Image: About Us

Anchored by a quarterly arts journal, Image is a lively community that gathers readers, writers, artists and art-appreciators in person and online.

Mission: Image fosters contemporary art and writing that grapple with the mystery of being human by curating, cultivating, convening, and celebrating work that explores religious faith and spiritual questions.

Vision: Image is animated by our vision to be a vibrant thread in the fabric of culture, contributing to mainstream literary and artistic communities by demonstrating the vitality of contemporary art and literature invigorated by religious faith.

Read Image's full vision statement

The best way to get to know our work is to taste and see. Here are some highlights from recent issues:

FICTION

Sarah Stone, Rising with the Seas
Andrew Krivak, Moth and Rust
Renee Simms, Assembly Line Prayer
Melanie Rae Thon, All Her Beautiful Children

NONFICTION

Lee Isaac Chung, Love Letters
Jamie Smith, The Way of the Critic
Robert Cording, In the Unwalled City
Emily Bernard, From the Stranger in Me...
Nate Klug, My Desert Saints
Chloe Garcia Roberts, Aparture
Parnaz Foroutan, Haji Gershin’s Hamam
Sara Zarr, This Contained Life
Anthony Domestico, The Wolf Hour

POETRY

Linda Gregerson, Not So Much an End as an Entangling
Rae Armantrout, Conversations
Jessica Jacobs, Godwrestling
B.H. Fairchild, My Mother, on Horseback, in a Blizzard
Bruce Bond, Augustine
Kim Garcia, Low Road to a High Place
Christian Detisch, Hospital Theodicy, Overnight Call

INTERVIEW

James Elkins
Leslie Jamison
Miho Nonaka
Carl Phillips

VISUAL ART

Askia Bilal, In the Studio

VISUAL ART

Duncan Simcoe, Fade to Black

VISUAL ART

Emmanuel Osahor, In the Studio

VISUAL ART

Preston Singletary, Shape-Shifter

Details

Staff

Editorial Advisory Board

Image section editors include culture editor Nick Ripatrazone, visual arts editor Aaron Rosen, fiction editor Melissa Pritchard, poetry editor Shane McCrae, and creative nonfiction editor Lauren F. Winner.

Visit this page for bios of all of our editorial advisors: Jonathan Anderson, Emily Bernard, Belle Boggs, Scott Cairns, Casey Cep, Mia Chung-Yee, Lisa Ann Cockrel, André Daughtry, Nausikaä El-Mecky, Carolyn Forché, Katie Ford, Ted Gioia, Joe Hoover, Silas House, Leslie Jamison, Beth Kephart, Phil Klay, Michael Takeo Magruder, Christopher Merrill,
Tova Mirvis, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Jamie Quatro, Meaghan Ritchey, Dua Abbas Rizvi, Joan Silber, Timothy B. Tyson, Crystal Wilkinson, Rowan Williams, Christian Wiman.

Board of Directors

Who We’ve Published

Appearing in Image’s pages are: Chimamanda Adichie, John Ashbery, Rae Armantrout, Christopher Beha, Molly McCully Brown, Robert Olen Butler, Scott Cairns, Victoria Chang, Bruce Cockburn, Annie Dillard, Shusaku Endo, Louise Erdrich, Carolyn Forche, Katie Ford, Dana Gioia, Lorna Goodison, Mary Gordon, Ron Hansen, Linda Hogan, Oscar Hijuelos, John Irving, Leslie Jamison, Phil Klay, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, Amit Majmudar, Shane McCrae, Marilyn Nelson, Kathleen Norris, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Flannery O'Connor, Mary Oliver, Carl Phillips, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Jaime Quatro, Marilynne Robinson, George Saunders, Sufjan Stevens, Barbara Brown Taylor, John Updike, Wim Wenders, Elie Wiesel, Joy Williams, Rowan Williams, Christian Wiman, Lauren F. Winner, and more.

Awards and Distinctions

Material first published in Image has appeared in the Pushcart Prize anthology, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Best American Spiritual Writing, O. Henry Prize Stories, The Art of the Essay, New Stories from the South, Best Christian Short Stories, Best Christian Writing, and Best American Movie Writing. Image has also been nominated by Utne Reader for an Alternative Press Award for Spiritual Coverage, and has been excerpted by Harper's, the Wilson Quarterly, and Utne Reader, and featured on-line at LitHub and Poetry Daily and on the air at Reader's Almanac.

History

The pilot issue of Image was published from a basement in Front Royal, Virginia, in 1989 by editors Gregory Wolfe and Harold Fickett. Its founding editorial board consisted of Larry Woiwode, Andrew Hudgins, Paul Mariani, John Dillenberger, Steve Hawley, and Thomas Gordon Smith; the founding publication committee included Eugene V. Clark, Richard Foster, and Luci Shaw.

After appearing irregularly for its first five years, Image began publishing on a quarterly basis in 1994 and has done so continuously ever since. James K.A. Smith became editor in 2018, when longtime managing editor Mary Kenagy Mitchell became executive editor. Mitchell and Smith appointed a team of section editors including Shane McCrae (poetry), Melissa Pritchard (fiction), Nick Ripatrazone (culture), Aaron Rosen (visual art), and Lauren Winner (creative nonfiction). Longtime staffer Sara Arrigoni began serving as Image’s publisher in 2022.

Out of the journal have grown a number of lively programs over the years, including workshops, conferences, seminars, fellowships, online classes, readings, and concerts. Our flagship event is the Glen Workshop, an annual week-long summer workshop for artists and writers, which we began hosting in 2000.

What They’re Saying

“Image is a realistic, valuable, and extraordinarily interesting magazine. Its writing and artwork is simple, direct, and without pretension—like the best of all American writing. It deserves generous support—and applause.”
—Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“Image is essential and beautiful, full of stories, poetry, essays, and art that wrestle with spirituality and religion, not in any way that feels didactic or programmatic, but through open exploration and a willingness to be surprised. Literary magazines like Image give us a chance, as readers and writers, to enter into a multifaceted, meaningful conversation with so many contemporary voices, ideas, and imaginings.”
—Sarah Stone, author of Hungry Ghost Theater: A Novel

It’s a vital contribution. One of the things that most needs saying to the cultured despisers of religion today is that the classical language of faith is overflowing with resources for imagining and understanding human experience at depth. Image shows the seriousness of the language of faith in keeping the human world large and difficult and interesting.”
—Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

“Image occupies a unique place in the religion/arts world. No other journal manages to maintain such academic integrity while at the same time avoiding theological jargon. No other journal manages to offer such depth while still remaining comprehensible to a general readership. No other journal manages to be so provocative while also being so full of common sense. And no other journal in this field begins to match Image for quality of presentation. A major achievement with a rich and promising future.”
—Jeremy Begbie, Duke Divinity School

“A beautiful magazine.”
—Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery Award-winning author

“Whenever I put down an issue of Image, I find that my sense of wonder has deepened. I feel more able to live with a full sense of creation and human experience… more able to fully live where I am, in this broken, needful present.”
—Lauren Winner in Christianity Today

“This magazine fills a real gap in the area of art and religion, and I am convinced that for many people this journal will be a very important source of better understanding of the deep links between art and religion.”
—Henri J.M. Nouwen, author of Behold the Beauty of the Lord

“Just read the last copy of Image on Tuesday. So beautiful. The writing. The design. The art. All of it.”
—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

“Image is the most meaningful literary journal being published today. Each issue brings us back into an understanding that art pierces the surface of our lives to illuminate the soul; that art is, indeed, a redemptive gift from God.”
—Bret Lott, author of Jewel

“Reading Image is like entering a room full of unpretentious, smart friends talking about fascinating questions. The magazine is not only beautiful; it's probing, thoughtful, and wise about art, politics, and the life of faith. I need Image, and I'm not surprised so many other people do, too.”
—Jeanne Murray Walker, poet and playwright, author of The Queen's Two Bodies

What They’re Saying

“Image is a realistic, valuable, and extraordinarily interesting magazine. Its writing and artwork is simple, direct, and without pretension—like the best of all American writing. It deserves generous support—and applause.”
—Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“A beautiful magazine.”
—Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery Award-winning author

“Whenever I put down an issue of Image, I find that my sense of wonder has deepened. I feel more able to live with a full sense of creation and human experience… more able to fully live where I am, in this broken, needful present.”
—Lauren Winner in Christianity Today

“This magazine fills a real gap in the area of art and religion, and I am convinced that for many people this journal will be a very important source of better understanding of the deep links between art and religion.”
—Henri J.M. Nouwen, author of Behold the Beauty of the Lord

“Just read the last copy of Image on Tuesday. So beautiful. The writing. The design. The art. All of it.”
—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

“Image is the most meaningful literary journal being published today. Each issue brings us back into an understanding that art pierces the surface of our lives to illuminate the soul; that art is, indeed, a redemptive gift from God.”
—Bret Lott, author of Jewel

Image is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

About half of our income comes from the support of our community via donations. To learn more about supporting Image, click here.

What They’re Saying

“Image is a realistic, valuable, and extraordinarily interesting magazine. Its writing and artwork is simple, direct, and without pretension—like the best of all American writing. It deserves generous support—and applause.”—Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“A beautiful magazine.”—Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery Award-winning author

“Whenever I put down an issue of Image, I find that my sense of wonder has deepened. I feel more able to live with a full sense of creation and human experience… more able to fully live where I am, in this broken, needful present.”—Lauren Winner in Christianity Today

“This magazine fills a real gap in the area of art and religion, and I am convinced that for many people this journal will be a very important source of better understanding of the deep links between art and religion.” —Henri J.M. Nouwen, author of Behold the Beauty of the Lord

“Just read the last copy of Image on Tuesday. So beautiful. The writing. The design. The art. All of it.”—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

“Image is the most meaningful literary journal being published today. Each issue brings us back into an understanding that art pierces the surface of our lives to illuminate the soul; that art is, indeed, a redemptive gift from God.”—Bret Lott, author of Jewel

Image is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

About half of our income comes from the support of our community via donations. To learn more about supporting Image, click here.

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“Image is a realistic, valuable, and extraordinarily interesting magazine. Its writing and artwork is simple, direct, and without pretension—like the best of all American writing. It deserves generous support—and applause.”
—Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“A beautiful magazine.”
—Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery Award-winning author

“Whenever I put down an issue of Image, I find that my sense of wonder has deepened. I feel more able to live with a full sense of creation and human experience… more able to fully live where I am, in this broken, needful present.”
—Lauren Winner in Christianity Today

“This magazine fills a real gap in the area of art and religion, and I am convinced that for many people this journal will be a very important source of better understanding of the deep links between art and religion.”
—Henri J.M. Nouwen, author of Behold the Beauty of the Lord

“Just read the last copy of Image on Tuesday. So beautiful. The writing. The design. The art. All of it.”
—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

“Image is the most meaningful literary journal being published today. Each issue brings us back into an understanding that art pierces the surface of our lives to illuminate the soul; that art is, indeed, a redemptive gift from God.”
—Bret Lott, author of Jewel