounded; to find hope and explore the mysteries of mankind's time on earth.
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Jennifer Lendvai-Lintner reads her essay, "A Mother's Prayer," from our Winter 2024 issue.
Among other things, Jennifer Lendvai-Lintner is a writer, teacher, student, and mother. She is the 2023 recipient of the Denise Gess Literary Award for Nonfiction and a 2022 Writer's Digest Award Winner. Jennifer is earning her MA in Writing at Rowan University, where she also teaches First-Year College Writing.
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The first journal issue of 2024 is here! Tune in for a preview of new works at the intersection of art, faith, beauty, and spirit.
Cover Art: Margaret Adams Parker
Intro Music: "A Gentle Invitation" by Dawn, Dawn, Dawn
Outro Music: John Morris
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Jonathan Frey reads his poem "For the usher who served the Lord's Supper to my wife and daughter wearing a sidearm," and Jean Anne Feldeisen reads her poem "from whence salvation."
Jonathan Frey holds an MFA from Eastern Washington University, and is associate professor of English at North Idaho College, teaching creative writing and composition. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, The Millions, and elsewhere. He lives in Spokane, Washington, with his wife and daughters, and has just completed work on his first novel.
Jean Anne Feldeisen is a practicing psychotherapist, a grandmother, and a writer. She has written for Next Avenue, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and is a host for the Crows Feet: Life As We Age Podcast. Her poetry has been published in Thimble Literary Magazine," “The Raven’s Perch,” "The Hopper," and "Spank the Carp." Her first poetry chapbook, Not All Are Weeping, was released in May of 2023 by Main Street Rag Publishing Company. Follow her at jeanfeldeisen.com.
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Rebekah Vickery guides us in a short meditation to consider how our bellies, our gut, has held the truth of our experiences. "A Blessing for Your Belly" is published in our Autumn 2023 issue.
Rebekah Vickery is a trauma therapist, group facilitator, and acrylic artist located in the beautiful and wild Pacific Northwest. In all of her work with people, art, and words, she loves engaging themes of grief, transition, and hope.
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Stephen M. Sanders reads his poems "Autumn in Paris, Texas"; "Tennessee Camp Meeting, 1982"; and "A Vagrant."
Stephen M. Sanders is an assistant professor of English at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. He has had poems included in publications including Pacifica Literary Review, Penumbra Literary & Art Magazine, and the Austin International Poetry Festival di-vêrsé-city anthology. His first novel Passe-Partout was published in 2019 (Monument Place Books).
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Maura H. Harrison shares about her photographs, "Reverent Marvels," inspired by Julian of Norwich's belief that “one should reverently marvel and humbly endure, ever delighting in God.” And Erica Waters reads her poem, "Gardens of Earth."
Maura H. Harrison is a writer, photographer, and fiber artist from Fredericksburg, VA. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas, Houston.
Poems by Erica Waters appear in journals like Weber: The Contemporary West, Camas, CALYX, and The Fiddlehead International. Massage therapist, gardener, and mother of one, Waters breathes in our shared sky in Northern Colorado on the eastern plains of the Rocky Mountains.
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Joel Peckham reads his poems, "How to Walk in Space: Untethering" and "How to Walk in Space: 3:35AM Dec 9, 2022."
Joel Peckham has published nine collections of poetry and nonfiction, including Bone Music (SFA) and Body Memory (New Rivers), and is co-editor of the anthology Wild Gods: The Ecstatic in American Poetry and Prose. Individual poems and essays have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, The Sun, and many others.
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Edward A. Dougherty reads his poem, "Between Slaughter and Exile," and Michelle J. Chun shares her artwork, "Annunciation" and "Relics of Annunciation."
Edward A. Dougherty has lived and worked in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York for nearly 30 years. He is the author of 11 collections of poetry, including Grace Street and 10048. Vita Poetica's Interviews Editor, Emily Chambers Sharpe, discussed the spiritual wanderings he writes about in his book of essays, Journey Work: Crafting a Life of Poetry & Spirit. Find the interview in the Summer 2021 issue.
Michelle Chun is a visual maker born and raised in Southern California. She approaches her practice both as an embodied meditation on theological concepts and also as a form of investigating the idea of "histories." She received a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a MAR in Visual and Material Culture from Yale Divinity School. She is currently a HATCH resident at the Chicago Arts Coalition and a Teaching Artist in Residence at Lillstreet Art Center. She has shown at Helen J Gallery in Los Angeles, Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, and Gelman Gallery in Rhode Island, among other exhibitions.
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Maxim D. Shrayer reads his poems, "Yom Kippur in Boston" & "Grapes of Sukkot."
Maxim D. Shrayer is a bilingual writer in English and Russian and a professor at Boston College. His books include four collections of Russian-language poetry and a collection of English-language verse, Of Politics and Pandemics. Shrayer's new memoir, Immigrant Baggage, was published in 2023.
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Sarah Renee Werner offers a meditation and reflection on the seasonal changes we experience around us. Her piece, "Breathe" is published in our current Autumn issue.
Sarah Werner is the communications coordinator for Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA and pastor of Olentangy Wild Church in Columbus, Ohio. She is the author of Rooted Faith: Practices for Living Well on a Fragile Planet and enjoys camping, birding, and nature photography in her free time.
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Contemplative Practices Editor Samir Knego introduces a new feature coming up in future issues. We want to hear from you, Vita Poetica readers, about the spiritual practices that sustain and inspire you. This is also a place for your questions and concerns about the world and a chance to find new practices to incorporate into your spiritual life. Email your responses to samir@vitapoetica.org by Dec. 15, 2023 for inclusion in the Winter 2024 issue in January. More details in this episode and on our website.
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Angela Townsend reads her literary essay, "Less and More," from our Autumn 2023 issue.
Angela Townsend is Development Director at Tabby’s Place: A Cat Sanctuary, where she has the privilege of bearing witness to mercy for all beings. Angie has an M.Div. from Princeton Seminary and B.A. from Vassar, and her work appears in Amethyst Review, Dappled Things, Fathom Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, and The Razor, among others. Angie loves life dearly.
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The Autumn 2023 issue of the journal is out! Tune in for a preview of new works at the intersection of art, faith, beauty, and spirit.
Cover Art: Maura H. Harrison
Intro Music: "A Gentle Invitation" by Dawn, Dawn, Dawn
Outro Music: John Morris
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Rebekah Vickery guides us in "A Blessing for Your Breath," from our Summer 2023 issue.
Rebekah Vickery is a trauma therapist, group facilitator, and acrylic artist located in the beautiful and wild Pacific Northwest. In all of her work with people, art, and words, she loves engaging themes of grief, transition, and hope.
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Interviews Editor Emily Chambers Sharpe talks with visual artist Scott Aasman on art as attention, presence, and prayer. Some of his artwork can be seen on our website here. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Scott Aasman is an illustrator, artist, community builder, part-time chicken farmer, and zine maker. As a student of both art and theology at Redeemer University, Scott found a way to express the ideas he was reading in textbooks visually through his work in the studio. By colliding and fusing biblical and cultural meta-narratives and layering them with personal and local narrative, he attempts to open up possibilities in ways of seeing tired and ‘over-seen’ stories through surprise, mystery, meaning, and wonder. Scott has been an American Illustration AI40 Chosen winner and his work has been seen in galleries, churches and publications across North America.
Scott is also a co-founder of Salt Cellar Arts, an arts-focused community for the “spiritually attentive and creatively engaged,” whose goal is open the doors for the churched to engage more deeply in creativity, imagination and cultural literacy while championing the role of the Divine in art-making. Scott lives and works out of Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife Michelle and their two children.
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Phillip Aijian reads his poems, "Jurisdiction," "Why Do You Ask My Name?" and "The Old Road to Garry."
Phillip Aijian holds a PhD in Renaissance drama and theology from UC Irvine, as well as an MA in poetry from the University of Missouri. He teaches literature and religious studies and has published in journals like ZYZZYVA, Heron Tree, Poor Yorick, and Zocalo Public Square. He lives in California with his wife and children. His poetry and art can be found at www.phillipaijian.com.
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Our Contemplative Practices Editor Samir Knego leads us in a creative meditation on Psalm 148, published in our Summer 2023 issue. Text for the psalm can be found here (various translations available).
Contemplative Practices Editor Samir Knego spends his days photographing archival materials and thinking about the past. His essays, poems, and visual art have appeared all over the place, including in Religion Dispatches, Anti-Racism Daily, and Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature, and he has had solo shows at the Hillsborough Arts Council Gallery, Art Therapy Institute of NC, and Eno Arts Mill Gallery.
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Joseph Byrd reads his poem, "Prayer for a Prisoner," and Lucy Bell introduces her art, "The Mythology of Memory," featured in our Summer 2023 issue.
Joseph Byrd’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Punt Volat, Pedestal, South Florida Poetry Journal, DIAGRAM, Clackamas Literary Review, Many Nice Donkeys, and Novus Literary Arts. He’s a Pushcart Prize nominee, was long-listed for the Erbacce Prize, and was in the StoryBoard Chicago cohort with Kaveh Akbar. An Associate Artist in Poetry under Joy Harjo at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, he is on the Reading Board for The Plentitudes.
Lucy Bell is an artist based in Northern California. She is primarily a painter but also utilizes textiles and clay to convey her ideas. After receiving her BFA from UC San Diego, Bell’s work has been published internationally and throughout the US. She has had work shown along the West Coast, notably in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and San Diego.
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Mary Amendolia Gardener reads her review, "Spirit in the Dark Brings Religious Influence to Light," a review of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture's exhibit, Spirit in the Dark: Religion in Black Music, Activism and Popular Culture. The exhibit is on view through November 2023. A companion searchable digital exhibit is also available through the Searchable Museum website.
The Rev. Dr. Mary Amendolia Gardner is an Anglican priest and Spiritual Director with Coracle. She recently completed her DMin. in Curating Community through the Arts at Wesley Theological Seminary and is also a practicing artist.
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Rachelle Scott reads her poem, "Alternate Sources of Light," and Paul Hostovsky reads his poem, "Open."
Rachelle Scott is writer, teacher, and editor from central Texas. Her work appears in The Lyric, Adanna, Third Wednesday, Apeiron Review, The Wayfarer, Literary Juice, Anima, Panther City Review, Her Texas, Shot Glass Journal, Red Rock Review, Crack the Spine, r.cv.r.y, Rock & Sling, Ilya's Honey, Red River Review, Figures of Speech, Mudlark, Literary Juice, Gravel, RiverSedge, and Southwestern American Literature.
Paul Hostovsky's poems have won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, and have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer's Almanac, and Best American Poetry.
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Cheryl Sadowski reads her review, "To See Beyond Walls: A Review of Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt.
Stay tuned for details about our Zoom book discussion about Illuminations led by Cheryl this fall! Subscribe to our email newsletter or follow along on FB or IG to get event announcements and more.
Cheryl Sadowski writes essays, reviews, and short fiction. Her writing explores the plain weave of everyday life with literature, art, and the natural world. Cheryl’s lyric poem “Tenants” was awarded a first place Grantchester Prize by The Orchards Poetry Journal. Other works have appeared in About Place Journal, EcoTheo, After the Art, and Bay to Ocean Journal. Cheryl lives in Northern Virginia, where she works as a communications consultant. She recently completed her Master of Liberal Arts degree at Johns Hopkins University.
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Jack Stewart reads his poem "Acyanoblepsia" from our Summer 2023 issue.
Jack Stewart was educated at the University of Alabama and Emory University and was a Brittain Fellow at The Georgia Institute of Technology. His first book, No Reason, was published by the Poeima Poetry Series, and his work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Poetry, The American Literary Review, Nimrod, Image, and others.
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James Roderick Burns reads his short story, "Scotus."
James Roderick Burns’s novella and story collection, Beastly Transparencies, is due from Black Spring Press in 2024. He is the author of five collections of poetry (most recently Crows at Dusk, 2023) and a short fiction chapbook, A Bunch of Fives. His stories have twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He can be found on Twitter @JamesRoderickB and his newsletter offers one free, published story a fortnight, at abunchoffives.substack.com.
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Hannah Hinsch reads her poems "Miryam" and "Eve."
Hannah Hinsch writes to be with God. A current MFA candidate, her poetry and prose begins at the meeting place of word and being, the image and its attendant charge, a risen heat that sends a word in time and place and body, whether on the salt-soaked shores of Gig Harbor or the monsoon-warm of Santa Fe - and the grace to see God standing there. Find more of her work at hannahhinsch.com.
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Emily Ver Steeg reads her short story, "Shelter," from our Summer 2023 issue.
Emily Ver Steeg grew up outside Atlanta, GA, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she teaches writing for immigrant and international students. She received her MFA from The Writer's Foundry at St. Joseph's University.
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The Summer 2023 issue of Vita Poetica is here! Tune in for a preview of new works at the intersection of art, faith, and spirit.
Cover Art: Untitled (flame 1) by Lucy Bell
Intro Music: "A Gentle Invitation" by Dawn, Dawn, Dawn
Outro Music: John Morris
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Ellen June Wright reads her poem, "The Lake," and David A. Goodrum shares about his photography published in our Spring 2023 issue.
Ellen June Wright consulted on guides for three PBS poetry series. Her work was selected as The Missouri Review’s Poem of the Week in June 2021. She is a Cave Canem and Hurston/Wright alumna and received Pushcart Prize nominations in 2021 and 2022. Follow her at https://twitter.com/EllenJuneWrites.
David A. Goodrum, photographer/writer, lives in Corvallis, Oregon. His photography has graced the covers of several art and literature magazines, most recently Cirque Journal, Willows Wept Review, Blue Mesa Review, Ilanot Review, Red Rock Review, The Moving Force Journal, Snapdragon Journal, and has appeared in many others. Additional work, both photos and poems, are available at www.davidgoodrum.com. His artistic vision has always been to create a visual field that momentarily transports you away from hectic daily events and into a place that delights in an intimate view of the world.
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Zachary Dankert reads his poems "Matthew 2:13-23 (Olives)" and "The Gospel of Mary Magdalene II."
Zachary Dankert is a writer living on unceded Miami territory known as Indianapolis, IN. Published work can be found in Breakbread Literary Magazine, Tofu Ink Arts Press, and West Trade Review, among others. His goal in life is to write a single funny poem.
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Jesse Caverly reads his poem "Orphanage," and Jonathan McGregor reads his poems "Nebuchadnezzer" and "Catch for Us the Foxes."
Jesse Caverly was born an hour outside of Boston, but he and his mother quickly became nomads. He doesn't remember much about Tucson and everything about Hawaii. There, he had a small white terrier as a pet. There, he collected comic books and ate guavas fresh off the branch. Then they moved to California, high school was all right, college didn’t happen, but life did. He is now a storyteller, proud father of a wilding, and an occasional poet. He resides in Arcata, Humboldt County.
Jonathan McGregor's creative work has appeared in Gulf Coast, Image Journal, Ruminate Magazine, Relief Journal, Dappled Things, Genealogies of Modernity, and Hyped on Melancholy. He is the author of the academic book Communion of Radicals: The Literary Christian Left in Twentieth-Century America (LSU Press, 2021). He teaches writing at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and is a poetry editor at War, Literature, and the Arts.
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On the podcast today, Rebekah Vickery guides us in "A Blessing for Your Face" from our current Spring issue.Rebekah Vickery is a trauma therapist, group facilitator, and acrylic artist located in the beautiful and wild Pacific Northwest. In all of her work with people, art, and words, she loves engaging themes of grief, transition, and hope.
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Ace Boggess reads his poem "Anybody Raptured Yet?" and Mark Mansfield reads his poem "The Tryst."
Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes and tries to stay out of trouble.
Mark Mansfield is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, Strangers Like You, Soul Barker, and Greygolden, and one chapbook, Notes from the Isle of Exiled Imaginary Playmates (all published by Chester River Press). His poems have appeared in The Adirondack Review, Anthropocene, Bayou, Fourteen Hills, The High Window, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Iota, London Grip, Magma, Measure, Obsessed with Pipework, Peacock Journal, Salt Hill Journal, Sarasvati, Tulane Review, Visitant, and elsewhere. He has been a Pushcart Prize nominee. He is a former musician and publications specialist. Currently, he lives in upstate New York.
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Kolya Braun-Greiner reads her book review, "An Enfleshed Spirit: Reflections on Cole Arthur Riley's This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us."
Kolya Braun-Greiner is a member of Seekers Church and former program coordinator with Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake. She has created curricula and facilitated trainings for people of many faiths to explore connections of their tradition with care for the environment. She is currently working on a book about contemplating nature as a way to foster reverence and healing for Earth.
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Paula M. Rodriguez reads her poem "Stamps," and James Hannon reads his poem "Sinai."
Paula M. Rodriguez is an educator in greater Los Angeles. Her first poem in the United States appeared in The Blind Man's Rainbow in 2006. Since then, her poems have been featured in multiple anthologies and journals, including Scintilla, Bacopa Review, New Note Poetry, Mercury Retrograde, and Humble Pie to name a few. Her first book of poems, The Joy of Seasons. A Treasure of Haiku, appeared last November and has received great reviews.
James Hannon is a psychotherapist in Massachusetts where he accompanies adolescents and adults who are recovering from addictions and mood disorders and seeking meaningful and joyful lives. His poems have appeared in Blue Lake Review, Cold Mountain Review, Pensive, Psaltery and Lyre, and other journals and in Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets. His second poetry collection, To My Children at Christmas, was published in 2022 by Kelsay Books. Learn more about him at Jameshannonpoetryplus.com.
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O Thiam Chin's short story, "A Wolf's Heart," is published in our current Spring issue. Vita Poetica's Managing Editor Julie Wan reads the story in today's episode.
O Thiam Chin is the author of four novels, including We Are Not Alone Here (PRH SEA, 2022) and six short-fiction collections. His debut novel, Now That It’s Over, won the inaugural Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015. His work has appeared in Granta, The Cincinnati Review, Mānoa, The Brooklyn Rail, World Literature Today, and elsewhere.
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Will Neuenfeldt reads his poem, "Ritual," and Eric Machan Howd reads his poems, "Initiation" and "Personal Theology," from our Spring 2023 issue.
Will Neuenfeldt studied English at Gustavus Adolphus College and his poems are published in Capsule Stories, Months to Years, and Red Flag Poetry. He lives in Cottage Grove, MN, home of the dude who played Steven Stifler in those American Pie movies and a house Teddy Roosevelt slept in.
Eric Machan Howd (Ithaca, NY) is a poet, musician, and educator. His fifth collection of poetry, Universal Monsters, was published by The Orchard Street Press in 2021. He is currently working on an erasure project using a work by author H.P. Lovecraft.
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Heidie (Raine) Senseman reads her essay, "House of Worship," published in our Spring 2023 issue.
Heidie (Raine) Senseman is an Ohio-based writer who works primarily in the realm of creative nonfiction. She dreams of becoming a master pie-baker and being able to do 20 push-ups in a row. Heidie's work has previously appeared in Chapter House Journal, Marathon Literary Review, Still Point Arts Quarterly, and others.
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The Spring 2023 issue of Vita Poetica Journal is here! Tune in for a preview of new works at the intersection of art, faith, beauty, and spirit.
Cover Art: David A. Goodrum
Music: John Morris
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Lila Robinett reads her poem, "Watching the Pastor's Daughter," and Charm Chandler reads his poem, "As a Form of Great Immensity and Understanding."
Lila Robinett is a native East Texan living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where she attends the University of Southern Mississippi as a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing. Her work can be found in Five South magazine, Ekstasis, and Impostor magazine.
Charm Chandler (he/it) is a lover of words and lives in the Sunset Reality. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in English. When he is not writing, he is perpetually confused.
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Chris Vrountas reads his poems "Lenten Eve, 2021" and "Meadow Aers" from our Winter 2023 issue.
Chris Vrountas is a writer and lawyer. He lives in Essex County, MA, with his wife, who still laughs at his jokes after 32 years. He has practiced law for just as long and serves as a mediator of discrimination disputes for the Human Rights Commission. He grew up in an immigrant faith tradition that has evolved over the years, and he writes about impermanence, hope, and rebirth.
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Jen Schneider reads her poem "on time & quiet passings :: fly monarch(s), fly," and Kath Higgins reads her poem "Owl Spotting."
Jen Schneider is an educator who lives, writes, and works in small spaces throughout Pennsylvania. Recent works include A Collection of Recollections, Invisible Ink, On Habits & Habitats, On Always Being an Outsider, and Blindfolds, Bruises, and Breakups.
Originally from the UK and now living in South Africa via Cameroon, Kath Higgens is a retired field linguist. Her love of poetry and her spiritual path sometimes spills out into writing.
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Michael Sandler reads his two poems, "A Jetty Stone's Hymn" and "Recipe for Marinara."
Michael Sandler is the author of a poetry collection, The Lamps of History (FutureCycle Press 2021). His work has appeared in scores of journals, including recently in THINK, Literary Imagination, and Smartish Pace. Michael lives near Seattle; his website is www.sandlerpoetry.com.
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Sharon Scholl reads her poem "Soliloquy," and Natalie M. Schubert reads her poem "On the Shore of Lake Ontario."
Sharon Scholl is a retired college professor (humanities) who convenes a poetry critique group and maintains a website (freeprintmusic.com) that donates her original music to small churches. Her poetry chapbooks (Seasons, Remains) are available via Amazon Books. Individual poems are current in Third Wednesday and Agapanthus Weekly.
Natalie M. Schubert is currently an English and secondary education double major at Oklahoma State University. She is a three-time alumni of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute in creative writing. She loves finding wonder in truth, beauty, and goodness.
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Hilary Sallick reads her two poems, "The Brink" and "A Bit of Earth."
Hilary Sallick is the author of two full-length collections, Love Is A Shore (forthcoming from Lily Poetry Review Books) and Asking the Form (Cervena Barva Press, 2020). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Notre Dame Review, Small Orange Journal, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, The Inflectionist Review, Empty House Press, Ibbetson Street, and other journals. She teaches reading and writing to adult learners in Somerville, MA, and is vice president of the New England Poetry Club.
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Daniel Thomas reads his poem, "Snow," and Sean O'Neill reads his poems, "Bookshelf" and "Weekend Cottage."
Daniel Thomas’s second collection of poetry, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn, was published in 2022. His first book, Deep Pockets, won a 2018 Catholic Press Award. He has published poems in many journals, including Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Poetry Ireland Review, The Bitter Oleander, Atlanta Review, and others. More info at danielthomaspoetry.com.
Sean O'Neill was born in Scotland, but has lived in the USA for the past 15 years. He has published 17 collections of poetry and is the author of five novels and four non-fiction books, including the bestselling "How To Write a Poem: A Beginner's Guide.” He runs the Kolbitars Poetry Group in Lansing, Michigan, USA.
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Rebekah Vickery offers a guided meditation in honoring our skin, a boundary for our bodies. Here is "A Blessing for Your Skin" from our Winter issue.
Rebekah Vickery is a trauma therapist, group facilitator, and acrylic artist located in the beautiful and wild Pacific Northwest. In all of her work with people, art, and words, she loves engaging themes of grief, transition, and hope.
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Maxim D. Shrayer reads his poem, "For My Daughters, on Yom Kippur," and Alea Peister reads her poems, "Want" and "Compline."
Maxim D. Shrayer, a bilingual author and translator, teaches at Boston College. His recent books of poetry includeOf Politics and Pandemics, in English, and Stikhi iz aipada, in Russian. Shrayer’s new memoir, Immigrant Baggage, is forthcoming in 2023.
Alea's writing has been featured in Whale Road Review, Relief, Ekstasis, The Curator, and Art for the Isolated. She lives among the palm trees, bustle, and sunshine just south of Los Angeles. You can follow her on Instagram at @alea_peister, and on Substack at aleapeister.substack.com.
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Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew reads her essay, "The Calculus of Awe," from our current Winter issue.
Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Memoir of Bisexuality & Spirit; the collection of personal essays, On the Threshold: Home, Hardwood, & Holiness; and two books on writing: Living Revision: A Writer’s Craft as Spiritual Practice, winner of the 2019 Silver Nautilus Award, and Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art & Practice of Spiritual Memoir. You can connect with her at www.spiritualmemoir.com and www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com.
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Alina Gharabegian reads her poem, "Out of Place," and Kathy Nelson reads her two poems, "Our Lady of the Locked Unit" and "Chaplain."
Alina Gharabegian is an American Armenian raised in Los Angeles, living in New York City. Trained as a Victorianist, she is an associate professor of English, teaching in New Jersey. Her passions include poetry and the tango.
Kathy Nelson, 2019 recipient of the James Dickey Prize (Five Points), is a graduate of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. Find her work in her chapbooks, Cattails and Whose Names Have Slipped Away, and in LEON Literary Journal, New Ohio Review, Tar River Poetry, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
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David C. Metz reads his short story, "Her Brother's Keeper," from our Winter 2023 issue.
David C. Metz is a writer and a member of the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. His stories have appeared in several publications, including The MacGuffin, New Plains Review, Bull, Valparaiso Fiction Review, and Perceptions. Originally from Illinois, he lives with his wife in Damascus, Maryland.
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Zachary Sholem Berger reads his poem, "On Simple Meaning," and Mildred Kiconco Barya reads her poem, "Bewilderment," both published in our Winter 2023 issue.
Zackary Sholem Berger is a poet and translator in Baltimore working in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish. By day he is a mild-mannered primary care physician.
Mildred Kiconco Barya is a writer from Uganda now living in North Carolina. Her publications include three poetry books, as well as prose, hybrids, and poems published in Shenandoah, Joyland, The Cincinnati Review, Tin House, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Her fourth full-length poetry collection, The Animals of My Earth School, is forthcoming from Terrapin Books, 2023. She blogs at www.mildredbarya.com.
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In "Both / And," Cheryl Sadowski reviews two museum exhibitions:
A Marriage of Arts and Crafts: Evelyn and William De Morgan, running through February 19, 2023, at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
and
Discovery and Revelation: Religion, Science, and Making Sense of Things, ongoing at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, DC
Cheryl Sadowski writes essays, reviews, and short fiction. Her writing explores the plain weave of everyday life with literature, art, and the natural world. Cheryl’s lyric poem “Tenants” was awarded a first place Grantchester Prize by The Orchards Poetry Journal. Other works have appeared in About Place Journal, EcoTheo, After the Art, and Bay to Ocean Journal. Cheryl lives in Northern Virginia where she works as a communications consultant. She is completing her Master of Liberal Arts degree at Johns Hopkins University.
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The journal's Winter 2023 issue is here! Tune in for a preview of new works at the intersection of art, faith, beauty, and spirit.
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Cheryl Sadowski reviews Jonathan Franzen's latest novel, Crossroads. Her review is published in our current Autumn issue.
Cheryl Sadowski writes essays, reviews, and short fiction from Northern Virginia, where she works in nonprofit management. Her writing explores the plain weave of everyday life with philosophy, art, literature, and the natural world. Cheryl’s lyrical poem “Tenants” was recently awarded a First Place Grantchester Prize from The Orchards Poetry Journal. Other works have appeared in the Bay to Ocean Journal, The Broadkill Review, EcoTheo, and After the Art.
We could use your help! To assist us in increasing the visibility of this podcast, would you consider leaving a review on your listening platform of choice? And if you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to help sustain the work we do to engage spirituality and the arts, please head to the donate page on our website. Thanks so much for your support!
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Interviews Editor Emily Chambers Sharpe speaks with David Zahl, author of Low Anthropologyand editor of the website Mockingbird. A transcript of the interview can be found online in our current Autumn issue.
David Zahl is the director of Mockingbird Ministries and editor-in-chief of the Mockingbird website. Born in New York City and brought up elsewhere, David graduated from Georgetown University in 2001 and then worked for several years as a youth minister in New England. In 2007 he founded Mockingbird in NYC. Today David and his wife Cate reside in Charlottesville, VA, with their three boys, where David also serves on the staff of Christ Episcopal Church. He is the author of A Mess of Help: From the Crucified Soul of Rock N’ Roll, Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technlogy, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What To Do About It, and co-author of Law and Gospel: A Theology for Sinners (and Saints). His most recent book, Low Anthropology: The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself),was published by Brazos in Sept. 2022. Even after all these years, he’s still mourning the end of Calvin and Hobbes (and hoping that Morrissey and Marr will bury the hatchet). His favorite theologian is probably a cross between Johnny Cash, Flannery O’Connor and his brother Simeon.
We need your help! To assist us in increasing the visibility of this podcast, would you consider leaving a review on your listening platform of choice? And if you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to help sustain the work we do to engage spirituality and the arts, please head to the donate page on our website. Thanks so much for your support!
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Adrian Harte reads his poem "Red Rite Hand," and Shae Krispinsky reads her poem "This Is How You End Up Remembering Him."
Adrian Harte is from Monaghan, Ireland, but has lived in Switzerland for twenty years. He has recently had work accepted by the Peregrine Journal, Vita Poetica, Embryo Concepts Zine, Roi Fainéant Press, and Abridged. He has also written Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More, published in 2018.
Shae Krispinsky lives in Tampa, FL, where she fronts the band, Navin Avenue, whose sound she describes as Southern Gothic 70s-arena indie rock with a pop Americana twist. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in Connotation Press, Thought Catalog, The Dillydoun Review, Vending Machine Press, Sybil Journal, and more. She is currently working on her band's second album and a novel.
We could use your help! To assist us in increasing the visibility of this podcast, would you consider leaving a review on your listening platform of choice? And if you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to help sustain the work we do to engage spirituality and the arts, please head to the donate page on our website. Thanks so much for your support!
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Ame Kitchener leads a meditation on the current season and phase of the moon. The text and audio for this meditation can also be found in our Autumn 2022 issue.
Ame Kitchener is a feline-loving, intuitive introvert, listener, circle leader, and Jesus Lover. She is a spiritual wellness life coach and space holder for Moon Celebrations, a community of Christ lovers that experience God through the rhythms and rituals of nature. She leads moon circles for Jesus lovers in her FB community, Moon Celebrations. You can also follow her on IG @mooncelebrations.
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Blake Kilgore reads his poem, "The Parade of Death Requires Labor," and Joanne M. Clarkson reads her poem, "The Beads of War."
Blake Kilgore is the author of Leviathan (2021), a collection of poetry. His writing has appeared in Barely South Review, Flint Hills Review, Lunch Ticket, and other fine journals.
Joanne M. Clarkson’s 6th poetry collection, Hospice House, is forthcoming from MoonPath Press in 2023. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Alaska Quarterly Review, Poetry Northwest, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Nimrod. For many years she worked as a RN specializing in hospice care.
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Connor Walden shares about two of his sculptures, (yearn) and Verbunden: 4+6, which are part of a larger series called Cradles. Click on the link to see the sculptures featured in our current Autumn issue.
Raised with a twin brother in a conservative Christian suburb of Dallas, Connor Walden is an artist currently based in Los Angeles. After spending his formative years as an adult in the liberal, secular cities of Austin and Seattle, Connor finds himself in a state of ambivalence, holding a complex of feelings, ideologies, and communities. Steeped in this current ambivalence and a longing for genuine dialogue, Connor explores the performative and gendered role of individuals and communities in systems of belief through sculpture, performance, video, and installation. He co-founded the seattle residency project and Interloper, the two primary programs of The Milkshake Club, a collaborative duet with Tiffany Danielle Elliott.
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Christopher Honey reads his poem, "I Pray to You, Saint Peter, Whom No One Loves," and Serrah Russell talks about her visual art series, With Child, which can be viewed in our current Autumn issue.
Christopher Honey is an MFA candidate at the University of Saint Thomas. His poetry, essays, and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the Pomona Valley Review, the Building Trades News, and Montgomery Living Magazine. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and daughter.
Serrah Russell is a visual artist and independent curator. Through collage and appropriation, her practice addresses the relationship and tension between internal emotions and external surroundings, often seen through the body and the landscape. Using advertising and editorial images, she transforms what was intended to sell and influence into space for meditation and protest. She lives in Seattle with her husband and son.
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Sandra Miller shares about her sculpture, Woman, featured in our Autumn 2022 issue.
Sandra Miller is a transplant to the DMV from California, drawn by the community of Seekers Church, which provides a loving and encouraging community in support of her call to co-creation with the Holy One through art-making and working for a just world. She is a paper artist, gardener, the founder of of the Interfaith Sacred Conversation on Race & Diversity, and a pen pal to six incarcerated artists.
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Glenn Armstrong reads his poems, "One Step from Madness" and "Sunyata," in our Autumn issue.
Glenn Armstrong has been a journalist, art model, and monk. While attending Bates College he studied with Grace Paley. He lives in San Diego.
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Ruth Farmer reads her short story, "There Should Be Angels," from our current Autumn issue.
Ruth Farmer is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. Her prose and poetry appear in journals and anthologies, and she is a regular contributor to the Addison Independent (VT). Ruth's most recent publication is a collection of poems titled Snapshots in the Wind.
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The Autumn 2022 issue is here! Tune in to hear new works at the intersection of art, faith, beauty, and spirit.
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E.V. Noechel reads her poems, "A Nick, to the Heart, Is a Fatal Wound" and "A Desperate Plea from Your Buddhist Serial Killer."
E.V. Noechel lives with OCD, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, severe chronic pain, and an assortment of delightful rescued animals. Her work has received multiple Pushcart nominations and generous support from the North Carolina Arts Council, Vermont Studio Center, Headlands Center for the Arts, United Arts, Culture and Animals Foundation, and I-Park.
This is our last episode of the season, but don't miss these other works published in our Summer 2022 issue:
Thought in Lévy Flight | Yuan Changming
methuselah’s beard | Dan MacIsaac
Three Poems | Gale Acuff
A Sonnet for Freshman Year | Claude Clayton Smith
Night Calls | Stephen Reilly
Morning Ruckus | Mira Martin-Parker
House of Words: Finding Comfort in the Dwelling Space of Sheltering Mercy
Kathryn Sadakierski
Soul Care Rhythms: A Year of Exploration | Judy Ko and Laura E. Peluso
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We explore the series, On Holy Ground, by visual artist Mary Jane Miller. Four pieces from this series are published in our current Summer issue: A Sword Will Pierce Your Own Soul, Outside Space and Time, A Mary’s Love of Earth, Ideas and Progressions.
Mary Jane Miller is a self-taught Byzantine style iconographer living in Mexico for three decades. Her collections are extraordinary, with a proficient command of egg tempera, and have been exhibited in museums and churches in the United States and Mexico. Her published books include Meditation and Iconography, In Light of Women, and Life in Christ. She teaches 5-day workshops. Contact her atmillericons@gmail.com.
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Linda McCullough Moore reads her poem, "A Case for Repetition," and Michael Hettich reads his poem, "Heaven," from our current Summer issue.
Winner of the Pushcart Prize, Linda McCullough Moore, is the author of a novel, two story collections, a collection of essays, and more than 400 shorter works. Teacher and mentor, she loves helping other writers, and is hard at work on a poetry collection.
Michael Hettich has published a dozen books of poetry, most recently The Mica Mine, which won the 2020 Lena Shull Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society and was published in 2021. A "new and selected" volume is forthcoming in 2023. He has published widely in journals, and in a number of anthologies as well.
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Rhian Swierat talks about her embroidered pieces from two series published in our current Summer issue: Paper Samplers and Pressed Memories.
Rhian Swierat grew up in the Hudson Valley and is now based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her mom taught her embroidery as a child, sharing with her a love of textiles and patterns. Her work has been featured in notable shows throughout the United States, such as the Flat Rate Box Group Show, Modified Arts Gallery, Phoenix, AZ; SCALE, Deanna Evans Projects, Brooklyn, NY; and others. She’s also taken part in the Together, Separately Residency, Cel del Nord, Barcelona, Spain.
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Kathleen Hellen reads her poem, "compass my eyes to speed of light," and Marda Messick reads her poems, "Spiritual Exercise" and "Beachfront Prophecy," from our Summer 2022 issue.
Kathleen Hellen’s collection meet me at the bottom is forthcoming in Fall 2022 from Main Street Rag. Her credits include The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, her award-winning collection Umberto’s Night, published by Washington Writers’ Publishing House, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento.
Marda Messick is a poet and accidental theologian living in Tallahassee, Florida. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Christian Century, Delmarva Review, Literary Journal, and other publications.
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Phocas reads his prose poem, "Dustfully," published in the current Summer issue.
Phocas lives in central Michigan.
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G.R. Kramer reads his poem, "Traffic Light," and John C. Mannone reads his poem, "Second Thoughts," from our current Summer issue.
G. R. Kramer grew up in Canada, Kenya and the U.S., the child of refugees from fascism and communism. A lawyer by vocation, his passion for writing poetry has rekindled in late middle-age. His first poetry chapbook is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Go to https://blueguitar58.wixsite.com/website-1 for more.
John C. Mannone has poems in North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, Windhover, Braided Way, Spirit Fire Review, Credo Espoir, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and Scriblerus Arts Journal. He has collections: Disabled Monsters (Linnet’s Wings Press, 2015), Flux Lines: The Intersection of Science, Love, and Poetry (Linnet’s Wings Press, 2021), Sacred Flute (Iris Press, 2022), and Song of the Mountains (Middle Creek Publishing, 2023). A retired professor of physics living in Knoxville, Tennessee, he edits poetry for Abyss & Apex, Silver Blade, Liquid Imagination, and American Diversity Report.
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"Creativity is an invitation from God to participate in adding beauty to the world." —Patrice Gopo Our Interviews Editor, Emily Chambers Sharpe, talks with writer Patrice Gopo about storytelling, the search for belonging, and creativity as a sacred invitation from God to participate in sacred work. A transcript of the interview is published in our current Summer issue.
Patrice Gopo is the child of Jamaican immigrants and was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She is an award-winning essayist and the author of All the Colors We Will See (a Fall 2018 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection). As a child, she loved twirling a globe, dreaming about cities and states, countries and continents. As an adult, she loves words and enjoys pondering how places shape the people we become. She lives with her family in North Carolina—a place she considers another home. All the Places We Call Home is Patrice’s first picture book. Please visit www.patricegopo.com to learn more.
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Ellis Purdie reads his poem, "Praise as Acrostic," and Remi Recchia reads his two poems, "From Isaiah" and "From Psalms."
Ellis Purdie is a graduate of The Center for Writers at The University of Southern Mississippi. Along with writing and teaching, he spends a good deal of time looking for herpetofauna in east Texas, where he lives with his wife, son, and daughter.
Remi Recchia, author of Quicksand/Stargazing (Cooper Dillon Books, 2021) and Sober (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2022), is a trans poet and essayist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. A four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Remi’s work has appeared or will soon appear in Best New Poets 2021, World Literature Today, Columbia Online Journal, Harpur Palate, and Juked, among others. He holds an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University and currently serves as an associate editor for the Cimarron Review.
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Nathan Geeting reads his short story, "God Help Him," from our current Summer issue.
When Nathan Geeting can pull himself away from the kitchen (where he cooks for family and friends), the dining room (where he puzzles with his wife), or the living room (where he plays with his red-headed poodle, Brûlée), he spends his time writing. His nonfiction has been featured in the Englewood Review of Books.
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Andy Oram reads his poem, "Half Life," and Gabriella Brand reads her poem, "Where We Come From" -- both from our Summer 2022 issue.
Andy Oram is a writer and editor in the computer field. Print publications where his writings have appeared include The Economist, the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, and Vanguardia Dossier. He has lived in the Boston, Massachusetts, area for almost 50 years.
Gabriella Brand's short stories and poetry appear in such publications as New Lit Salon, Critical Art, and Résonance. Her travel writing can be found in The Globe and Mail and The Christian Science Monitor. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and serves as the Poet Laureate of her small Connecticut town.
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Sarah Law reads her essay, "The Soul a City," from our Summer 2022 issue.
Sarah Law lives in Norwich, UK, and is an Associate Lecturer for the Open University. She has published six collections of poetry, and her novel, Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven, is forthcoming from Wipf and Stock. She edits the online journal Amethyst Review.
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Our Summer 2022 issue is here! Tune in to hear new works at the intersection of art, faith, beauty, and spirit.
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Grace Phong leads a guided sitting meditation from the Zen tradition. Listen here on the podcast or watch the video in our Spring issue.
Born in Hong Kong, Grace Phong has a strong passion for body and holistic well-being. She is a spiritual director and a mental health therapist, and has been doing Zen meditation for 20 years.
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Our Interviews Editor Emily Chambers Sharpe speaks with poet Libby Kurz about her poetry, her experiences as a cardiothoracic nurse, and other influences in her writing. You can find the transcript to this interview in our Spring 2022 issue.
Libby Kurz is a writer, poet, registered nurse, and US Air Force veteran. She holds a BS in Nursing from UNC-Charlotte and an MFA in Creative Writing from National University. Her work has appeared in Ruminate, Relief Journal, Driftwood Press, and Literary Mama, among others. Her poetry was awarded first prize in the New Voices category of the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2017 Contest. In 2019, Finishing Line Press published her poetry chapbook, The Heart Room, which chronicles her experiences working as a cardiothoracic nurse in Norfolk, Virginia. She has taught creative writing classes for The Muse Writers Center and the Armed Services Arts Partnership. After a decade of moving cross country with the military, she now resides in Virginia Beach with her husband, three children, and Swiss Mountain Dog.
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Libby Kurz reads her poems, "Joy" and "Born Blind. And Barbara Sabol reads her poem, "Flare."
Libby Kurz is a writer, poet, registered nurse, and US Air Force veteran. She holds a BS in Nursing from UNC-Charlotte and an MFA in Creative Writing from National University. Her poetry chapbook, The Heart Room chronicles her experiences working as a cardiothoracic nurse in Norfolk, Virginia. She now lives in Virginia Beach and teaches poetry and trauma writing workshops for The Muse Writers Center. She’s currently at work on a memoir about violence, sexuality, and faith.
Barbara Sabol's fourth collection, Imagine a Town, was published in 2020. Barbara's awards include a grant from the Ohio Arts Council. She lives in Akron, OH.
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Heather Morton reads her essay, "My Slow Uncertain Journey into the Writing Life: Pimps and Johns, Morals and 'Messages,' Faith, Hope, and Divine Partnership."
Heather Morton's work has appeared in Plough, Fathom Magazine, and other publications. A native Oregonian, she lives with her husband and their three children in Cheverly, Maryland. Read more of her writing at www.heatherfmorton.com.
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Samir Knego reads his poem, "Post," and Peter Bankson reads his poem, "Garlic Lover." Both are published in our Spring 2022 issue.
Samir Knego is a multidisciplinary artist and zinester. His current exhibition, The Divine - dreams of disabled gods, combines poetry and visual art and explores disability and ableism through the language and imagery of religion. When he’s not making art, Samir works in a library and listens to lots of heavy metal.
Peter Bankson has been an active Steward of Seekers Church in Washington, DC, for a long time, where he helps support the worship life of the community and keep the building in working order. While his work over the years has focused on serving non-profit organizations, part of his being has lived in artistic expression: crochet, photography, poetry, and prayer.
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Ethan Ashkin Stanton reads his creative nonfiction story, "Chosen People."
Ethan Ashkin Stanton is a husband, father, teacher, writer, and Jewish pantheist with a side of skepticism. He lives in San Jose, California, and studies poetry at San Francisco Creative Writing Institute.
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Devon Balwit reads her two poems from our Spring issue: "Reading Flannery O'Connor while Trapped under the Heat Dome" and "A Reading of Revelation."
Devon Balwit walks in all weather. Her most recent collections are Rubbing Shoulders with the Greats (Seven Kitchens Press 2020) and Dog-Walking in the Shadow of Pyongyang (Nixes Mate Books, 2021). For more of her poems and reviews, please visit https://pelapdx.wixsite.com/devonbalwitpoet.
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Season 4 of our podcast features works from our Spring 2022 issue. Starting us off is Ken Hines, reading his poem, "Notes on Borrowed Wisdom."
A 2021 Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Ken Hines has written poems that appear in AIOTB, Ekphrastic Review, Psaltery & Lyre, and other magazines. His poem “Driving Test” won the Third Wednesday Journal Annual Poetry Prize. All this scribbling takes place in Richmond, Virginia.
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Sean Sexton reads his poem, "Ars Poetica, Obstetrics, Painting, and the Rough Draft."
Sean Sexton of Indian River County, FL, divides his time between managing his family’s 700-acre cattle ranch, painting, and writing, and is author of two volumes of poetry: Blood Writing and May Darkness Restore. His third collection, Portals is due out in Autumn, 2022, from Press 53. He has performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV, the Miami Book Fair International, and High Road Poetry and Short Fiction Festival in Winston Salem, NC. He was nominated for a 2020 and 2021 Pushcart Prize and received a FL Individual Artist’s Fellowship in 2001.
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Our poetry editor reads Jenna K. Funkhouser's poem, "Falling Star, by Romare Bearden" (based on the artwork of Bearden). And Jonathan Chan reads his poem, "apophasis."
Jenna K. Funkhouser is a Pacific Northwest native, author, and poet. Her work has recently appeared in Saint Katherine Review, As It Ought To Be, and Geez Magazine.
Jonathan Chan is a writer, editor, and graduate student at Yale University. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated in Cambridge, England. He is interested in questions of faith, identity, and creative expression.
Join the conversation! Read the Winter issue, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and leave us a voice message here on the podcast.
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Hospitality of the Soul: Visual designer and mental health professional Judy Ko speaks with artist Maria Eugenia Fee about art, theology, and hospitality. This excerpt of their conversation is from a video created by videographer Allen Wong.
As an artist, theologian, and educator, Maria Eugenia Fee embraces the term mestizaje to reference her bi-culture identity, a multi-ethnically rich urban upbringing, and interdisciplinary studies in art and religion. Mestizo is visually represented through the mixed-media composition of her artwork. These notions also drive her theological research explored in the upcoming book The Art of Theaster Gates and a Theology of Hospitality. She is currently an adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University and The Seattle School.
Judy Ko is interested in the intersections of faith, creativity, beauty, truth, trauma, and soul care. She received a design education from Carnegie Mellon and worked as a visual designer in Manhattan before deciding to pursue the field of therapy. She moved to the Pacific Northwest to earn a counseling psychology degree at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. Judy is currently a Licensed Mental Health Associate working as a play therapist in the Seattle area.
Photographer and videographer Allen Wong was trained classically on the piano and violin, and later studied viola. He has played with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra and was a finalist in the Washington State Solo & Ensemble Contest. After picking up the guitar, bass, and drums, he recorded his first EP, As Headaway Ahem. After graduating from the University of Washington with a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering, he produced the Theotech Podcast and had a quick run on YouTube before taking on photography.
Join the conversation! Read the Winter issue, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and leave us a voice message here on the podcast.
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James Owens reads his translation of R. M. Rilke's poem, "Soloist," and Maria Giura reads her poem, "Last Supper."
James Owens's newest book is Family Portrait with Scythe (Bottom Dog Press, 2020). His poems and translations appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in The Christian Century, Dappled Things, and Grain. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in a small town in northern Ontario.
Maria Giura is the author of What My Father Taught Me (Bordighera Press) and Celibate: A Memoir (Apprentice House), which won the 2020 First Place Independent Press Award for Religion Nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in journals including Prime Number, Presence, (Voices) in Italian Americana, Lips, Tiferet, and the Paterson Literary Review. An Academy of American Poets winner, Maria has taught writing at multiple universities, including Binghamton, where she received her PhD in English. Learn more about her at mariagiura.com.
Join the conversation! Read the Winter issue, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and leave us a voice message here on the podcast.
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Marjory Zoet Bankson leads this contemplative practice, "Made by Hand: A Meditation with Clay." Listen here on the podcast or follow along with the video on our website.
Marjory Zoet Bankson is a published author, working artist, and seasoned spiritual guide. As a skilled potter, her biodegradable burial urns have been shown in Baltimore and Washington, DC. A graduate of Radcliffe College (Harvard University), Marjory has an MA in American history from the University of Alaska and an honorary doctorate from Virginia Theological Seminary—cited for her work in lay ministry. Some of her books include Call to the Soul, Creative Aging, The Soulwork of Clay, and most recently, Stalking the Spirit, a history of @seekerschurchdc, a Church of the Saviour community in DC., where she is a Steward and regularly preaches and teaches. She and her husband, Peter Bankson, have been married more than 60 years and currently live in Washington, DC.
Read the Winter issue, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, leave us a voice message here on the podcast!
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James Hannon reads his poem, "Satsang with Guruji," and Julie L. Moore reads her poem, "The False Prophetess Noadiah," both from our Winter 2022 issue.
James Hannon is a psychotherapist in Massachusetts, where he accompanies adolescents and adults recovering from addictions, disappointments, and deceptions. His poems have appeared in Blue Lake Review, Blue River, Cold Mountain Review, and other journals, and in Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets. His second collection, To My Children at Christmas, will be published in 2022 by Kelsay Books.
A Best of the Net and seven-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Julie L. Moore is the author of four poetry collections, including, most recently, Full Worm Moon, which won a 2018 Woodrow Hall Top Shelf Award and received honorable mention for the Conference on Christianity and Literature's 2018 Book of the Year Award. Her poetry has appeared in African American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Image, New Ohio Review, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, and Verse Daily. She is the Writing Center Director at Taylor University, where she is also the poetry editor for Relief Journal. Learn more about her work at julielmoore.com.
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Cheryl Sadowski reads her book reviews, "Finding Meaning in Modernity: Two Books about Quest." She reflects on the books Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for ContentmentbyBenjamin Storey & Jenna Silber Storey and God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaningby Meghan O’Gieblyn.
Cheryl Sadowski writes essays and reviews from Northern Virginia, where she works in nonprofit management. Her writing explores the plain weave of everyday life with philosophy, art, literature, and the natural world. Cheryl's work has appeared in The Broadkill Review, EcoTheo, After the Art, and the Bay to Ocean Anthology.
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B.J. Buckley reads her two poems, "Be as a ringing glass..." and "Funeral" from our Winter issue.
B.J. Buckley is a Montana poet who has worked as a teaching artist in Arts-in-Schools and Communities programs throughout the West and Midwest for over four decades. She has recent/forthcoming work in Calyx, Grub Street, Sugar House Review, and Whitefish Review.
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Rebecca Moon Ruark reads her essay, "An Ode to an Ode about Hands."
Rebecca Moon Ruark is a Catholic writer of nonfiction and fiction, a Mass cantor, and a kitchen dancer. She lives with her husband and twin sons in Maryland, where she is at work on a novel about the healing power of song.
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Alfonso Sito Sasieta reads his two poems, "Pa' Huele" and "A Toddler's Doubt."
Alfonso “Sito” Sasieta is a caregiver, poet, dancer, and father. He lives in Maryland, outside of Washington DC, and he works in a L’Arche community where adults with and without intellectual disabilities share their lives together. Half Lutheran and half Chinese-Peruvian, he enjoys writing poems that explore the mixedness inherent in the musical, spiritual, linguistic backgrounds from each side of his family.
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Stephen J. Wallace reads his short story, "Living Locks," a piece of biblical historical fiction retelling the story of Sampson.
Stephen J. Wallace is a speaker and author. He says he’s a “writer trapped in an engineer’s body, or vice versa.” He enjoys writing technical articles and short stories. He recently finished his first novel, Shelter In Place, which was a finalist in the Launch Pad Manuscript Competition. His short stories have appeared in the Schuylkill Valley Journal, the Mark Literary Review, and Vita Poetica. He has lived in the Washington, DC, area for several years but occasionally visits his home state of Kentucky. Read more at stephenjwallace.com.
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Welcome to the Winter 2022 issue of Vita Poetica. Here's a preview of what we have in store for you this season! The individual audio recordings accompany each piece online and are also heard in a straight audio issue you can stream on our website, www.vitapoetica.org. Exclusive to the podcast are the contributors' own introductions to their pieces and glimpses into what inspired their work. If something speaks to you, would you take a moment to share a response either by sending a voice message here, leaving a comment on Facebook or Instagram, or sending a note to hello@vitapoetica.org or via the contact form on our website? We'll share these messages at the end of the season!
Music you hear in this trailer courtesy of Allen Wong's video in our interview with Maria Eugenia Fee (intro) and John Morris (outro).
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Susan Delaney Spear reads "A Protestant Attends a Funeral Mass," and Jeremy Szuder reads "Find Yourself" and "Easter Fools."
Susan Delaney Spear is an Associate Professor of English at Colorado Christian University. She is the author of Beyond All Bearing, a collection of poems, and co-author of Learning the Secrets of English Verse, a creative writing/poetry textbook. You can find her at susandelaneyspear.com.
Jeremy Szuder has spent 15 years as a musician and graphic designer, 25 years self-publishing Zines, 10 years deejaying, and continues to have illustrations and poems published by fine art and literary publications across the U.S.A. and Canada. He lives in Glendale, California.
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Dancer Emily Wright introduces us to moving meditation as a contemplative practice. You can also join her in creative exploration through movement in the video from our Autumn 2021 issue (scroll all the way down to find the video at the bottom of the page linked).
Based in Charlottesville, VA, Emily Wright is a dancer, movement educator, and author with a passion for the transformative power of dance. An experienced teacher of dance for all ages and a scholar with numerous publications, Emily is available for workshops, master classes, lectures, writing, commissions, and consultation. She offers an online and in-person Movement Medicine class that blends yoga, dance, and contemplation. Her book, Dancing to Tansform: How Concert Dance Becomes Religious in American Christianity, was published in June 2021 by Intellect Press. Learn more about Emily in an interview with her in Vita Poetica’s Autumn 2021 issue.
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Fiona Vigo Marshall reads her poems, "Blue Orchids" and "The Sailors' Church."
Fiona Vigo Marshall’s poems have been published in a variety of outlets including Aesthetica, Ambit, Orbis, and Theology Journal. Her short story “The Street of Baths” won the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize 2016, and her story “The Marvellous Book,” Phantom Drift 2017, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her novel Find Me Falling is published by Fairlight Books, Oxford, 2019, and her second novel, The House of Marvellous Books, is published by Fairlight Books, spring 2022.
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Our Interviews Editor, Emily Chambers Sharpe, speaks with dancer Emily Wright about dance as a heightened form of attention and a vehicle for making meaning together. A transcript of their conversation, as well as a Moving Meditation from Emily Wright, can be found in our Autumn 2021 issue.
Based in Charlottesville, VA, Emily Wright is a dancer, movement educator, and author with a passion for the transformative power of dance. An experienced teacher of dance for all ages and a scholar with numerous publications, Emily is available for workshops, master classes, lectures, writing, commissions, and consultation. She offers an online and in-person Movement Medicine class that blends yoga, dance, and contemplation. Her book, Dancing to Transform: How Concert Dance Becomes Religious in American Christianity, was published in June 2021 by Intellect Press.
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Jacqueline Wallen reads "Naaman Hits Bottom," and Kate Maxwell reads "Her Abundance," both poems from our Autumn 2021 issue.
Jacqueline Wallen is a clinical social worker with a practice of psychotherapy and an Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park.
Kate Maxwell has been published in Australian and International literary magazines. Kate’s interests include film, wine, and sleeping. Her first poetry anthology, Never Good at Maths, is published with Interactive Publications, Brisbane.
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Chad Holley reads his short story, "The Children of the Sun Begin to Wake."
Chad Holley lives in Los Angeles, where he is completing a novel and a collection of stories. His work has appeared in, among other places, Shenandoah, storySouth, Greensboro Review, and Houghton Mifflin's Best American Mystery Stories.
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Ed Meek reads his poems "Passing Away" and "In the Forest" from our Autumn 2021 issue.
Ed Meek has had poems in The Baltimore Review, The Sun, and The Paris Review. His new book, High Tide, came out last September.
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Basira Harpster reads her personal essay, "Wood Heat," from our Autumn 2021 issue.
Basira Harpster is a speech therapist, writer, and gardener in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains. Her poetry appears in Sows’ Ear Poetry Review. She’s currently working on short personal essays and has a memoir in progress.
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The Vita Poetica Journal's Autumn 2021 issue is out! Here's a preview of what we have in store for you this season. You can also head to our website to see the full issue, including visual art and videos, and to stream the straight audio issue.
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We introduce the visual art of Jennifer Anne Moses, who has three paintings featured in our Summer issue. And hear Jeff Burt read his poem, "Jonah."
This is our last episode of this podcast season. We'll be back in October with our Fall issue and a new season of the Journal podcast. If you'd like to submit work to the journal, please visit our website, where you can find submission guidelines and read past issues.
Jennifer Anne Moses is a writer and self-taught artist. Both her visual and written work is informed by the many years she lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her most recent book is The Man Who Loved His Wife, a collection of short stories.
Jeff Burt lives in Santa Cruz County, California, with his wife and works in mental health. He has contributed to Williwaw Journal, Red Wolf Journal, Willows Wept Review, and Poetry and Places.
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L. Ward Abel reads "Cradle the Easter Wind," and Kathleen Gunton reads two centos: "Love's Radiant Play" and "Putting Words Next to Silence." All of the poems can be found in our Summer issue.
L. Ward Abel’s work has appeared in Rattle, The Reader, The Istanbul Review, The Worcester Review, The Honest Ulsterman, hundreds of others, and he is the author of three full collections and ten chapbooks of poetry, including Jonesing For Byzantium (UKA Press, 2006), American Bruise (Parallel Press, 2012), Little Town gods (Folded Word Press, 2016), A Jerusalem of Ponds (erbacce-Press, 2016), The Rainflock Sings Again (Unsolicited Press, 2019), Floodlit (Beakful, 2019), and The Width of Here (Silver Bow, 2021). Abel resides in rural Georgia.
Kathleen Gunton is a poet/photographer who believes one art feeds another. Her words and images often appear in the same journal. Over fifty of her cento poems have appeared in publications such as Amethyst Review, Commonweal, The Cresset, Friends Journal, and Rhino—to name a few.
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Jeannine Marie Pitas reads her poems, "The river that cuts a country in two" and "During the Sixth Extinction," from the Summer issue of our journal.
Jeannine Marie Pitas is a teacher, writer, and Spanish-English literary translator living in Iowa, where she teaches at the University of Dubuque. Her first poetry collection, Things Seen and Unseen, was published by Mosaic Press in 2019. Her favorite poets include Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, and Delmira Agustini.
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Karen Neuberg reads her poem "The Beginning in My Hands," and Mark J. Mitchell reads his poems "Secular Comedy" and "He Attempts to Explain His Religion." All poems can be found in the Summer issue of our journal.
Karen Neuberg is a Brooklyn, NY,-based poet. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection, PURSUIT (Kelsay Press, 2019) and the chapbook, the elephants are asking (Glass Lyre, 2017). She holds an MFA from the New School and is associate editor of the online poetry journal First Literary Review-East.
Mark J. Mitchell has been a working poet for forty years. His latest full-length collection is Roshi:San Francisco published by Norfolk Press. He lives with his wife, the activist, Joan Juster.
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This episode features a contemplative prayer practice known as the "daily examen." Written by Vernée Wilkinson and Ted Wueste, and led by Rev. Mary Amendolia Gardner, "The Daily Examen for Living as an Anti-Racist Person" is published in the Contemplative Practice section of our Summer issue. This guided meditation lasts 10-15 minutes, with silences between steps. It is best listened to in a quiet place, perhaps with a journal to record your thoughts.
Vernée Wilkinson is a spiritual director and nonprofit communications consultant. Dr. Ted Wueste has served in ministry for almost 30 years, with 22 of those years in pastoral ministry. Rev. Mary Amendolia Gardner is an ordained Anglican priest and spiritual director with Coracle and is currently pursuing a DMin at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, in Curating Community through the Arts.
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Rachel Grandey reads "Morning Anointing," and James Owens reads "The Desert Prophets" and "Father to Son" -- all available in our journal's Summer issue.
Rachel, originally from Northeast England, studied literature, linguistics, and anthropology before moving to Southeast Asia to teach English. She enjoys sea-gazing, bird-watching, tea-drinking, and early morning forest-exploring. Her proudest literary achievement to date is winning a signed Manchester United football in a poetry competition at the age of fourteen.
James Owens's most recent book is Family Portrait with Scythe (Bottom Dog Press, 2020). New poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Grain, Queen's Quarterly, The Christian Century, and Dappled Things. He lives in a small town in northern Ontario.
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Interviews Editor Emily Chambers Sharpe speaks with Edward A. Dougherty about the role of the imagination in the work of social justice; moral engagement as both a spiritual and a creative practice; and his most recent book, a collection of essays titled Journey Work: Crafting a Life of Poetry and Spirit (Apprentice House Press, March 2021). A transcript of this interview can also be found in our Summer issue online.
Edward A. Dougherty earned his MFA from Bowling Green State University. In addition to his 11 collections of poetry, he’s been poetry editor at the Mid-American Review, a contributing editor at Rowboat: Poetry in Translation, and a regular contributor to American Microreviews & Interviews. He lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York State and is Professor of English at Corning Community College.
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Poetry Editor Maggie Swofford reads "Rave Haiku" by Rose Knapp, and Gerard Sarnat reads his two poems, "Far Out Space Capsule Hygiene to Avoid Primal Screams" and "Mudita." All of these poems can be found in our Summer issue.
Rose Knapp (she/they) is a poet and electronic producer. She has publications in Lotus-Eater, Bombay Gin, BlazeVOX, Hotel Amerika, Fence Books, Obsidian, Gargoyle, and others. She has poetry collections published with Hesterglock Press and Dostoyevsky Wannabe. She lives in Minneapolis. Find her at roseknapp.net and on Twitter @Rose_Siyaniye.
Gerard Sarnat, MD, has won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest and Poetry in Arts First Place Award/Dorfman Prizes. He has published in Buddhist Poetry Review, NY Times, among many others, as well as by Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Chicago, and Columbia presses. A Stanford professor/healthcare CEO, Gerry has built/staffed clinics for the marginalized, devoted energy/resources toward climate justice on Climate-Action-Now’s board. Married since 1969, Gerry has nine grand/kids.
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Nicole M. Roccas reads her essay, "A 'Slackness of the Soul': Finding Hope in the Existential Time Warp of Acedia."
Nicole M. Roccas is an author and communications professional who writes on matters of faith and spiritual struggle. She lives in the Toronto area and has a PhD in History. Find her on Instagram (@nicoleroccas) and her website (www.nicoleroccas.com).
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Laurie Klein reads "Eavesdropping on Absence," and Matthew J. Andrews reads "Whole and Entire" from our Summer issue.
Laurie Klein is the author of Where the Sky Opens (Poeima/Cascade). A multiple Pushcart nominee and Merton Prize-winner, she lives in the Pacific Northwest. You can see photos of the bowl that inspired Laurie's poem on Vita Poetica's Instagram account or Facebook page, and read more about the bowl on Laurie's blog.
Matthew J. Andrews is a private investigator and writer whose poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Orange Blossom Review, Funicular Magazine, and EcoTheo Review, among others. His debut chapbook, I Close My Eyes and I Almost Remember, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. He can be contacted at matthewjandrews.com.
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Our Reviews Editor, Lila Stiff, reads Cheryl Sadowski's piece, "On Temporal Tranquility," a review of the book Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mindby Alan Jacobs.
Cheryl Sadowski writes creative nonfiction from Northern Virginia, where she works in nonprofit management. Her writing explores memory, time, natural and cultural landscapes. Cheryl's work has appeared in The Broadkill Review, EcoTheo Review, After the Art, and the 2020 Bay to Ocean Anthology. Follow Cheryl's words and pictures on Instagram and Twitter @cherylsadowski.
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Lauren K. Carlson reads two poems: "Prayer" and "God Not Only Did I Walk." Lauren lives in northern lower Michigan and is the author of the chapbook Animals I Have Killed. A graduate of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, you can find more of her work in Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine, Amethyst Review, Pirene's Fountain, and Pleiades: Literature in Context (among others). For more see www.laurenkcarlson.com.
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Jeannine Marie Pitas reads her nonfiction piece, "History Lessons." Jeannine is a teacher, writer, and Spanish-English literary translator living in Iowa, where she teaches at the University of Dubuque. Her first poetry collection, Things Seen and Unseen, was published by Mosaic Press in 2019. Her favorite poets include Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, and Delmira Agustini.
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Introducing the Vita Poetica Journal Podcast
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