We are pleased to present an Image Advent Seminar with Shemaiah Gonzalez!
A Thrill of Hope: The Weary World REJOICES
with Shemaiah Gonzalez
A six-session, three-week craft workshop for writers and thinkers
December 2-18, Tuesdays & Thursdays
3-4 p.m. Eastern
We are pleased to announce our latest Image Seminar, an opportunity to dive deeper into your craft, guided by faculty from our community who understand the unique impulses and challenges facing artists at the intersection of art, faith, and mystery.
The darkness of this world has a way of stifling our senses. We forget that we wait in hopeful anticipation of LIGHT crashing through. Join Shemaiah Gonzalez as she expectantly explores literature that illuminates our weary souls with the thrill of hope.
This seminar will take place over three biweekly sessions. Each week we will explore literature that speaks to the auspicious longing we hold always, but especially in Advent.
This seminar is both for those who yearn to see through the darkness into light and those who are suspicious of the fog of darkness. It will explore literature that drips with an unseen Presence, reminding us to notice Him “approaching at an infinite speed” but also here now in often quiet goodness. We will use this literature as a touchstone for our own work.
Participants will experience:
- Six 60-minute sessions, held biweekly over three weeks.
- Curated literary selections and in-class readings from a variety of prose and poetry masters spanning the past 200 years.
- Generative writing prompts, written in response to or inspired by the curated course literature. Participants can expect to leave class with the beginnings of several pieces. There is no requirement to complete these outside class, though you are welcome to cultivate the seeds gathered in the shared discussion and writing time, should you choose.
- Joyful conversation and a chance to connect with and encourage like-minded writers.
There is a reason we are here right now. As James Baldwin wrote we artists “bear the responsibility of lightening the darkness in which many, many people live.” Let’s learn to see more clearly together.
Meeting times: Tuesdays & Thursdays, December 2-18, 3-4 pm Eastern
December 2, 4, 9, 11, 16 and 18, 3-4 pm Eastern
Audience:
This class is for anyone (at any experience level with creative nonfiction) who is interested in an encouraging writing cohort, reflective writing prompts, intimate discussions on a range of literature, and a timely invitation to creatively consider anew the season of Advent.
$150
This four-week seminar will be held on Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays from August 29-September 21.
About the Instructor
About Shemaiah Gonzalez
Shemaiah Gonzalez is a writer with degrees in English literature (BA) , intercultural ministry (MAPS), and creative nonfiction writing (MFA). She thrives in moments where storytelling, art, literature, and faith collide. Her work has appeared in America Magazine, Image Journal’s Good Letters, Ekstasis, The Curator, and Loyola Press, among others. A Los Angeles native, she now lives in Seattle with her husband and their two teen sons. Learn more at ShemaiahGonzalez.com.
Notable achievements:
- In 2018 her story about her college English professor was selected by Pope Francis to be included in his book Sharing The Wisdom of Time.
- Nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize for her flash nonfiction essay, "Dios Mio" in Whale Road Review.
- Awarded Third Place Catholic Media Award for Best Regular Column-Spiritual Life in 2023 for her Northwest Catholic God in the Ordinary column.
- Keynote “May We Never Lose Our Sense of Wonder” at the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature at the University of Dallas, November 2024.
- Her book, Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight, a collection of essays was published with Zondervan/Harper Collins in April 2025.
- CNF workshop faculty for inaugural Winona Christian Writers Conference at Grace College in summer 2025.
About Image Seminars
Image Seminars are aimed at fostering the growth of those interested in exploring the intersection of art and faith. The Image Seminars offer an opportunity to dive deeper into art and literature, guided by faculty from our community who understand the unique impulses and challenges facing artists and explorers at the intersection of art and faith.
FAQ
For additional questions, please email us at image@imagejournal.org.


