Vita Poetica Journal

Wayne Bornholdt reads his poems "Sunday Prayers" and "Intinction."Wayne Bornholdt is a retired bookseller. He holds degrees in philosophy and theological studies. He lives in West Michigan with his wife, three Golden Retrievers and stacks of unread books.

Abigail Carroll reads her poem "For What Do You Give Thanks?" and Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo reads her poems "Samsara Study" and "And Sanctify Us Also." Abigail Carroll is author of three poetry collections: Cup My Days like Water, Habitation of Wonder, and A Gathering of Larks: Letters to Saint Francis from a Modern-Day Pilgrim. She lives and writes in Vermont. Find her at www.abigail-carroll.com.Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo is a poet, educator, faith leader, and caregiver. Her debut collection INCARNATION, AGAIN was published in 2022 by Wipf & Stock. Recent poems can be found in The Christian Century. Elizabeth curates the Visiting Writers Series at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, where she serves as Canon for Education and the Arts.

Christopher Honey reads his poem "The Pause," and Sue Proffitt reads her poems "The moor" and "Eating with the dead." Christopher Honey's work has appeared in numerous publications including U.S. Catholic, America, Poetry South, and The Rumpus. He earned his MFA from the University of Saint Thomas, Houston, and lives and works in Washington D.C. with his wife and daughter.Sue Proffitt lives by the coast in South Devon, on the edge of a cliff in a coastguard cottage. She has an MA in Creative Writing, is a Hawthornden Fellow, and has been published in a number of magazines, anthologies, and competitions. Apart from writing poetry, swimming in the sea and walking the coast path are her two great loves. She has two poetry collections published:  Open After Dark (Oversteps, 2017) and The Lock-Picker (Palewell Press, 2021). She is looking for a home for her third collection.

Jan Wiezorek reads his poem "The Chapel Matron," and Jonathan Chan reads his poem "peace (ii)."Jan Wiezorek writes from Buchanan, Michigan. His chapbooks, Prayer's Prairie (Michigan Writers Cooperative Press) and Forests of Woundedness (Seven Kitchens Press), are forthcoming this year. Wiezorek's work has appeared in The London Magazine, The Westchester Review, BlazeVOX, Vita Poetica, and elsewhere. Visit janwiezorek.substack.com.Jonathan Chan is a writer, editor, and translator of poems and essays. His first collection of poems, going home, (Landmark, 2022) was a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2024. His second collection of poems is bright sorrow (Landmark, 2025) He serves as managing editor of the poetry archive poetry.sg. Educated at Cambridge and Yale, he was born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother. He was raised in Singapore, where he currently lives. He has recently been moved by the work of Mah Chonggi, Efe Duyan, and Daryl Yam. More of his writing can be found at jonbcy.wordpress.com.

Jacqueline Wallen introduces the ideas behind the art of contemplative photography, and guides us in three ways to practice it.Jacqueline Wallen is a clinical social worker with a practice of psychotherapy and an Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park.

Fran Markover reads her poem "Uncle Julius Gifts Me with Awe," and Elizabeth Hamilton reads her poem "Sunday at the SoCal Winery."Fran is a retired psychotherapist who lives in Ithaca, NY. Her poems have been published in many journals. She has a chapbook, and has published two books, History's Trail (Finishing Line Press) and Grandfather's Mandolin (Passager Press), which was a finalist for the Henry Morgenthau III First Book Prize. Elizabeth Hamilton's work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Dallas Museum of Art, The Hudson Review, and Texas Monthly, along with other publications. She has an MFA in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University and is the recipient of a Writers' League of Texas fellowship. She writes the monthly substack This Book Could Save Your Life.

Layne Matthews Boles reads her essay "The Sacrament of Silence."Layne holds an MFA from Seattle Pacific University in creative nonfiction, and is co-editor of Among Winter Cranes, the quarterly for the Christian Poetics Initiative (CPI) of the Rivendell Center for Theology and the Arts. While also working the front desk of a climbing gym, Layne enjoys life with her husband and cat in Hamden, Connecticut. Her work can be found in Covenant, The Living Church's online journal.

Jonathan Chibuike Ukah reads his poem "The Valley of the Living," and Maryella Desak Sirmon reads her poem "Uncertain Opposites."Jonathan Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics, Unleash Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets, and elsewhere. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor's Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright Poetry Prize 2024 and the Second Poetry Prize Winner of The Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024.Maryella Desak Sirmon believes life is a pilgrimage. Physician and lay eucharistic minister, she wrote her first poem in third grade. Her poetry has been published in Annals of Internal Medicine, Oracle Fine Arts Review, October Hill Magazine, Amethyst Review, Deep South Magazine, Delta Poetry Review, Ekstasis, Anomaly Poetry, and elsewhere.

Corey Flintoff reads his short story "Beulah Land" from our current Spring issue.Corey Flintoff is a former foreign correspondent for NPR. His fiction has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, and other journals.

Linda Laderman reads her poem "How you go on about the other woman," and Ryan Harper reads his poems "Atonia, Eve of St. Mark" and "Early Easter." Linda Laderman is a Michigan poet. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Burningword Literary Journal, MER, SWWIM, ONE ART, Rust & Moth, Minyan, and Action-Spectacle. She is a past recipient of Harbor Review's Jewish Women's Prize and was a Pushcart nominee. Her micro-chapbook What I Didn't Know I Didn't Know can be found at www.harbor-review.com/what-i-didnt-know-i-didnt-know.Ryan Harper is an Assistant Professor of the Practice at Fairfield University-Bellarmine in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The author of My Beloved Had a Vineyard, winner of the 2017 Prize Americana in poetry (Poetry Press of Press Americana, 2018), Ryan has had recent poems and essays in Portland Review, Third Wednesday, Thirteen Bridges, Paperbark, and elsewhere. Ryan is the creative arts editor of American Religion Journal.

Alice Wyman reads her essay "How to Buy a Rainbow" from our Spring 2025 issue.Alice Wyman is an essayist and poet whose work explores the revelation of outlandish grace in small, daily things. Her work has appeared in Darling, The Washington Post, and other publications. She makes her home in the Carolinas with her husband and three children.

Co-Editor Caroline Langston introduces our new Spring 2025 issue. Tune in for a preview of what's to come and listen to Caroline's editorial letter, "Or Does It Explode?"

Sharon Dolin reads her poem, "Before," and Timothy deVries discusses his art in "When Art Eschews Theology." Sharon Dolin is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Imperfect Present; a memoir entitled Hitchcock Blonde; and two books of translation, most recently Late to the House of Words: Selected Poems by Gemma Gorga. Dolin is associate editor of Barrow Street Press and teaches poetry workshops in New York City. Timothy deVries is a Canadian painter who works in the historical genre. Using a flat, bold painting style, Timothy has developed a unique visual language that is highly expressive.

Sometimes after doing a practice for a while, you may be invited to lead others in that practice. And leading contemplatively is its own practice. In this meditation, Kevin Driedger offers his approach to "The Practice of Leading Contemplative Prayer." Kevin lives on the Canadian prairies with his lovely wife June. He tries to bring a contemplative, compassionate, and creative spirit to everything he does.

Maya Bernstein reads her poem, "The Primordial Catastrophe in the Process of Creation," and Douglas Thornton reads his poem, "The Tantra of Abiding." Maya Bernstein's writing has appeared or is forthcoming in By the Seawall, The Ekphrastic Review, Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a recent graduate of the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College and her first collection is There Is No Place Without You (Ben Yehuda Press, 2022). Learn more about her at mayabernstein.com Douglas Thornton is an English teacher living in France. He has published two books of poetry (The Uninitiated, Woodland Poems) and a collection of prose (Seasons Of Mind) while currently maintaining a website: www.fromapoet.com. You can also connect with him on Instagram @from__a__poet

In this contemplative practice, Samir Knego invites us to embrace the ordinary act of cooking as a time for contemplation. In "⁠It Shall Be Food for You: A Brief Cooking Meditation⁠," Samir guides us through the process of cooking dried black beans, prompting us to thoughtfully consider our actions in each step, and to use times of waiting to reflect on God's process of creation in Genesis. Samir Knego spends his days photographing archival materials and thinking about the past. His essays, poems, and visual art have appeared all over the place, including in Religion Dispatches, Anti-Racism Daily, and Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature, and he has had solo shows at the Hillsborough Arts Council Gallery, Art Therapy Institute of NC, and Eno Arts Mill Gallery.

Riv Wren reads his poem, "The Lead Pastor's Visit," and Maxim D. Shrayer reads his poem, "The Conductor from Zion Square." Riv Wren lives in Loveland, Ohio. That is a real place. Wren's most recent poems appear in Pensive Journal and Cathexis Northwest. Maxim D. Shrayer, a Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College and a bilingual writer, has authored and edited almost thirty books of nonfiction, criticism, fiction, poetry, and translations. Shrayer's newest book is Kinship, a collection of poetry. Vita Poetica Co-Editor John Morris's review of Kinship is also published in our Autumn 2024 issue.

Lory Widmer Hess reads her book review, "Seeking Creative Freedom: A Review of The Release: Creativity and Freedom After the Writing Is Done by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew." Lory Widmer Hess lives with her family in Switzerland, where she works with adults with developmental disabilities and recently completed a training in Spiritual Direction. She is the author of When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey Through Healing Stories in the Bible (Floris, 2024). Visit her website at enterenchanted.com.

Spencer Barnhill reads his poem, "Hedge of Protection," and Rachel Prizant Kotok reads her poem, "Bat Mitzvah Dreams." Born and raised in Edmond, Oklahoma, Spencer is studying finance and English at Oklahoma Baptist University. He is an aspiring writer who loves long-distance running and meaningful storytelling, and will have poetry featured in Ekstasis, SLAB, and Outrageous Fortune. Rachel Prizant Kotok (she/her) is the author of Morpho Didius, a collection of palindromic poetry (Armature Publishing, 2024). A finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award for Poetry, she was a finalist for Southwest Review's Morton Marr Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Wend Poetry, Hey I'm Alive Magazine, and elsewhere.

Tasha Cathey introduces her visual artwork, "God's Underpaintings," and Barbara Krasner reads her poem, "In the Shtetl, G-d Does Not Only." Tasha Cathey lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with her husband and two children. Her work is inspired heavily from her years spent living in Arizona and California at a young age and are either composed purely from memory or directly using a reference from her photography. Every painting is created using handmade watercolor made in her home studio using carefully sourced earth pigments and indigo. Barbara Krasner holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. The author of two poetry chapbooks and three novels in verse, her poetry has also appeared in Minyan, Nimrod, Cimarron Review, ONE ART: A Journal of Poetry, Paterson Literary Review, and elsewhere. She lives and teaches in New Jersey. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

D.S. Martin reads his poem, "Bloor-Danforth," and Tzivia Gover reads her poem, "Sacrifice." D.S. Martin is Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College, and Series Editor for the Poiema Poetry Series from Cascade Books. He has written five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021), Ampersand (2018), and Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis (2013). He and his wife live in Brampton, Ontario. Tzivia Gover is a poet, and author whose most recent book, Dreaming on the Page: Tap into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing, is an IBPA Gold winner. Her poetry has been published in dozens of journals and anthologies including The Mom Egg Review, The Naugatuck River Review, The Other Journal, and Pensive, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Learn more at www.thirdhousemoon.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

In this interview, "Surrendering to the Kiln," our Interviews Editor Emily Chambers Sharpe speaks with Sarah Wells Rolland, ceramic artist and founder of The Village Potters Clay Center in Asheville, NC. Sarah Wells Rolland is the owner and founder of The Village Potters Clay Center in The River Arts District in Asheville, NC. Sarah is an instructor, mentor and professional ceramic artist. The Village Potters was completely destroyed by Hurricane Helene. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Kathleen Hellen reads her poem, "the afterlife of mice," and Tommy Welty reads his poem, "What Will We Do the Day the World Ends?" Kathleen Hellen is the recipient of the James Still Award, the Thomas Merton Prize for Poetry of the Sacred, and prizes from the H.O.W. Journal and Washington Square Review. Her debut collection Umberto's Night won the poetry prize from Washington Writers' Publishing House. She is the author of The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, Meet Me at the Bottom, and two chapbooks. Tommy Welty is a poet and pastor in Southern California. His poetry has appeared in Heart of Flesh Literary Magazine, Solumn Literary Press, Ekstasis Magazine, and elsewhere. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Benjamin Fairfield reads and performs music from his multimedia feature, "Kani ka ‘ōpala: A Musical Redemption of Rubbish." Benjamin Fairfield served as a Peace Corps volunteer in a Karen village in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and received his MA and PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He founded the Thai Ensemble at UH (MUS311), where his students create their own instruments from repurposed rubbish found on campus, and has developed the course into an illustrated children's book that is forthcoming with UH Press (Fall 2025). His ongoing projects can be viewed at his website, www.kanikaopala.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Steven Searcy reads his poem, "Christ's Baptism," and Lisa Rosinsky reads her poem, "Yom Kippur." Steven Searcy is the author of Below the Brightness (Solum Literary Press, 2024). His poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Commonweal, The Windhover, Ekstasis, Amethyst Review, and elsewhere. He lives with his wife and four sons in Georgia. Lisa Rosinsky has been a finalist for the Slapering Hol Chapbook Prize, the Fugue Poetry Contest, and the Morton Marr Poetry Prize. She is a graduate of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and holds an MFA in poetry from Boston University, and in 2016, she won the Writer-in-Residence fellowship at the Boston Public Library. Her poems have appeared in Palette Poetry, SWWIM, Third Coast, Tahoma Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Cimarron Review, Mid-American Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Baltimore Review, and other journals and anthologies. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Charles Sutphin and his daughter, Sarah Sutphin, read his short story, "The Woman with Red Hair." Charles Sutphin has lived in Indianapolis for more than 60 years. His cobbled career includes editor, journalist, writer, attorney, professor and capitalist. Married for 35 years with two children, two dogs and a sense of humor, he recently published in The Flying Island, Helix Literary Review, Chamber Magazine, Agape Review, and Literally Stories. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Ryan Service reads his poem, "Lux," and Alisha Goldblatt reads her poem, "Guarding the Body." Ryan Service is a full-time priest and sometime-poet based in the Midlands (UK). His work has been published in Theology, The Sociological Review, and other journals. He received a prize for his entry in the Jack Clemo poetry competition, and before training in Rome he read English at the University of Warwick. Alisha Goldblatt is an English teacher and writer living in Portland, Maine, with her two wonderful children and one lovely husband. She has published poems in the Common Ground Review, River Heron Review, Burningword Literary Journal, and others, and essays in Stonecoast Review, Wisconsin Review, and MothersAlwaysWrite. Alisha writes whenever she can and gets published when she's lucky. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Miriam Fried reads her essay, "Obviously," from the Autumn 2024 issue. Miriam Fried's work has been published in The Threepenny Review, Scoundrel Time, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ambit, Crab Creek Review, and The Baltimore Review. She lives in Brooklyn. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Co-Editor Caroline Langston introduces our new Autumn 2024 issue. Tune in for a preview of what's to come, and listen to Caroline's editorial letter, "In the Light of Eternity." --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Richard Chess reads his poem, "The Loneliest Monk: By the Book," and "Sight Unseen." Richard Chess is the author of four books, most recently Love Nailed to the Doorpost (University of Tampa Press 2017). He is professor emeritus from UNC Asheville where, among other things, he directed its Center for Jewish Studies for 30 years. He serves on the boards of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry and Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center. D.E. Kern is an author and educator from Bethlehem, PA. His work has appeared in Appalachian Review, Big Muddy, Reed and Sierra Nevada Review, among others. He teaches English at Arizona Western College. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Megan Huwa reads her poem, "Counting Stars," and Hannah Butcher-Stell reads her poem, "one body." Megan Huwa is a poet and writer in southern California. A rare health condition keeps her and her husband from living near her family's five-generation farm in Colorado, so her writing reaches for home—both temporal and eternal. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Solum Literary Press, Calla Press, Foreshadow, Ekstasis, Solid Food Press, San Antonio Review, The Midwest Quarterly, LETTERS Journal, and elsewhere, and featured on The Habit Podcast. Hannah Butcher-Stell is a writing MFA candidate at Sarah Lawrence College, holding a bachelor's degree in English from Rollins College. You can find her co-authored fiction in Sky Island Journal, Newfound Journal, and The Headlight Review. Meanwhile, her poetry has appeared on Poets.org and has also appeared in The Lehrhaus, Sequestrum, and No, Dear. She currently works as poetry editor of Lumina, Sarah Lawrence's literary journal, and as communications manager for a growing nonprofit. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Jan Wiezorek reads his poem, "Suffering," and Megan McDermott reads her poem, "Ruth, on the Purity, or Impurity, of Attention." Jan Wiezorek's poetry appears, or is forthcoming, in The London Magazine, The Westchester Review, Lucky Jefferson, Loch Raven Review, and The Broadkill Review, among other journals. He taught writing at St. Augustine College, Chicago, and wrote Awesome Art Projects That Spark Super Writing (Scholastic, 2011). Wiezorek received the Poetry Society of Michigan's Spring 2024 Traveling Trophy Award, and he posts at janwiezorek.substack.com. Megan McDermott is a poet and Episcopal priest living in Western Massachusetts. Her first full-length poetry collection, Jesus Merch: A Catalog in Poems, came out last year through Fernwood Press. She is also the author of chapbooks Woman as Communion (Game Over Books) and Prayer Book for Contemporary Dating (Ethel Zine and Micro-Press). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Matthew J. Andrews reads his essay, "Never Yet an Emptiness," a review of Lacunae by Scott Cairns. Matthew J. Andrews is a private investigator and writer. He is the author of the chapbook I Close My Eyes and I Almost Remember and the forthcoming full-length collection, The Hours (Solum Press). He can be contacted at www.matthewjandrews.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Brad Davis reads his poem, "Unanticipated," and Luke Usry reads his poem, "Leave Britney Alone." Brad Davis (MFA, Vermont College of Fine Arts) is a California-born Canadian living in northeastern Connecticut. Poems have appeared in Poetry magazine, The Paris Review, Vallum, JAMA, Puerto del Sol, Brilliant Corners, Image, and many other journals. His most recent book is On the Way to Putnam: New, Selected, & Early Poems. Luke Usry is a high school English teacher, husband, and father who lives and works in the Atlanta, Georgia area. His deeply ecumenical faith is rooted in Christian Mysticism and Franciscan theology. He believes that there is nothing we can do to escape the grace of God. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Lory Widmer Hess reads her essay, "Seeing into the Future," a review of Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart by Brian McLaren. Lory Widmer Hess lives with her family in Switzerland, where she works with adults with developmental disabilities and is completing a training in Spiritual Direction. She is the author of When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey Through Healing Stories in the Bible (Floris, 2024). Visit her website at enterenchanted.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Elizabeth Poliner reads her poems, "Welcome World" and "Bat Mitzvah Dress," from our Summer 2024 issue. Elizabeth Poliner's books include the poetry collection, What You Know in Your Hands (David Robert Books), and the novel, As Close to Us as Breathing (Little, Brown & Co.), winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction. A new novel, Spinning at the Edges, is forthcoming from HarperCollins. Her poetry has appeared in The Sun, The Southern Review, The Hopkins Review, Poetry East, and On the Seawall, among other journals. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Heather M. Surls reads her essay, "My Other Name Is Hagar." Heather M. Surls is an American writer and journalist who has lived in the Middle East for more than a decade. Her reporting has appeared in outlets like the Jordan News, Christianity Today, Hidden Compass, EthnoTraveler, and Anthrow Circus, while her creative nonfiction has been published in journals like River Teeth, Catamaran, Brevity, Nowhere, Ekstasis, Ruminate, and The Other Journal. She lives in Amman, Jordan, where she recently completed her first book, a memoir-in-essays about Jordan and Israel-Palestine. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Dominic Palmer reads "Want Is My Shepherd," and Arlene Tribbia reads "Bolt Down the Universe." Dominic Palmer is a teacher, writer, and church musician living in Manchester. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in journals including Blue Unicorn, Ekstasis, and EGG+FROG. Dominic and his wife have recently become parents for the first time, so he is quite sleep deprived but full of wonder. Arlene Tribbia is a writer and artist. Stories of hers have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her work has been published widely as well as internationally. She often writes poetry and fiction about otherworldly beings because she's fond of creating characters who work to solve the larger cosmic, comic, and philosophical riddles of the universe. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Grace Donovan reads her short story, "Ave Maria." Grace Donovan is a fiction writer from Northeast Ohio. She currently resides in the DMV area where she is getting her MFA in fiction writing at George Mason University. Grace loves ice cream, her cat Patsy, the fiber arts, and the Brontë sisters. She often writes about women, queerness, and childhood. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

David Allen Sullivan reads his three poems, "Wine Skin Slippages," "Tympanic Membranes," and "This body," from our current Summer issue. Former Santa Cruz county poet laureate David Allen Sullivan's books include Strong-Armed Angels, Every Seed of the Pomegranate, a book of co-translation with Abbas Kadhim from the Arabic of Iraqi Adnan Al-Sayegh, Bombs Have Not Breakfasted Yet, and Black Ice. He won the Mary Ballard Chapbook poetry prize for Take Wing. Black Butterflies over Baghdad was selected for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection by Tim Seibles, and published by Word Works, while Seed Shell Ash—a book of poems about his Fulbright year teaching in Xi'an, China—is forthcoming from Salmon Press. He teaches at Cabrillo College, where he edits the Porter Gulch Review with his students. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Kolya Braun Greiner leads a nature meditation walk, "Contemplation of Creation." Take this episode with you out on a walk, hike, or simply to a quiet spot indoors by a window. This rich offering includes exercises to center your mind, body, and spirit before the walk, as well as seven individual "encounters" with beings in nature. Listen to the guided meditation in entirety (~40 min) or head to our website to navigate each nature contemplation individually. ⁠ Kolya Braun-Greiner, MDiv, is a member of Seekers Church in Washington, DC, and former program coordinator with Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake. She has created curricula and facilitated trainings for people of many faiths to explore connections of their tradition with care for the environment. She is currently working on a book about contemplating nature as a way to foster reverence and healing for Earth. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

The Artist as Prophet, the Church as Collective: Pastor & actor Rev. Lisa Cole Smith speaks with our Assistant Interviews Editor Darby Brown on art as a spiritual language, the church's role in supporting artists, and "equipping artists to serve as prophetic critics and imaginative visionaries in the world." Rev. Lisa Cole Smith is an actor, director, pastor, and creative entrepreneur in the Washington, D.C. area. She is the founding pastor of Convergence: A Creative Community of Faith in Alexandria, VA. She is also the host of the Be. Make. Do. soul|makers podcast, equipping artists to serve as prophetic critics and imaginative visionaries in the world. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

The Summer 2024 issue of the journal is here! Tune in for a preview of the new works we'll be featuring this podcast season. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Assistant Interviews Editor Darby Brown speaks with dancers and choreographers Hope Blackburn and Jacob Shoup of Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet. A transcript of the interview is available here. Hope Blackburn and Jacob Shoup are dancers and choreographers with Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet, a professional dance company of artist-theologians whose goal is to create spaces where art and faith can flourish. Ekklesia's diverse repertory utilizes a full spectrum of emotional and physical vocabulary while addressing issues such as poverty, inequality, and human suffering. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Rachel shares about her contemplative practice of journaling in "A Journal of Many Colors." Rachel Berry resides in Richmond, Virginia with her sweet dog Phin. She spends her free time journaling, dancing on her treadmill, and spending time with friends and family. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Cheryl Sadowski reads her essay, "Teachers, Sages, and Serpents," a review of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art's ongoing exhibit, The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas, which is on view in Washington, DC. Cheryl Sadowski writes about art, books, landscape, and nature. Her essays, reviews, and short fiction have been published in Vita Poetica, The Ekphrastic Review, After the Art, and other publications. She is a 2023 Pushcart nominee and winner of a Grantchester Award by The Orchards Poetry Journal. Cheryl holds a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University and lives in Northern Virginia. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Ping Yi Yee reads his poem, "Fortune Center," and Isabel Chenot reads her poem, "pain is not an ark." Ping Yi Yee writes poetry, travelogues and fiction, and is in public service. His work has appeared in Litro, London Grip, Meniscus, La Piccioletta Barca, and Sideways, among others, and is forthcoming in Poetry Breakfast and Harbor Review. Ping Yi is from Singapore, and has also lived in Boston, MA, and Cambridge, UK. Isabel Chenot has loved and practiced poetry for as long as she can remember. Some of her poems are collected in The Joseph Tree, available from Wiseblood books. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Artist Alexis Eke shares about her digital artwork featured in our Spring 2024 issue, including on the cover. View her art can be viewed here. Alexis Eke is an artist based in Toronto, Ontario. She illustrates surrealism portraits and comic illustrations using vibrant colors, to communicate the truth of Gods Word and increase the representation of black women in the creative industry. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Bart Edelman reads his poem, "Crazy Eights," and K.D. Battle reads his poem, "Self-Help Sonnet I," from the Spring 2024 issue. Bart Edelman's poetry collections include Crossing the Hackensack (Prometheus Press), Under Damaris' Dress (Lightning Publications), The Alphabet of Love (Ren Hen Press), The Gentle Man (Ren Hen Press), The Last Mojito (Ren Hen Press), The Geographer's Wife (Ren Hen Press), Whistling to Trick the Wind (Meadowlark Press), and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993 – 2023 (Meadowlark Press). He has taught at Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal, and, most recently, in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others. K.D. Battle is an ex-nuclear submarine mechanic, ex-lead singer, and an instructor of writing for all. He has taught for acclaimed institutions such as the Telling Room and is currently pursuing an MFA at Western Michigan University, where he is the Assistant Director of First Year Writing. He hopes you live a life of wonder and compassion. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Gerburg Garmann shares about her multimedia project, Miriam, which includes a 72x48" painting and a soundscape in 5 movements. This painting, and the fifth movement of the soundscape, the "Coda," are featured in our Spring 2024 issue here. In this podcast episode, Gerburg shares the background behind this project, and the "Coda" of the soundscape. Gerburg Garmann is a painter, poet, and former professor of Global Languages and Cross-Cultural Studies. Her scholarly publications appear in English, German, and French in international journals. Her artwork and poems have appeared in various magazines and anthologies around the world. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Scott Hales reads his poem, "Holy Envy," and Kara Applegate reads their poem, "Misericordia." Scott Hales is a writer, critic, and historian living in Eagle Mountain, Utah. His work has appeared in Religion and the Arts, BYU Studies, Irreantum, The Under Review, The Sandy River Review, and other academic and literary journals. His first collection of poetry, Hemingway in Paradise and Other Mormon Poems, was published in 2022. Kara Applegate lives and writes in Salem, Massachusetts. They hold an MA in Theological Studies from Princeton Seminary, and their manuscript "On Certain Mornings" was awarded first runner-up in the 2018 National Federation of State Poetry Societes' College Undergraduate Poetry Competition. At the moment, their poetic interests include exploring queer embodiment and cultivating a sense of place in the midst of climate change. This is their first publication. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support