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.
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.
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
Our 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 2021.
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.
Find staff bios and contact information here.
Image is a registered 501(c)3
nonprofit organization.
As of 2023, we earn about half of our income from subscriptions and events, and half comes from the support of our community.
To learn more about donating
to Image, click here.
With the print journal as its flagship publication, Image is a rich community including a variety of programs and projects aimed at the curation, cultivation, celebration, and convening of artists, writers, and those who engage their work.
A week can change a life.
The Glen Workshop, sponsored by Image, began as an innovative and enriching week combining the best elements of a workshop, arts festival, and spiritual retreat. Over twenty years on, the Glen has grown into an annual event featuring nationally acclaimed authors and artists.
Ready to dive in?
We’ve picked these out for you to read...
Confession
This is terror
and this must be how it happens—how need
alchemizes into belief.
Besides, Before, Beyond Beauty
I’m tired of beauty. Or rather, I’m tired of hearing the word “beauty” overused and misapplied.
First Men and Original Sins
We say we come in peace for all mankind, but we are actually warriors, killers, contaminated by something malign and grievous. But still we come.
Sam’s House
I hear, though, how torn he is: pulled toward something that seems to shame him. I think he half hates himself, and—like many men—he turns self-hatred into the hatred of others, especially women.
Who Is My Mother, Who Are My Brothers?
This essay will appear in Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical, an anthology from Cascade Books, edited by Hannah Faith Notess. ON THE DAY of my baptism, my father stood at the back of the church—hung-over, or quite possibly drunk even at that early hour—and shouted, “Hooray for Sara!” as…
A Conversation with Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson—unapologetic Calvinist, committed humanist, brilliant writer—is undoubtedly one of the most important contemporary American authors. Born and raised in northern Idaho, she was educated at Pembroke College (now part of Brown University), where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and at the University of Washington, where she received her MA and PhD in literature. She…
Language and the Act of Faith
This issue includes a special section on language that begins on page 35. For writers and artists concerned with faith, words, though slippery, can be like the air we breathe and the water we swim in: the medium that allows for conversation, makes our common life possible, and shapes all our experiences—even, as the distinguished…
A Conversation with Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams was born in Swansea, south Wales, in 1950, into a Welsh-speaking family, and was educated at Dynevor School in Swansea and Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he studied theology. After two years as a lecturer at the College of the Resurrection, near Leeds, he was ordained deacon in Ely Cathedral before returning to…
Image is supported in part by funding from ArtsWA.
