“The last time I wrote a paper, the year started with a 19 not a 20…”

“Friends often ask me to proofread their papers; I love helping people’s ideas come through the written word…”

“Am I supposed to already know what Chicago Style means?”

Are any of these thoughts familiar? Entering a graduate program involves a lot of transition and for many students, academic writing can feel like a daunting hill to ascend or a muscle that hasn’t been worked in a long time. Maybe you’re a confident writer but would like some help navigating the integrative type of assignments you’ll be asked to write at ������Ƶ. However you’re feeling as the fall term approaches, I invite you to consider being a part of the first-year Writing Workshop.

My name is Kelsey Wallace – I am the Registrar and I work closely with Mac Martin, who handles academic advising for all of our students, as well as our Writing Center Consultants. As a student you will receive emails from me often! I love journeying with students throughout their time at ������Ƶ. I have more than 10 years of teaching experience, and love working with students as a writing and academic skills coach.

The Writing Workshop is recommended for all, regardless of your confidence level as an academic writer. While all the writing you will do at ������Ƶ requires technical competence, much of it asks for a high level of personal engagement and research synthesis as well. The workshop is designed to familiarize you with the rhythms of research, writing, and editing that you’ll do in your time as a student here. And more than that, the workshop provides space to experiment with and explore study methods and sustainable work habits to help you re-calibrate your previous academic experience towards the often unexpected dynamics that come with graduate-level study. The purpose of the workshop is as much about adjusting to graduate school as it is about refreshing your memory on thesis statements.

Details

We offer two sections of Writing Workshops: Section 1 before classes begin, and Section 2 during the fall term, both offered synchronously online. While both workshops cover the same material, the Fall Weekly Workshop provides space to discuss and peer review assignments for your classes while they are happening; the Pre-Fall Workshop often appeals to folks who want a reorientation towards academic work before classes begin.��

Whichever section you join, you will be challenged, have fun, and leave with tools, techniques, and the confidence to overcome the glorious mountain of writing ahead! You can also learn more about the Writing Center here.

Section 1: Pre-Fall Workshop

Sample Schedule: 9am-12 pm, 4 days over 2 weeks in August

Section 2: Weekly Fall-Term Workshop

Sample Schedule: Fridays, 12-1 pm

What to Expect

• Brainstorming exercises to generate paper topics or help you see what you’re saying between the lines.
• Self-guided modules on citation styles, essay structure, etc., that you can return to and reference throughout your Fall term, in addition to workshop time together.
• Discussion around your methods of writing and how what you’re doing now may help or hinder your process at ������Ƶ (i.e. Do you make outlines? How much time do you give yourself to write? How do you give yourself breaks from writing?). A word to the wise: taking breaks for restorative, creative activity is the best way to avoid the dreaded “writer’s block.”
• Approaches and opportunities for Peer Review. Hopefully the work you do sharing your words and hearing the words of others will go with you as part of your process here. It is vulnerable to let others into your writing, and a layered beauty often comes if you will take the risk.��

“The Writing Workshop was an immensely helpful space to refresh on academic writing and meet peers from my cohort before the term started. I still reference my notes from the workshop every time I am forming thesis statements for papers. Also, I met a great writing partner and we have been peer reviewing/editing each other’s work all throughout our first year.”��

—Carson Taylor, MATC 2024

The post The Writing Workshop appeared first on ������Ƶ of Theology & Psychology.

“At ������Ƶ, the core of our mission is service. Christ & Cascadia offers an opportunity to highlight the ways that leaders are serving in their unique cultural space. And, it’s a way for us to serve Christian leaders in the region by hosting conversations relevant to their work,” explained Kate Davis, commenting on the connection between the missions of the graduate school and the journal.��

Christ & Cascadia was founded by Dr. Matthew Kaemingk as part of an initiative that became The Fuller Institute for Theology & Northwest Culture in 2013, generously funded by a grant from the Murdock Trust. The journal was intended to be a space to curate conversations in the overlap of Christian faith and Cascadia region’s culture, walking the line between academic and popular voices. It was paired with annual conferences to provide in-person incubator events where scholars, leaders in marketplace and ministry, and other culture-makers could network around a common faith and place. Together, the journal and the conferences forged a communal space engaging the unique intersection of Christianity and Pacific Northwest culture.��

For years, the journal has published articles from Christian thought leaders across Cascadia—the bioregion from the Pacific Ocean to the Continental Divide, from northern California through southern Alaska. The journal brought together many academic partners like Whitworth University, ������Ƶ, Regent College, Columbia Bible College, George Fox University, and Seattle Pacific University. As Fuller Seminary’s infrastructure changed, it became clear that the journal needed a new steward. Since Christ & Cascadia had a history of collaboration between local academic institutions, in many ways passing the baton to a new institution seemed natural. In 2019, Fuller Seminary agreed that ������Ƶ should take over care and publication of the journal, with freedom to steward it into the future in new and innovative ways.

“������Ƶ acquired Christ & Cascadia in order to protect, continue, and build upon its contributions to regional faith life—particularly in the ways the journal has helped to build a sense of regional identity, and to foreground the voices of practitioners who have wisdom from experience to share,” noted Forrest, the newly-appointed editor of the journal. Forrest steps into the role already familiar with the journal, having been an author himself for the online publication.��

“Christ & Cascadia will continue the tradition of highlighting contextualized, region-specific concerns for Christ-followers in Cascadia. Our point of growth will be a new emphasis on innovation in faith praxis. In other words, we’ll be asking: How are people re-imagining and modeling new faith praxis in ways that challenge the status quo, and lead to renewal and relevance?” explained Forrest.��

The core offerings of the journal will remain much the same, with all content coming from authors living in the Cascadia region. Expect to see some variance, however, with the school anticipating new forms of communication on the site including video, audio, and photography.��

Kate added, “Going forward, we hope to highlight innovative thinking and practice. ‘Christian leaders and communities’ conveys a narrow image for most people, and we want to show the abundance of breadth and diversity that the phrase holds in this region.”

The team is currently working to fully transition the journal before publishing articles, but in the meantime, you can subscribe to receive news about the journal here.��

The post ������Ƶ Announces Acquisition of Christ & Cascadia Journal appeared first on ������Ƶ of Theology & Psychology.

—Dr. Chelle Stearns

Today we are sharing a collection of submissions from , an annual publication that exists to promote the craft of writing and showcase literary excellence produced by members of our community.

Veneration

by Ellen Cline

The day after she said she longed to die
I drove away from Church of the Holy Trinity.
I had been sifting Father Ben’s homily
For some thick root of grace to put between my teeth,
Like bracing for sharp pain without anesthesia.
I’d knelt and stood and knelt, my mind two feet above my body
Seeking comfort in the piety I could not feel
But soaked through witness from the second pew to last.
I saw old Thom.
Thom, with his staff in hand, tall as his head,
and thick around. He needs it to move,
To stand, to bend, to kneel, on knees torn up by shrapnel.
Vietnam, his wife said. I used to fire pottery in her garage.
Before cancer. Before her seven cats were spread
Among the parish for safekeeping.
Thom would be sitting by the door, smoking a cigarette.
His hand would tremor when he took it from his lips.
Sometimes he’d stare, sometimes he’d see me to my soul
And pull me to his whiskered face, eyes like black holes.
That Sunday, when I came to church
Long-stretched and worn, I fell into a pew
Loosing tears that seeped endless
Into my cardigan. I watched Thom up front.
I saw his old head bowed. I heard him shuffle
Slow and painful steps to read the Psalter in a voice that didn’t shake.
Not like his hands, which trembled as he raised them
When we stood to sing the closing mercy.
He did that every week, both arms outstretched
To the wooden cross at front of the chapel,
Hands quaking visibly above his gray and balding head.
Sometimes he’d fling them wide
Through the cloud of incense and my breath would catch,
Thinking of the nightmares in his eyes sometimes.
O Lord God,
Lamb of God,
Son of the Father
Who takest away the sins of the world
Have mercy upon us.
Receive our prayer.
He’d seen me in the back afterward and came close
To clasp my hand in his two trembling ones.
I hadn’t been there in a year. He knew me though.
How are you Thom I’d said.
Better now he’d said.
I set the vision of his raised arms between my teeth
Now when I wake, miles from the cross.

Wildness

by Rachel Luke

the wildness
I feel her howling inside of me
stretching as she awakes
after years of my silencing her
I am frightened of her energy
the goodness
of her untamed strength
she could take me anywhere
but oh how I love adventure
and even if I tremble
I’m headed into the wild
to find who I have always been

The Crows

by Kyle Petricek

They show up in my writing
They flitter over my shoulder
They call out into the world
What are you doing here?
They followed me across the country.
There was no escaping them
Their laughter woke me up
What are you doing here?
I can’t get away from them.
I can’t unsee them.
I can’t unhear them
What are you doing here?
Beauty seems to unfold in its own time
Its not to be forced or coerced
It wont be opened a moment sooner
It will not be missed
Perhaps they were telling me to stop
To see
To hear
What I cannot

To learn more about submitting to Lit, .

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