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Season Two Archive

The Spiritual Discipline of Inspiration: Carey Wallace

Opening the Door: A Conversation with Abstract Painter Lanecia Rouse Tinsley

Keep Death in Halloween: A Conversation with Elizabeth Harper

Friendship and Faith at the Movies: A Conversation with Jeffrey Overstreet and Morgan Meis

Belief and the Body with Molly McCully Brown

Writing and Womaning Online with Tara Isabella Burton, Kaya Oakes, and Natasha Oladokun

In This Here Place, We Flesh: Black Bodies in Art and Church

Season One Archive

This season features eight episodes, including conversations with Image editor in chief James K.A. Smith, art historian Katie Kresser, novelists R.O. Kwon and Chigozie Obioma, and more—plus original music by Sister Sinjin.

Touching Eternity: A Conversation with Scott Cairns and Malcolm Guite

Faith, Justice, Beauty: Carolyn Forché’s Levertov Award Lecture

Mourning Faith: A Conversation with R.O. Kwon

Have Faith in Art: A Conversation with Aaron Rosen

Something to Push Against: A Conversation with Shane McCrae

We Are All Small Things: A Conversation with Chigozie Obioma

Why Do We Need the Arts? A Conversation with James K. A. Smith

The Monster Christ with Katie Kresser

Inside the Special Flannery O'Connor Issue

Issue 94 featured the never-before-published college journal of Flannery O’Connor entitled "Higher Mathematics." On a special episode of our podcast, Gregory Wolfe sits down with Mark Bosco, SJ, who was instrumental in its publication. If you want to read the journal in full, you can purchase Issue 94 here, or subscribe to Image here.

2017 Episodes

Ep.11: The Art of Criticism with Alissa Wilkinson

This podcast guest has many titles: staff film critic at Vox.com, associate professor of English and Humanities at The King’s College in New York City, published co-author, with Robert Joustra, of How to Survive the Apocalypse (Eerdmans), and a 2013 graduate of the Seattle Pacific University MFA program. Most recently, Alissa taught “The Art of Criticism” at the 2017 Glen Workshop, where she and her students talked about criticism, wrote about criticism, and paid special attention to what makes great criticism. You can find her work on Vox’s website, and keep up with her day-to-day on Twitter as @alissamarie.

If you’re interested in the SPU MFA program, learn more at our revamped website: spu.edu/mfa.

Ep. 10: Chasing the Language with Scott Cairns

“To be a poet, you have to write more than you know.” Scott Cairns engages with this idea throughout his interview with Image editor and founder Greg Wolfe, as the pair discuss language, meaning-making, and faith. A recipient of Image’s Denise Levertov award who has been published in our pages over and over again, Scott has been a friend of the journal for years. He currently teaches at the University of Missouri, and also serves as the director for the MFA in Creative Writing at Seattle Pacific University. He has published eight collections of poetry, the most recent being Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems in 2015. In this episode of our show, you’ll hear him read two of his poems, and explore how learning about language enables a richer, deeper sense of what one writes.

For more on Scott, as well as more information about the the SPU MFA program, please visit spu.edu/mfa.

Ep. 9: Going Underground with Chris Hoke

“I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” These words from the Book of Matthew are quoted often, but it’s rare to see someone living them out, and inviting the rest of us to join him. This week on our show, we’re joined by friend of the journal Chris Hoke, who does both of these things.

If you visit Chris’s website, you’ll see three titles under his name: Gang Pastor, Jail Chaplain, and Writer. He and his colleague Neaners Garcia, who is also a former inmate and gang leader, are the founders and Co-Executive Directors of Underground Ministries, a team that works to promote prisoner relationships and reentry after incarceration. Chris chronicles his experiences in his writing, which you can find in several journals, including Image Journal, and on our blog, Good Letters. In 2013, he graduated from the Seattle Pacific University MFA program, and in 2015 HarperCollins published his first book Wanted: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jail, Among Outlaws, and Across Borders.

This year, Chris served as the chaplain at the MFA’s Whidbey residency, where Paul Anderson sat down with him to talk about his work. You are about to hear that conversation. Plus, stay tuned for a sneak peek of our next episode featuring poet Scott Cairns.

Ep. 8: Carolyn Forché and the Poetry of Witness

Ep. 8: Carolyn Forché and the Poetry of Witness

At the Glen Workshop in August, Image editor Greg Wolfe recorded a nearly hour-long conversation with poet and social activist, Carolyn Forché. Hailed not only for her exquisite poetry but also for her work in promoting greater awareness of “the poetry of witness,” Forché is at once gentle and passionate. Over the course of the conversation she ranges over a variety of topics, from her teaching style to the meaning of “presence” to memorable stories of her friendships with figures like poet Czeslaw Milosz and martyred El Salvadoran bishop, Oscar Romero—about whom she is writing in a new memoir.

Ep. 7: Paul Willis, Poet of the Wild

Ep. 7: Paul Willis, Poet of the Wild.

In today's episode, Greg Wolfe sits down with poet, fantasy writer, and essayist Paul Willis to discuss his new poetry collection Getting to Gardisky Lake. Widely considered one of our best living nature writers, Willis is the former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, CA and a professor at Westmont College. His work has appeared in The Best American Poetry and has been featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac.

Also, Paul Anderson reviews A Deeper Understanding, a stunning new album from The War on Drugs that has the markings of an instant rock and roll classic.

Ep. 6: Harrison Scott Key, The World's Funniest Memoirist

Ep. 6: Harrison Scott Key, The World’s Funniest Memoirist

Harrison Scott Key's debut memoir “The World's Largest Man,” is the winner of the 2016 Thurber Prize for American Humor. His wry, dead-pan prose has drawn comparisons to David Sedaris and Mark Twain, yet Key's voice is entirely original. In today's episode, he tells Gregory Wolfe about his path from childhood cut-up to celebrated memoirist.

Ep. 5: Life in the Dark Pt. 2: A Deeper Dive into the Film Issue

Today we take a deeper dive into the pages of the Film Issue. Mary Kenagy Mitchell sits down with filmmaker Scott Teems and writer Gareth Higgins, who guest edited Issue 93, to discuss their vision for this amazing project. Also, contributing poets Scott Cairns and Natasha Oladokun read their poems from the issue, all of which respond to film (Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Paul Mazurky’s Tempest, and Jane Campion’s The Piano) in some way or another.

Ep. 4: Life in the Dark Pt. 1: Exploring the Image Film Issue

Our summer film issue has arrived, so we’re devoting the next couple episodes of the podcast to explore its pages. Guest edited by Scott Teems and Gareth Higgins, the film issue features a symposium of sixteen filmmakers, actors, and critics reflecting on “the film that helps me live better”—including Scott Derrickson, Tony Hale, and more. The issue also features interviews on film, faith, and mystery with Mira Nair and Rodrigo Garcia, and a roundtable discussion with directors Debra Granik, David Lowery, and James Ponsoldt, and film critic Alissa Wilkinson.

Today, Tyler McCabe joins us to talk about his essay in the issue called “The Many-Voiced God,” which considers reality television as a means of myth-making in modern life. Then, Greg Wolfe sits down with film critic Jeffrey Overstreet to unpack the film issue in detail.

Ep. 3: Science, Faith, and Horse Racing

This week on The Image Podcast, award-winning non-fiction writer Susanne Antonetta joins us to talk about how science, specifically neuroscience and astrophysics, can lead us towards both mystery and spiritual insight.

Then, Image managing editor Mary Kenagy Mitchell and Greg discuss C.E. Morgan’s Sport of Kings, “a novel that is ostensibly about horse racing, but is competing for much higher stakes.”

Ep. 2: Gina Ochsner and the Power of Useless Art

On Episode 2 of The Image Podcast, Gina Ochsner, author of The Hidden Letters of Velta B., joins us to discuss the power of “childish” art forms like folk and fairy tales.

Also, Greg Wolfe and Paul Anderson sit down to discuss Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders's bizarre debut novel. Don't worry; you can still listen if you haven't read the book! Paul also shares a piece from the Good Letters archive about his days as a teacher in Chicago, and how Image found its way into the classroom.

Ep. 1: Richard Rodriguez

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