Share a Story

Bonnie Ponce encourages Relief readers  to love Relief through donations. When I think about helping Relief through support raising, I think about my current job - support raising at a university.

Support raising, I think can have a negative stigma.  Asking for money, even for a really good cause like Relief Journal, can be awkward for people.  But the support raising process can lead to rewarding new friendships and shared stories.

Relief Journal allows authors to bare their souls through their writing and they reach a unique audience. Great questions are asked through poetry, fiction, and shared experiences. We support raise because we want people to continue to find their voice and share it with others.

I remember when I first heard about Relief.  I was a little confused by the name but after I read the mission statement, I understood that Relief was raising the bar on Christian literature and bringing a fresh new point of view.  I was thrilled to find like-minded people that wanted to write and read faith based fiction that dealt with the sinful and painful side of humanity but also the hope that we have in Jesus.  I knew that I wanted to be a part of this group, to help support raise so these stories could continue to be shared.

Women Who I Love

Stephen Swanson finally admits to loving women.  Surprise!

With this being near V-Day and the midst of the "Love Relief" campaign, I felt the need to write about something more pleasant than my anger with legislatures, both state and federal, or what's happening on the Bachelor.

I need to think positive, and you should too. Therefore, I want to write about my love for women. No, not THAT kind of love. Sure, I could talk about my wife or mom. I could write about my sisters. I could write about the wonderful, strong, and intelligent women who are my colleagues, both online and IRL.

However, there's a group of women that I respect more than any other at the moment: my students.

This is not to say that I do not have wonderful male students, friends, and colleagues. I do. They're great!

But, unfortunately for them this semester, I have some women in my classes that are not only dedicated, sharp students who make teaching fun and interesting on a daily basis but who have also overcome considerable obstacles to be there.

Take, for example, on of the students in my afternoon class. She is what we would call a non-traditional student, meaning that she is not 18-23, and I had the pleasure of teaching her in the prerequisite course. At the beginning of that term that I first had her, she struggled with everything. Not only was she frustrated with her own lack of experience with computers and word processors, she had a strong sense of self-criticism, that she just wasn't a very good writer.

This week, she not only led a discussion on her own but also takes time before class to help other students get their work formatted on the computer. She, like the rest of us, still struggles with self-doubt, but she does not let it stop her cold like it had.

I have a whole set of women with whom it is my pleasure to work as part of the dual-credit program which teaches high school students so that they get both high school and college credit for their work. They are not only smart, funny, and hardworking, but they have begun to take pride in the very value of intellectual pursuit in an environment where little value is placed, especially within their gender sub-culture, on thinking and consideration.

Now, I can only take a very small part of the credit for their evolution as students, but I can own the pride and affection that I have in them and a society where they can be what they are and become even better.

Therefore, in a new spirit of "Valentines", I urge you all to express your pride, encouragement, and...yes, love, to one another, as least for a few days in February.  We all need it.

Stephen Swanson teaches as an assistant professor of English at McLennan Community College. Aside from guiding students through the pitfalls of college writing and literature, he spends most of his time trying to remain aware of popular culture, cooking, and enjoying time with his wife and son. He holds degrees in Communications (Calvin College), Film Studies (Central Michigan University), and Media and American Culture Studies (Bowling Green State University). In addition to editing a collection, Battleground States: Scholarship in Contemporary America, he has forthcoming projects on Johnny Cash and approaches to analyzing detective narratives in terms of ethical responsibility.

Relief News Tuesday 2.15.11

Relief 5.1 Editor's Choice Winners

Issue 5.1 is currently steaming down the line toward the first printing. This is going to be an issue to be remembered, and well worth the long wait. As promised, here is a list of our three Editor's Choice winners:

Editor's Choice for Fiction

"Catholics," by Margot Patterson

Editor's Choice for Creative Nonfiction

"Like a Spread-Eagled Cat Suspended," by Samuel Thomas Martin

Editor's Choice for Poetry

"Doubt," by David Holper

At the risk of sounding like doting parents, we are really proud of all the authors we're featuring in this issue. But a special congratulations is due to Margot, Samuel, and David. Leave a comment and make them feel extra special!

Don't Forget to Show Relief a Little Love

The LoveRelief support raising campaign kicked off yesterday, and we've had a lot of people peeking in here and on our Facebook and Twitter as a result. Unfortunately, though, we can't run a journal on website traffic alone. So please click on the "Chip In" widget to the right and help us fund Relief for Issue 5.2 and beyond!

Luci Shaw's Spiritual Erotics

A propos of our Love Relief campaign, Relief's Poetry Editor considers what it means to look with love at something while reviewing Luci Shaw's What the Light Was Like (Wordfarm, 2006). As a point of order, he wishes to say that he began this post well before Valentine's Day, but while it's become a propos of the occasion, it is notably about Shaw's "spiritual erotics" rather than, say, the canned greetings you'll get today from e-cards.

...To find some kind of essence-- the soul within the structure, taking my body in their eyes and fingers in a kind of lovemaking. I the love object.

As I read the above lines from "Life Drawing" in Luci Shaw's What the Light Was Like, I was struck by how they fly in the face of a line of postmodern thinking that is vexed by the power of the gaze. After all, seeing is almost the same as knowing in Western thought; we tend to act like seeing gives us essential information about people and things, when in fact we often see what we expect or desire to see - think of racism or sexism, but think also of your attitudes towards the elderly, or children, or liberals or conservatives. The gaze can be an extension of a mind anxious to avoid the surprises and risks of dealing with individual persons, a mind looking to see only iterations of what it already knows. The clichés of Valentine's Day come from the fossilization of our concept of love, from our inert and idealized notions of romance.

One might fault Shaw for being too complacent about her own looking in this book. One could accuse this gaze as being just as domineering and male ("They'd work to get beyond surfaces / to penetrate what lives / inside" [emphasis added]) as so many that have come before. But that would be to miss the point. As the book's title indicates, these poems are not about finding the same light everywhere she looks - about casting her gaze like a spotlight that turns all things one color - but describing "what the light was like" in specific places and persons. Shaw no doubt looks with an expectation of finding beauty, but it is a looking that at least tries to be open to the looked upon.

Thus she speaks of her looking as "loving," as "witness." These words put her looking in relationship to people and things rather than guarantee her authorial distance. In "Life Drawing," she puts herself in the object's place, imagining herself as a nude model in a drawing class. She calls the students' looking "a kind of lovemaking," and she, though naked and exposed to the ostensibly male gaze, is not merely object, nor sexual object, but "love object."

The challenge for a Christian reader and writer is to look with and bare oneself to this love. As Shaw models it, it is to believe that this love will discover the light without trying to trap it or own it.

At the same time, the co-creative capacities of art play a role in transforming the love object. In "The Redress," the speaker compares the other's gestures to a "too-large shirt" given her by someone else merely to cover her nakedness. Then she imagines undressing and redressing the other, performing a kind of makeover. But this makeover seeks to realize the fullness of the other, to provide her with "a silky second skin / that will keep growing as you grow."

If you've noticed the amount of sex and nudity, you'll appreciate my reference to a "spiritual erotics." Shaw's sexuality in these poems is as innocent and liberated as in Milton's Eden. Baptized by love, erotism becomes an electrifying pulse between and amongst people and things, truly part of our shared lives together. Its purity consists in its generosity; this love celebrates the other and seeks first to give of itself or to give honor and praise, rather than seeking sexual possession.

On this day when the word love is spoken with the casualness of a curse word, it's lovely and good to read Shaw as she luxuriates in her daughter-in-law's hospitality:

"I love the crisp word apple, with its hard and soft sounds, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the way light offers itself without measure, the way Christa reverses the Fall, slicing herself out to us-- her own tart sweetness--without reserve.

---

Brad Fruhauff is Poetry Editor with Relief. He holds a PhD in English from Loyola University Chicago and is currently an adjunct instructor in the Chicago area where he lives with his wife and 2-year old son. He has published fiction in The Ankeny Briefcase, poetry in Relief, Salt, and *catapult, and reviews in Burnside Writers’ Collective and The Englewood Review of Books.

Love Relief

<---love is... a want

We want to keep bringing you Relief Journal. In print. eBook. Hopefully in other eReader formats soon.

We want to keep publishing phenomenal new writers and fabulous established authors.

We want to remain on the radar of literary journals (with a Christian worldview.)

We want to keep offering an outlet for stories that paint a complete picture of Christ and life –- real, gritty, painful, wonderful, this-side-of-heaven life.

but

we have

a need...

Money.

We're not in (the negative.) We're thinking in proactive terms and anticipating financial needs for 2011.

We don't need a lot. Our goal is $1500.

...a want and a need brought together.

Love is--->

all about communication

If we could wildly spend unlimited amounts of cash, we'd be doing all dreamy things.

But the reality is we only have so much and it only goes so far. We are dedicated to being good stewards of the blessings we've received thus far. We're an all volunteer staff. No one gets rewarded with cash. We're rewarded with heavenly crowns. We do this because we LoveRelief. The mission, the people, and the hard work. From Valentine's Day to Tax Day, you'll be hearing from our volunteers. They'll tell you why they work so hard for so little.

The $1500 we're asking for will help to pay our printer. The US Post Office for shipping and the cost of our PO Box. Office Depot for shipping supplies. It will help pay for our web presence. Our e-junkie account so we can sell you copies online. Our bank fees. It will help pay our yearly fees to the government.

It will help us start 2011 in confidence. Knowing that we'll have fundage in the bank allows our staff to focus on what we consider the important thing: Excellent stories.

We're communicating our need.

We're hoping you LoveRelief enough give a little so that we can continue giving you what we love--this journal.

*Please use the Chip In widget above to show your support.

The Ideal Writing Spot

It seems that most famous writers create a certain habitat for their genius, a custom-made space where their creativity can flow forth uninhibited. Virginia Woolf had A Room of One’s Own, J. K. Rowling has her European café, and Kurt Vonnegut has his hardwood floor where he worked out of his lap. So what are the basic requirements for a writing spot?

A desk, of course, is essential (except, apparently, if you’re Vonnegut). Preferably, a mahogany, stylishly-distressed desk that just looks like classics have been written all over it. A desk in the tradition of Tolkien’s and C. S. Lewis’, which you can actually see on display (including the wardrobe that inspired Narnia) at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College. Extra points if your desk has a secret compartment.

Next, coffee. Every writer needs an energy boost now and then. And if you’re self-employed, your caffeine addiction might even count as a tax deduction (don’t quote me on that…)! But don’t try to outdo French novelist Balzac, who was known to drink 50-300 cups of coffee per day.

Your writing space should also host somewhat of a cozy mess. Creative minds aren’t known for their organizational skills, you know.

Surround yourself with inspirational literary quotes. These will remind you not only how much you love, live, and breath writing, but how fun it is! Motivational catchphrases such as, “My stories run up and bite me on the leg” –Ray Bradbury, and, “Writing is…like a long bout of some painful illness." -George Orwell, should get you off to a good start!

You should also have something to fidget with as you wrestle your brilliant ideas down onto paper. Stress balls, those cool moldable erasers, etc. Now is the perfect time to develop a bad habit such as cracking your knuckles or chewing your hair. All for the sake of art, of course.

A muse: whether it’s a picture of your sweetheart, your cat, or your Edgar Allan Poe bobble-head, you should have something to attribute your strokes of genius to. And someone to take your frustration out on when writer’s block hits.

What’s your writing environment? Where do you hammer out your thoughts, poems, and stories?

Stephanie S. Smith graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in Communications and Women’s Ministry, which she now puts to work freelancing as a book publicist and writer through her business, (In)dialogue Communications, at www.stephaniessmith.com. After living in Chicago for four years, traveling to Amsterdam for a spell, and then moving back home to Baltimore to plan a wedding, she now lives with her husband in Upstate New York where they make novice attempts at home renovation in their 1930s bungalow. She is a member of the Young Professionals of the Southern Tier and blogs for Moody Publishers at www.insidepages.net.

Do Anger and Creating Mix?

Are You Reading Along?

Have you clicked over to Don Miller's Blog lately? You know I have, because this isn't the first link I've posted on the Relief site. He's been blogging a series on "The Way of A Creator," and I think Relief readers everywhere should be reading along.

Anger + Creation = ?

Today, his post states that "A Creator Resists the Urge to Create out of Anger." You'll want to read the whole post, but here's a quick quote:

The public only has a consciousness so big, and when you create something good, and it gets into the public consciousness, there’s less room for whatever it is that made you angry. So go and create something good, and displace whatever it is that is pissing you off.

This post has me thinking about Relief's beginnings. Part of our story is that the vision for this journal was born out of frustration. I'll be honest--sometimes "Christian" literature makes me angry. For years we've endeavored to create something that displaces the sometimes-overly-sanitized work that well, pisses us off... okay, I'm not sure I'm following Don's advice in this sentence.

Thoughts? How do you, as a creator, wrestle your anger? Do you agree with Don's advice?

Relief News Tuesday 2.8.11

Relief Issue 5.1

The Relief staff is hard at work putting the finishing touches on the upcoming issue. If you didn't catch yesterday's blog, check out Editor-In-Chief Chris Fisher's post about how the cover captures the theme of the issue. Next week, we'll be announcing the winners of our Editor's Choice Prize in each genre, so stay tuned!

Ready to pre-purchase your copy at a discounted price? Click here.

Love Relief?

We do, too. The truth, though, is that this economy has been pretty hard on artistic ventures like literary journals. Though times are tough, we're committed to bringing you many more issues of Relief and The Midnight Diner. So we're about to get creative in order to make ends meet. Next week we'll give you the chance to get involved and to show a little love.

The New Cover

One of my favorite parts of putting together an issue of Relief is working with the photographers and graphic artists who help the outside of our journal look as good as the work we publish inside. You see, I'm well aware that, while we all know that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, we're all prone to do it anyway. Fortunately, Relief has developed great relationships with gifted visual artists who contribute to covers that are as original as our vision for a Christian literature that is both true-to-life and beautiful, gritty and wonderful. The cover of our current issue is a composite of two images. The central image (the tree and sunrise in the doorway) is cropped from a landscape taken by J. Brisbin, a former Relief author and photographer whose work we featured on our last cover. Like his last, this image demonstrates the high dynamic range (HDR) technique, which is a favorite form of Brisbin's. As he explains it:

HDR is simply a way to capture an image that pretends it has more dynamic range than it actually has. The eye can see about 15000:1 contrast ratio, while photography can usually only capture 300:1 to 500:1. Highs get overexposed, lows get lost in shadow. HDR algorithms seek to compress multiple exposures of an image that expose various parts of that 15000:1 contrast ratio in "slices" by altering the exposure, then combining those images (3-12) using special software. What makes HDR cool, in my opinion, isn't this technical side of it, but the artistic result of the tone mapping software. Different algorithms produce different results and a vast range of effects can be produced by manipulating the knobs and switches in the tone mapping software. It can be time-consuming and takes a lot of trial-and-error but with the right composition, the effects can be stunning.

The second -- and much less technical -- image of the dark foreground, was taken by my wife, my youngest son, Josiah, and myself during a hike at a nearby abandoned and run-down house. (Actually, I took the picture from inside while they stayed safely outside and prayed the roof would not collapse on my head).  With some clever arranging by Harriet Brewster, who also designed the cover for our last issue, the result is an image we're calling "Lazarus, Come Forth" for its juxtaposition of  desolation with hope and beauty, and to hint at this issue's themes of isolation and communion.

And now that you've seen the cover, click on over to our store and pre-order a copy of your very own!

It All Began with a Picture

I have a question for all you writers out there: how do your stories begin?

Do they begin inside you, with a striking thought, image, or scene? Do you observe something in the world that makes you want to put in onto paper? Do you imagine your characters to life, or do you see them on the street, at the Farmer's Market, the corner coffee shop?

Many of my favorite authors, it seems, birth their stories like this: a curious image arises in their mind, an image they see and cannot forget, and they write to discover the story behind the image.

Beloved author C.S. Lewis says that his enchanted world of Narnia began with a picture of a faun carrying an umbrella in a snowy wood.  "This picture had been in my mind since I was sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it.'”

Kate DiCamillo was lying in bed one morning, her life in a state of depression, when she suddenly saw a magician, joined by an elephant.  They looked as real to her as anyone, and this curious introduction gave her the motivation to get out of bed and start writing again. The tale of these two characters entwine in what became The Magician's Elephant, a whimsical story about magic, homecoming, and belonging.

Sue Monk Kidd's award-winning novel, The Secret Life of Bees, began with an image of a girl going to sleep in her room amidst a swarm of hovering bees.  Right now I'm reading Traveling with Pomegranates, the author's memoir which gives the reader the backstory behind the creation of her bee novel. I find myself fascinated with the way Sue Monk Kidd collects the smallest of details and finds a home for them in her book.  Simple things like a pink house she saw in a magazine, a childhood memory of bees that hummed through the walls of her old house, and a story about a black Madonna struck something in her and she wove them into her novel.

As much as I love reading fiction, this genre has always been the hardest thing for me to write.  Characters do not appear to me in dreams, or start talking to me in the shower, or hover over my bed in the form of circus animals.  But I do often see images in real life that I pause over and tuck away for later, for a story that will be woven with bits and pieces of things in the world that catch my curiosity.

Here are some of them:

A man sitting on a porch that is covered with wind chimes.

The way a book in my hand vibrates with the live music of a cello playing in a bookstore.

A snippet of overheard conversation, “Once when I was seventeen and wild, I cut off all my hair.”

What sparks your stories into life?

Stephanie S. Smith graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in Communications and Women’s Ministry, which she now puts to work freelancing as a book publicist and writer through her business, (In)dialogue Communications, at www.stephaniessmith.com. After living in Chicago for four years, traveling to Amsterdam for a spell, and then moving back home to Baltimore to plan a wedding, she now lives with her husband in Upstate New York where they make novice attempts at home renovation in their 1930s bungalow. She is a member of the Young Professionals of the Southern Tier and blogs for Moody Publishers at insidepages.net.

Micro-Journaling

I've been struggling recently with finding time to journal. It's not that I even care much about chronicalling my life. I just love it when I put my pen to paper and get something out. Instead, I've been using Google Docs to write. And there's a lot of positive things about holding my writing in a place I can access anywhere I have a computer--which is everywhere recently--but it's just not the same.

But recently, I found an answer in "9 Lists to Keep Updated, and Keep Handy." Actually, I stumbled across it...on StumbleUpon. (It seems everything cool I've found recently is because of that site.) I call it micro-journaling, and it's started to change my life.

Basically, the author had a journal he wasn't using, so he started making different sections in the journal to list out things like "Things I Want," "Gift Ideas," etc. The list that has been my favorite so far is  "BHAGs" (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). Maybe it's because I just entered the grownup world and I'm about get married, but the pages have been filling up quickly.

What lists do you keep in your journals?

---

Ian David Philpot is the Web Editor for ccPublishing and the Web Content Developer for Willow Creek Community Church. He recently received his Bachelor's in English at Northern Illinois University and spent one year in Columbia College Chicago’s Fiction Writing program. He writes fiction, poetry, and music. Ian prefers black to white, vanilla to chocolate, and only eats yellow cake.

Our Deepest Thanks to Lisa Ohlen Harris

Founding Editor Kimberly Culbertson pays tribute to one of Relief's finest.

As we enter our fifth volume, it is with sadness that we announce that Lisa Ohlen Harris will be no longer be serving as our Creative Nonfiction Editor. The upcoming issue, available for pre-sales now, will end her amazing run at the helm of all things CNF. For years she has lent us her talent and her heart, and we are deeply grateful.

Lisa began editing creative nonfiction for  Volume 1, Issue 4, and her presence has marked Relief's journey over the years since, including doubling as CNF Editor and Assistant Editor for most of Volume 2. She has consistently shaped and crafted this fantastic genre, and we are proud that creative nonfiction has become such an integral part of Relief.

In the time I served as Editor-In-Chief, Lisa was a profound encouragement to me personally. She not only served on my team as a genre editor, but she shared her wisdom, provided a sounding board, challenged me when I started walking questionable paths, critiqued and sharpened my editorial statements, and reminded me of my strengths when I wondered if this whole adventure was just a little crazy (It is, by the way, which is why you need good people around you for the most perplexing of moments).

While we're dismayed to see her go, we are enjoying watching from the sidelines as she continues to flourish as a writer. Her first book, Through the Veil, was recently released from Canon Press, and has already been nominated for the Oregon Book Awards "Sarah Winnemucca Award For Creative Nonfiction" (the winner will be announced in April). Deanna Hershiser, a Relief author and blogger interviewed Lisa before the book was released, and recapped some of its journey quite nicely:

Sometimes editors edit because writing just hasn’t worked well for them. Not so with Lisa. Her first book, Through the Veil, will soon be released by Canon Press. Its offerings include an essay which was listed under “Notable Essays of 2008″ in Best American Essays 2009, along with two others that have made the Notable lists in volumes of Best American Spiritual Writing. Another of the book’s essays was shortlisted for a Pushcart Prize and received special mention in Pushcart XXXIII.

In fact, one of the essays Deanna refers to here, "Torn Veil" was published in Relief's Volume 1, Issue 4. Her success, both as an author and an editor, has helped Relief to become the journal that it is today. And so, as she moves on to new adventures, we at Relief will miss her dearly, but we'll be cheering her on as rabid fans.

-----

Kimberly Culbertson is the Founding Editor of Relief. These days serves on the board of ccPublishing, NFP (the company that publishes Relief and The Midnight Diner), alongside many other adventures. She and her husband live in Bloomingdale, Illinois, with their dog Latte. Their family-by-choice daughter, son, and godson now reside in California, and they are expecting their first biological child in February 2011.

Sunrise, Sunset

This is the third in a series of thoughts on how place shapes and is shaped by the stories we tell. The first two can be found here and here.

According to George Washington Carver, “nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.”

As much as I love peanut butter, I have to disagree. Not completely. In an earlier blog, I concluded that sunrise is most beautiful in the mountains, but sunset is more beautiful over the ocean. Being back in San Diego, however, has reminded me of one of life’s true-isms: in a wrestling match, sunset on the Pacific beats sunrise anywhere over the head with a steel chair every time.

Don’t agree? Here are three reasons you should.

1. You don’t have to get early up to see it.

This isn’t a morning person/night person binary. It’s just common sense. I mean, seriously, early risers get everything – the worm, a quiet house, the best waves, an unfounded reputation for being go-getters. They also get a sense of ownership over the beauty of the moment, that self-serving pride that says “I deserve to see this because I set my alarm clock and didn’t ignore it when it went off.”

Slackers need a prize, and that prize is the most beautiful part of the day. We know we don’t deserve it. We know we’re unable to lay claim to having a hand in the experience. Maybe we just have a better understanding of grace because we have a much harder time convincing ourselves we should be given any based on our actions.

2. The death of color is always more vibrant than its birth.

Apologies to Robert Frost (and Pony Boy), but nature’s first green isn’t gold. (Irony alert: Microsoft Word’s grammar check identifies this version of his famous line as grammatically problematic. Guess humans are still better than machines at a few things even if one of those things is not winning Jeopardy). No, nature’s last gold is gold. Just before they die, greens give way to the deepest, richest colors. And so it goes with the sunset. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve watched the light of the sun coming up and thought “those colors are amazing.” I can count the same number of times I’ve uttered those words as the Big Orange dropped into the ocean in the last ten days.

3. The Green Flash.

If you don’t know what that is, it’s probably because you either haven’t spent much time in Southern California or you’ve followed the age old of wisdom of not looking directly into the sun. But out here, we do it anytime the day is clear and the water is calm on the off chance we’ll get to see fingers of green light splay out across the water just as the sun dips below the horizon. It’s a rare event, but when it happens, you know you’ve been given a gift (unless you were also up to see the sunrise that same morning, in which case you assume you’ve earned a bonus for working overtime).

I’m sure some of you disagree. Please do, in the comments section below. While you do, I’ll be outside watching the sunset.

Michael Dean Clark is the fiction editor at Relief, as well as an author of fiction and nonfiction and an Assistant Professor of Writing at Point Loma Nazarene University. He lives in San Diego with his wife and three children.

The Word and words

Editorial Assistant Stephanie S. Smith meditates on the relationship between the Incarnation, the Word made flesh, and the writer, the wordsmith. I often wonder why, out of all the ways to describe the miracle of God-made-Man, the writer of the gospel of John chose to call it “The Word.”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” –John 1:1

He says it three times; he really doesn’t want you to miss this: This Jesus? He’s the Word. As a writer who lives and breathes words, this intrigues me.

If the Incarnation is composed of the Word given skin, of theology given a body, lungs, hands, sweat glands and elbows, what do my creative words translate into? If the Word became flesh and brought Life to the world, can my words, fragile and human as they are, become something more than ink on a page? Can they also bring life?

As writers, I believe that our words wield powerful weapons of influence, for better or for worse. And as Christians, I believe we are entrusted with language to point to redemption, by faithfully articulating the brokenness of our world and the wholeness of the gospel. The written word, as creatively communicated in story, poetry, and prose can help us to interpret our lives in light of the greater, eternal context.

Flannery O’Connor affirms this, “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.” Good writing connects the regular details of our lives with eternal reality and puts them on the same plane.

The response of the Christian to the revelation of God should be that of Mary’s, who said to the angel Gabriel, “May it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:39).  Mary, who Scripture describes as a woman in God’s favor, invited the divine word to manifest itself in her very life, which was fulfilled literally in the Incarnation.  In the same way, we invite the Incarnation into our lives when we obey God’s Word.  We give our faith a face when we love the widow, feed the hungry, visit the sick.

Madeleine L’Engle, in Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, says our writing should reflect the response of Mary, “who, when the angel told her that she was to bear the Messiah, was obedient to the command.” L’Engle remarks, “I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius or something very small, comes to the artist and says, ‘Here I am.  Enflesh me.  Give birth to me.’”

In the creative process, the writer-artist responds to each idea like Mary to the angel’s revelation: Yes, manifest yourself in my very flesh, that I may nurture you, cultivate you to grow, and pour you into the world for men to see. The Christian writer uses language as a frame, clothing the abstractness of idea in the flesh of syllables, sentences and words, and then presenting it to the world as a bright and shining advent.

Stephanie S. Smith graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in Communications and Women’s Ministry, which she now puts to work freelancing as a book publicist and writer through her business, (In)dialogue Communications, at www.stephaniessmith.com. After living in Chicago for four years, traveling to Amsterdam for a spell, and then moving back home to Baltimore to plan a wedding, she now lives with her husband in Upstate New York where they make novice attempts at home renovation in their 1930s bungalow. She is a member of the Young Professionals of the Southern Tier and blogs for Moody Publishers at www.insidepages.net.

Relief Spreads the Love: Sarah Wells's "Cascade Valley"

Here's a lovely little poem from a former Relief author, Sarah Wells, called "Cascade Valley." Congrats, Sarah, and thanks for sharing your poem.

Bobbing a Bit

It's a question of responsibility. My employers recently held a training day for our nonprofit group's volunteers and staff, during which we reviewed the right attitudes to strive for with clients. One of our manual's pages reminded me there's a difference between feeling responsible to someone and thinking I'm responsible for someone.

The first is possible and desirable, the second, not so much. Obviously, another adult has charge of her own decisions. I can choose to be there to listen, to empathize, to suggest options. But I must release the other person's outcome to be what they make it, or, if you will, what God makes it in their reality.

I've been considering this responsibility concept in other areas. One that strikes me is my writing. Here's a good question, I hope: How can I best be responsible to my gift as opposed to laboring under the delusion I'm solely responsible for my gift?

Writing, as we know, treats the humans involved in fickle ways. There can be wonderful, short-lived moments of recognition. I love a sentence from an essay by Poe Ballantine. He describes receiving notice that something he wrote was selected for Best American Short Stories. He hadn't been sure his writing was going anywhere special. "But," he says, "I figured that much of what happens in the literary world is a lottery, and I had been plugging away for a while, so maybe it was time for my head to bob to the surface of the sea of drowning writers, if only for a few minutes." **

Ballantine's quip makes me smile and sigh. On the one hand, I'm glad I'm not the only one "drowning" a lot of the time. A little voice in my head will often lament that if I'd only do more of this or that, my work would become...something. Recognized by more people. Helpful in more "real" places. Better than I've imagined it could be. So it's good to hear that even if the voice is wrong and I'm doing everything I can, I don't have control over the realities of 21st century writing.

On the other side of my brain, I've pondered Ballantine and nibbled my nails over whether or not to quit. Just quit. Shouldn't I be responsible for my work with words and discern when it's not going anywhere? Soon I may find I have plugged away at this stuff till life is next to over.

But there's always been this ancestor on my dad's side. His journals were found, long after he died. In the 1800s he pioneered with his family across the midwest. With pen he scratched beauty onto rough pages, sharing wonder at rock formations and the hue of prairie sky. He enjoyed his gift of writing and didn't worry what ultimately happened with it. Unless he lay awake by dying campfires, chewing his nails in his bedroll. If so he didn't say.

My point is I continue to be given a view of my lack of control over outcomes. And yet I decide again I will keep writing, taking steps each day on the journey. Being responsible to it. I may not get to choose which generation of readers ultimately finds and enjoys my words. I'm not in bad company. And the reality taking shape may contain a surprise or two more for this little head bobbing in the sea.

** (Ballantine's full essay, Blessed Meadows For Minor Poets, is part of his collection, 501 Minutes to Christ.)

Deanna Hershiser's essays have appeared in Runner's World, BackHome Magazine, Relief, and other places. She lives with her husband in Oregon and blogs at deannahershiser.com/stories-glimmer.

Introducing 5.1 Authors

The wait is over!

The next issue of Relief is here, and it looks great! Below is a list of authors and works that will appear in issue 5.1, but when you're done looking at the make-up, go ahead and order a presale for 20% off the list price.

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God She Could Tolerate Fiction

Michael Cocchiarale is Associate Professor of English at Widener University (Chester, PA). Some of his other stories have appeared in REAL, Galleon, Stickman Review, Dirty Napkin, Eclectica, and Flashquake.

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Notre Dame Poetry

Michael G. Cornelius is the author/editor of ten books.

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The Wonderful Thing About Forgiveness Fiction

Zach teaches reading and mathematics at a high school in Minneapolis, MN. His essays and reviews have appeared before in Rain Taxi Review of Books and Dappled Things. "The Wonderful Thing About Forgiveness" is his first published short story.

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Those Prayers Poetry

Barbara Westwood Diehl is founding editor of The Baltimore Review. She works for the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and is a M.A. in Creative Writing student at Johns Hopkins University. Her poems and stories have appeared in a variety of print and online publications, including JMWW, MacGuffin, SmokeLong Quarterly, Confrontation, Measure, Little Patuxent Review, Potomac Review, American Poetry Journal, and Rosebud. She was raised Episcopalian, married a Methodist, and is now happily attending North Baltimore Mennonite Church. This is her first foray into publications with a Christian focus.

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Simon, I Have Something to Say to You Creative Nonfiction

Tim Elhajj's work has appeared in Brevity, Guernica, Sweet, The New York Times, The Yalobusha Review, and others. He edits Junk, a nonfiction literary magazine that focuses on addiction. His first memoir, titled Dopefiend: A Father's Journey from Addiction to Redemption, is forthcoming from Central Recovery Press in September 2011.

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Making the Perfect Loaf of Bread Creative Nonfiction

Leslie Leyland Fields is the author/editor of 7 books including Surviving the Island of Grace. Her most recent is The Spirit of Food:34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God, where this essay originally appeared. She teaches in Seattle Pacific University's MFA program, writes for Christianity Today, and commercial salmon fishes with her family on Kodiak Island, Alaska, where she eats salmon as often as possible.

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The Last Enemy Creative Nonfiction

Hannah K. Grieser is the mother of five young sons and the wife of a literature professor. She also moonlights as a graphic designer. When she's not changing diapers, designing brochures, pulling weeds, or cleaning peanut butter fingerprints off the piano, she keeps a blog at http://cinnamonrollsandbacon.blogspot.com.

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Doubt, The Problem of Ascribing Evil, Margins, Under the Archway, Civilization Poetry

David Holper has worked as taxi driver, fisherman, dishwasher, bus driver, soldier, house painter, bike mechanic, bike courier, and teacher. With all that useful experience and a couple of degrees, he has published a book of poetry called 64 Questions (March Street Press), as well as numerous other poems in literary journals including Relief. He teaches at College of the Redwoods and lives in Eureka, California, which is far enough from the madness of civilization that he can get some writing done. Another thing that helps is that his three children continually ask him to make up stories, and he is learning the art of doing that well for them.

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First Breath, Elegy, Elegy for the Bell, Another Elegy Poetry

Robert Jonte graduated from the College of Charleston and worked for Crazyhorse Magazine. He studied with Morton Marcus in Western Michigan University’s Prague Summer Program and returned to the city to earn his Cambridge CELTA. Robert’s articles and poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Charleston City Paper, The Kingstree News, Miscellany, and Xenith. He currently teaches English in South Korea.

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To Cain, Descending Moriah Poetry

Kolby Kerr is currently finishing his MFA at Seattle Pacific University. He writes and teaches in Dallas, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Emily.

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Crusade for Lost and Frying Worms Fiction

Emily J. Lawrence is a young college graduate, eating tears and rejection letters as she waits for a "real job." She spends her time creating sentences nobody has ever muttered, metaphors never thought of, and characters who take over. Her work can be found in A Capella Zoo, Hawk and Handsaw, Luna Station Quarterly, and Glossolalia. She is an assistant editor at Literary Laundry.

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Semantics Poetry

Judy Lorenzen holds a BA, English; MSED, Community Counseling (LMHP), and MA, Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. She received the 2007–2008 Outstanding Thesis Award for her poetry thesis, "Let Autumn Come." She also holds a Doctorate of Theology from an online seminary. She teaches high school English, is a Fine Lines online editor, and a past contributing writer for the Heartland Gatekeeper newspaper. Publications include The Nebraska English Journal, Nebraska Poet’s Calendar, Fine Lines, Times of Singing, 2009 Nebraska Shakespeare Sonnet Contest winner, 2010 Plains Song Review. She has three poems forthcoming in the Platte Valley Review.

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Communion of the Saints Fiction

Director of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Lock Haven University, Marjorie Maddox has published Perpendicular As I; Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation; Weeknights at the Cathedral; When the Wood Clacks Out Your Name: Baseball Poems; six chapbooks, and over 350 poems, stories, and essays in journals and anthologies. She is the co-editor of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (PSU Press, 2005) and author of two children’s books from Boyds Mills Press. The recipient of numerous awards, Marjorie lives with her husband and two children in Williamsport, PA. She gives readings and school visits across the country. For more info and reviews, please see http://www.lhup.edu/mmaddoxh/biography.htm.

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The Dogs, Passage Poetry

D.S. Martin is a Canadian poet who has authored So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press) and Poiema (Wipf & Stock)—which was an award winner at the 2009 Canadian Christian Writing Awards. His poems in this issue are from a series inspired by the life and writing of C.S. Lewis. Poems from this series have been previously selected for Anglican Theological Review, Relief 1.4, Ruminate, Sehnsucht, The Other Journal, and Windhover. Visit his blog about Christian poetry: www.kingdompoets.blogspot.com.

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Like a Spread-eagled Cat Suspended Creative Nonfiction

Samuel Thomas Martin is the award-winning author of This Ramshackle Tabernacle, a collection of linked short stories that has received great reviews since its publication in June 2010 by Breakwater Books. Sam also runs the literary blog Dark Art Cafe and he is at work on a new novel about an ex-Norwegian death-metalist turned hippy.

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Catholics Fiction

A graduate of the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Margot Patterson has worked as a writer and editor in this country and abroad. She now lives in the greater Kansas City area.

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The Art of Work Creative Nonfiction

A. S. "Pete" Peterson is the author of two historical adventure novels, The Fiddler's Gun and Fiddler's Green, and is a founding member of The Rabbit Room, a group of authors, musicians, pastors, and other artists engaged in an ongoing conversation about story, faith, art, and the importance of community. He lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.

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The Birth, He knew What the knew When He knew Poetry

Linda Ravenswood is an internationally acclaimed performance artist, specializing in Music, Fine Art and Writing. Her creative and critical work has appeared in print and in recordings since her first publication in Ireland, where she lived in 1993. She holds a BFA from CalArts (2000) and an MA from Mount St. Mary’s College (2009). She works in live performance, in independent films and recording projects, and has appeared on PBS. Recently five fine art/installation pieces of hers appeared at an exhibit of international artists at The Pico House Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles (Autumn 2010). She is the principal juror for The Southern California Women's Art Caucus (2010-2011). The work included in this edition of Relief will appear in her new book, Hymnal, from Mouthfeel Press (Spring 2011). Linda lives in Los Angeles, and is pursuing her PhD.

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Elegy/Sound, Migration Quartet, The Vast - a ghazal Poetry

Michael Schmeltzer earned an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. He helps edit A River & Sound Review and is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. His work appears or is forthcoming in Natural Bridge, Water~Stone Review, New York Quarterly, Crab Creek Review, and Fourteen Hills, among others. He lives in Seattle.

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Forgotten Things Fiction

Karen Schravemade lives and writes in Australia. Her short stories have won first place in the Bauhinia Literary Competition and the Warana Writers’ Week awards, and have appeared in Idiom 23 and the Faithwriters’ anthologies. Before having children she used to dream about writing acclaimed novels in her spare time. Now she dreams about having spare time, and her greatest ambition is to get a full night’s sleep.

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The Secret, The Intercession of Time Poetry

Deborah J. Shore has poems forthcoming in Radix, Anglican Theological Review, Sea Stories, and Christianity and Literature. Additionally, she has won first place in two poetry competitions at the Alsop Review and has several other poems included in their print anthology. She has three books of Christian teaching under revision in addition to a couple of loosely formulated poetry manuscripts.

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The Place between My Hips Creative Nonfiction

Elizabeth Slater lives in the Midwest. This essay is a part of a manuscript entitled, What Is Romantic, Honestly, which chronicles a successful attempt by her and her husband to have sex 183 times in a year.

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In Her Shoes Creative Nonfiction

Wai Jia is a 23-year old final year medical student who dreams of becoming a missionary. Constantly inspired by the strength of the marginalised, her burden for the poor drives her passion for community outreach. She is the author and illustrator of Kitesong, a picture book which raised more than $110,000 to build a new Home for needy children in Nepal. Her next book, A Taste of Rainbow, will be launched in Feb 2011 to raise funds and awareness for people suffering from eating disorders in Singapore. She loves writing, cycling and rainbows. Read her blog at www.kitesong.blogspot.com.

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Also featured in this issue is Johana-Marie Williams' poem "Pablo Picasso, Woman with a Book."

So Close, So Far Apart

I'm not a Catholic (and I've never even played one on TV), but I have so many friends who are that I'm always interested in what's going on in the Catholic Church. Today, Reuters has an interesting article on a recent--and I think very wise--warning from Pope Benedict concerning the subtle dangers of online social networks. In a message for the Catholic Church's World Day of Communications, Benedict says: "It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives."

I've long been bothered by a line from Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar: "Why'd you [Christ] choose such a backward time in such a strange land? If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication."

On the surface, this seems like a really good question. But now, in the midst of this present "communication age," in which people the whole world over are growing more and more connected, while as persons, as individual men and women, so many are more isolated and lonely than ever, I think I'm beginning to understand that it simply wouldn't have worked. All of the mass communication in the universe could not relay what Christ had in mind with the Church--individual persons communing with one another as a whole. Feeding, soothing, and yes, touching one another. Greeting each other, as the New Testament says, "with a holy kiss," not a virtual finger poke.

The next issue of Relief will open up for presales this week, and the stories, essays, and poems inside follow a similar theme of isolation vs. communion. I hope you will order a copy as soon as it is available. Not only will you help us make our print run, you'll also get to read some of the finest writing we've published so far.

Relief's New Fiction Editor

Ben Franklin, one of my all-time favorite editors, once said that "Guests, like fish, begin to stink after three days." But that was certainly not the case with Relief's latest "guest," Michael Dean Clark. Way back in July, I happily announced that Michael would be serving as Guest Fiction Editor for the upcoming issue of Relief. In the process of working with him to select this issue's fiction lineup and get each piece ready for print, I came to trust his skill and insight so much that I just had to ask him if he'd like to stick around--permanently. And I was even happier than before when he said yes.

I first met Michael back in 2009 when we accepted his story "Paddling Out" for publication in Relief 3.1, the infamous--or at least controversial--Love and War issue. Since then, he has been a returning author (with creative nonfiction appearing in Issue 3.2), one of our favorite and most dedicated bloggers, and a true friend of the journal. I'm thrilled to now call him part of the editorial team, because I know he will be an outstanding addition to the journal in 2011 and beyond.

So leave a comment and join me in welcoming Michael as Relief's new Fiction Editor.