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.

Do you remember phrases from hymns or poems or passages that stay with you as touchstones? Has a particular depiction of angels made you curious about heavenly beings? Or has the way an artist worked with light made you think more deeply about that metaphor for divine presence? This workshop will offer an opportunity for you to bring together the practices of lectio divina and visio divina with the practice of your craft.

For four Tuesdays (November 26, December 3, 10, and 17) we'll gather online from 7–8:30 Eastern Time to reflect on and work with words and images we’ve gleaned from centuries of song, poetry and paintings that celebrate this season of waiting. In the spirit of lectio divina, we’ll pause over turns of phrase that offer ways of imagining and recognizing how God comes to us even now—subtly and surprisingly. In that same spirit we'll write in response to artists’ representations of moments in the story of Christ’s birth. You're invited to go where the Spirit leads as you articulate your responses to words and images, and to stay playful as well as prayerful in the course of seeing and working with what they evoke.

From your instructor:
In-class writing exercises will be brief. You'll leave with seedlings you can water on your own time. The final week we'll allow more time for sharing what you've written.

In the course of our time together, I will keep "office hours," during which you may sign up for a 20-minute conversation on Zoom about a writing question or a sample of your choice.

If you wish, you might prepare for the class by reading my small book What's in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause (Eerdmans, 2014).

This intensive will meet on 90-minute Zoom sessions.

Meeting Schedule:
Week 1: November 26
Week 2: December 3
Week 3: December 10
Week 4: December 17

Week One | Writing from Lectio Divina: reflect on what phrases do, the power of line-breaks in poetry, the pleasure of epigraphs, on receptivity, associative thinking, the power of allusion. Brief writing in response to one phrase provided, one of your own choosing.

Week Two | In Conversation with the Communion of Saints: consider phrases that come from different generations, translations, and sensibilities as we return to the practice of allowing a phrase to open a pathway of reflection. In addition, we will experiment with various forms–poetry, prose, lists, and litanies.

Weeks Three | Visio Divina: Writing in response to visual art or the visible environment: reflect on the tradition of ekphrastic poetry and look at examples of poems written in response to paintings that were themselves responses to biblical stories. We'll also consider evocative images of the season, then experiment with ways of approaching the visual environment in the spirit of lectio.

Week Five | Responsiveness as a habit of mind: reflect on how we are called into ongoing conversation within Christian tradition, literary traditions, and public discourse. We'll be sharing pieces participants have developed, doing a final exercise together, and concluding with reflections on the dangerous, life-giving power of words and images.

We will explore these ideas and read and write together in a cohort setting, which will include:

• Four weekly sessions: one 90-minute Zoom sessions each week for four weeks, exploring ancient creative traditions, reflections on a wide array of readings and paintings, and writing together in an intimate and supportive setting.
• Generative writing exercises on Advent themes, offering new ways to explore your craft in rhythm with the liturgical calendar.
• Opportunity for a 20-minute individual meeting with Marilyn McEntyre, providing one-on-one feedback on a writing question of your choice. (Note: Attendees may sign up for office hour appointments on a first-come, first-served basis, and meetings are limited to a max of one per attendee.)

Audience:
This class is for anyone (at any experience level with creative nonfiction and poetry) who is interested in a writing cohort and 1:1 instructor feedback, reflective writing prompts, intimate discussions of a range of artists, and a timely invitation to creatively consider anew the season of Advent.