• Read this in HTML format
• Subscribe to ImageUpdate for free

Our New Website

Contents

Features

Message Board

Debra Dean Readings in Seattle
Registration is Open for International Arts Movement's 2008 Encounter!

ImageNews

Scholarships to the Glen Workshop
Visit Image at the AWP Conference in New York
Scott Cairns Reading at Elliott Bay, Feb. 9
Seattle Pacific University MFA Program Application Deadline
The Milton Center Postgraduate Fellowship Deadline
Register Now for the 2008 Glen Workshop!

Features

Welcome to the New Image Website

Thanks to financial support from a handful of donors, and with the expert help of Coptix, a Chattanooga-based firm that specializes in web design and hosting, we’ve been able to undertake a complete overhaul of our website. We’ve made dozens of changes, large and small. This special issue of ImageUpdate is your guide to all the new features on the site.

The first thing you will notice is a crisp but sumptuous design. The home page sports a large “feature bar” with over half a dozen different items. There are now two sets of menu bars—don’t neglect the one at the top, even though it is smaller, because it contains links to most of our programs. On the left-hand side you’ll see the link to our popular Artist of the Month Feature, the Current Issue table of contents, and an easy way to sign up for ImageUpdate.

Please keep in mind that while we have all of our essential pages up and running, it will take us a while to migrate our extensive archive of materials from back issues, several years' worth of Artists of the Month, 130+ issues of ImageUpdate, etc. We and our trusty interns are working steadily at it. Check back in over the coming weeks and you'll see the site fill out. And you can continue to use all the existing features of the site, from our message board, the ImageForum, to our E-shop and easy online subscription interface.

Visit the new home page here.

Good Letters: The Image Blog

A major new addition to Image’s web presence is Good Letters, a daily blog that will focus on the intersection of faith and contemporary art. We’ve handpicked a dozen or so of our favorite writers to post on literature, art, music, film, theater, and more from a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints. We’ve got novelists and screenwriters, a classical composer and a rock musician, twenty-somethings and, well, older-somethings. As Image editor Gregory Wolfe writes in the introductory post: “We are confident that what you will find here on a consistent basis cannot be easily found elsewhere. The contributors to Good Letters are not only gifted writers but they will also be producing meditations rather than polemics. Just as Image is grounded in the language of art—of drama and lyric and narrative—so this blog will be marked by reflective prose rather than political pronouncements. The writers will not only comment on new books, visual art, music, and so forth, but many of them will also write from their own experience as art-makers.” Wolfe goes on to note a broader cultural consideration behind Good Letters: “At a time when many people treat religious faith as inherently irrational, if not fanatical, thinkers like Pope Benedict XVI have spoken of the deep and enduring relationship between faith and reason. While we believe strongly in the importance of that discussion, we hope to provide a somewhat different perspective—stemming from an interest in the ancient bond between faith and imagination. Contrary to myths embraced by many believers and secularists alike, we believe that this bond remains strong, and is getting stronger. Image bears witness to the vitality of this tradition.” Finally, don’t forget that you can subscribe to this blog as an RSS feed so that you won’t miss a single post!

Inside the Current Issue: Special Interviews and More

Each quarter, we’ll be offering lead-ins to specially selected pieces from the current issue of the print journal. We know that Image can be challenging reading, so we hope this web exclusive content—author interviews, specially written introductions to material from the current issue posted to the site, and editors’ commentary on why we loved a certain piece—will make the journal more accessible to those who find it challenging, and more enjoyable for those who already read it cover to cover. You will find these features by clicking on the appropriate screen on the “feature bar” on our home page. For the new issue (#56), we’ve done an interview with Paul Mariani and asked Laura Good to write a short introduction about why she wrote her powerful essay, “First Year,” about her experience of marriage and some dramatic encounters she and her husband had with their neighbors.

Read one of our pilot features, an interview with Paul Mariani about the excerpt from his biography of nineteenth-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, here.

Tales of Transformation: Web Exclusives About Our Programs

We’ll also be running feature articles highlighting our programs: the first-person experiences of our Shaw and Milton Center Fellows, event attendees, writers and artists who have found nurture and support from Image, and more. The mission of Image is to transform the culture through the renewal of the Judeo-Christian imagination: this means that we aim to change lives and enrich both the religious community and the public square. The best way to gauge the meaning of this impact is to hear first-hand from those who have been changed.

Read our first feature, about Yale alumnus Lucas Kwong’s summer as a Luci Shaw Fellow, here.

Share, Comment, Print, and E-Mail: Spreading the Word

One of the coolest things about the new site is the way we have made interaction with our content easier and more streamlined. For example, you can now print and e-mail most of the articles and other content pages we’ve posted online. And with the rise of social networking sites and other forms of web content aggregation, you will also be able to use the Share feature to send links to more than a dozen sites, including Facebook, del.icio.us, and Yahoo MyWeb. Best of all, we’ve now made it possible for you to interact directly with the site through your own comments—and not just within our blog, Good Letters. Take our list of “100 Writers of Faith” (which can be found in the Resources section: this is a selection we’ve made of great twentieth century writers). If you think someone has been left off that list you can now write a comment that will appear at the bottom of that page. As an organization, we are all about building community. And now you, the community, can be present on the site in a palpable way. We can’t wait to hear from you.

We hope you enjoy the new site. If you have feedback, please let us know.

Message Board

If you have information other ImageUpdate readers might find interesting, share it here! Do you have a question that you hope a member of the ImageUpdate community might have the answer to? Ask it here. Have your messages posted by sending an e-mail to gwolfe@spu.edu.

Debra Dean Readings in Seattle

Debra Dean, author of The Madonnas of Leningrad, will be in Seattle this month on tour for her new book, Confessions of a Falling Woman (Harper Perennial). Dean will be reading and signing at Third Place Books on Feb. 20 at 7 pm and Queen Anne Avenue Books on Feb 21 at 6:30 pm. Dean’s much-anticipated collection of short stories, Confessions of a Falling Woman, gathers together ten of her stories, five of which are being published for the first time and others that have previously appeared in Seattle Review, Mid-American Review, and Calyx.

For more information, visit Queen Anne Avenue Books and Third Place Books online.

Registration is Open for International Arts Movement's 2008 Encounter!

Artists and creative catalysts from all over the world will gather in New York City for International Arts Movement's 2008 Encounter, "Generative Creativity: Transforming the Cultural River," Feb. 28-Mar. 1 at Tribeca Performing Arts Center (Borough of Manhattan Community College).  All disciplines of the arts will be represented as attendees participate in a juried art exhibit, a juried music competition, a curated film series, culture-defining lectures, musical performances, poetry readings, topical workshops, vibrant inter-disciplinary artistic collaborations & much more!  Presenters and performers include Dick Staub, Terry Teachout, Sarah Hanssen, Barbara Takenaga, Miguel Sanchez Romera, Micheal O'Siadhail, Rob Mathes, and Makoto Fujimura.  Please click here for more information or to register.

ImageNews: The Scoop on Our Programs

Scholarships to the Glen Workshop

Thought about attending the Glen Workshop? Cursed the economic fate that prevented you from going? Curse no more. Every year we’re staggered by the generosity of donors who help give a leg-up to Glen Workshop participants. This year, we have more scholarships to offer writers and artists than ever, thanks to generous contributions from CIVA; the writing collective known as The Master’s Artist; and friends of Don Murdock, former executive director of Laity Lodge, who set up a new scholarship to nurture an emerging artist or writer in his memory. Also available are a songwriting scholarship, made possible by singer-songwriter Kate Campbell, The Paul and Eileen Mariani Fellowship for Poets, and a scholarship for a Canadian artist or writer attending the Glen for the first time, thanks to City in Focus of Vancouver B.C. To apply for a scholarship, send a manuscript of no more than ten pages in length; slides or good color copies of your visual art; or a CD of three original songs, preferably recent works; plus a cover letter explaining your need, and a completed registration form to: Image, 3307 3rd Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119. Scholarships will be awarded based both on need and quality of work. The final deadline for applications is April 1, but don’t wait! Several classes are already filling fast, including Fiction, Photography, and Spiritual Writing, so we encourage you to get your application in soon in order to hold your class and housing space. (Mixed media is currently full, but you may apply now for a second choice and add your name to the waitlist, should space open up.) After February, we also recommend that you phone, at 206-281-2988, to check availability before preparing your application. All applicants will be notified by April 15. See you in August!

For more details, go to the Glen Scholarships page.

Visit Image at the AWP Conference in New York

The annual conference put on by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) is an event we look forward to every year. This year’s AWP Conference in New York City has sold out, but you can still visit the Image booth on Saturday, February 2, when the Bookfair will be open to the public (we’ll be located at Booth #B77). If you’re in the area, stop by the Bookfair at New York’s Hilton and say hello. We’ll have information about Image and its associated programs, including the low-residency MFA program at Seattle Pacific University. You can also get discounted back issues, purchase a cool Image t-shirt, and even pick up a free “Realist of Distances” button. Curious? Drop by. We love meeting our readers face to face.

For more information on the AWP Bookfair, click here.

Scott Cairns Reading at Elliott Bay Book Co.
Saturday, February 9, 5 p.m.

A poet, essayist, and Eastern Orthodox convert, Scott Cairns will read from his new memoir Short Trip to the Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven—A Pilgrimage, a chronicle of a unique midlife crisis manifested in the desperate need to seek out prayer. Provoked by the realization that his spiritual life was “progressing at a snail's pace,” Cairns traveled to an Orthodox monastery on the Greek island of Mt. Athos, hoping to find a spiritual mentor. Cairns looks back on his journey with down-to-earth wit, in prose that is “earthy and blessedly not sacharrine,” offering a “unique and often compelling perspective on life as a pilgrim” (Publishers Weekly). Cairns will also read from Love's Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life, a gathering of new translations and adaptations from Christian mystics spanning the 1st through 19th centuries. Scott Cairns has published several books of poetry and prose, including Compass of Affection and Philokalia, and his writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The New Republic, Books & Culture, and Image. He was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.

For directions to Elliott Bay Book Company, click here. This event is free and open to the public.

Seattle Pacific University MFA Program Application Deadline: February 15

The MFA at SPU is a creative writing program for apprentice writers—both Christians and those of other traditions—who not only want to pursue excellence in the craft of writing but also place their work within the larger context of the Judeo-Christian tradition of faith. Current faculty mentors include Bret Lott, Gina Ochsner, Robert Clark, Leslie Leyland Fields, Jeanine Hathaway, and Jeanne Murray Walker. Students work with faculty mentors during the year by exchanging manuscripts and critiques, and attend two intensive ten-day residencies each year, one in the summer alongside Image’s Glen Workshop and one in March on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. The deadline to apply for summer 2008 admission is February 15.

Click here for more information, including a link to the online application.

The Milton Center Postgraduate Fellowship Deadline: March 15

The Milton Center postgraduate fellowship brings emerging writers of Christian commitment to Image, where their primary goal is to complete their first book-length manuscript in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. During their time at the Center, fellows will have a rich experience of literary and spiritual community; they will interact with the editorial staff of Image and the English department at Seattle Pacific University, participate in the Friday writer's workshop, and enjoy the lively literary scene in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

For more information and to download an application, click here.

Register Now for the 2008 Glen Workshop!

“The Artist and the City: Art and Faith in the Public Square”
July 27 – August 3, 2008
The Glen Workshop is an illuminating conference on the arts and religion, where participants practice and strengthen their craft and vision in community. This weeklong event combines the best elements of a workshop, an arts festival, and a symposium. By exploring this year’s theme, “The Artist and the City: Art and Faith in the Public Square,” participants will share a common ground for discussion during the week. Morning workshops are small enough to allow the faculty to give close attention to each participant—to beginners as well as those advanced in their craft. This year’s faculty includes poets Margaret Gibson and Daniel Tobin, fiction writer Valerie Sayers, photographer Kathy Hettinga, illustrator Barry Moser, assemblage artist Barry Krammes, playwright Mark St. Germain, musicians Linford Detweiler and Karin Berquist of Over the Rhine, and spiritual writer Ann McCutchan. A seminar class, “Art, the City & the Beloved Community” will be led by Tim Rollins. For artists and non-artists alike, the seminar is a forum to explore the workshop theme in more depth through discussion and hands-on collaborative art making. Afternoons and evenings at the Glen feature faculty readings, lectures, and presentations. Each evening concludes with an ecumenical worship service that incorporates the arts, led by pastor Debbie Blue. Free time offers participants opportunities for writing, conversation, hiking, and exploring the stunning scenery and cultural treasures in and around Santa Fe. Surrounded by the stark, dramatic beauty of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Glen is hosted at St. John’s College campus and is within easy reach of the rich cultural, artistic, and spiritual traditions of northern New Mexico. Please note that class sizes are limited: don’t wait too long to register!

To register for the Glen Workshop, or to find out more information, click here. If you are on the Image subscriber list, you’ll automatically receive a brochure. If you’d like to have one mailed to you, send us an e-mail by clicking here.

ImageUpdate

Publisher: Gregory Wolfe
Managing Editor: Beth Bevis
Layout: David Rither
Contributors: Gregory Wolfe, Julie Mullins

ImageUpdate is the biweekly e-mail newsletter from Image, a quarterly print journal that explores the relationship between Judeo-Christian faith and art through contemporary fiction, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, music, and dance. Each issue also features interviews, memoirs, essays, and reviews.

ImageUpdate brings you news about books, CDs, organizations, websites, conferences, exhibitions, and tours—all of which inhabit the intersection between faith and imagination. ImageUpdate will also notify you whenever a new issue of Image is printed, an Image event is upcoming, or new content is posted to our website.

To unsubscribe, send a message to listserver@spu.edu consisting of the text "unsubscribe imageupdatenewsletter" in the body of the message.

Thinking of changing your e-mail address? Want to keep ImageUpdate coming to your inbox? Please remember to unsubscribe your old address and subscribe your new address. To unsubscribe, send a message to listserver@spu.edu consisting of the text "unsubscribe Imageupdatenewsletter" in the body of the message, followed by your old email address. To subscribe your new address, send a message to listserver@spu.edu consisting of the text "subscribe Imageupdatenewsletter" followed by your new email address. Thanks for your help!

Copyright © 2007 Center for Religious Humanism. All rights reserved.