April Ekstasis Curated
Our art, culture & faith favorites this month
As we move through Holy Week toward the crescendo of Easter, we’re sharing a few favourite finds in culture, art, and faith this April—bookended, as always, by a moment of ekstasis. Keep an eye out for some Lenten wisdom from Malcolm Guite on our Instagram this weekend, and in the meantime, we hope you find nourishment in this overflow of links on reflections for Good Friday, fiction writing, modern commitment and marriage, and a Hemingway motif. — Carolyn Morris-Collier
The Bookshop: Hot off the shelf
🎉 Happy 100th Birthday to Flannery O’Connor and The Great Gatsby
These literary staples both capture flagrant moments in America’s story, from the decadent disillusionment of the Roaring Twenties in NYC to the spiritually charged landscapes of the postwar South. Enjoy (most of) these bits on how the exterior settings in fiction shapes our interior lives of faith.
“She wrote such shocking fiction not in spite of her Christian faith, but because of it. She wrote what she saw, and she saw a world that was broken beyond self-help or ‘Instant Uplift’—but a world also in which transcendence was forever threatening to break through, welcome or not.” — KSP
🛠️ Faith Torn Down to the Studs at Christianity Today with
’s new book, Walking Through Deconstruction has hit the shelves, offering an honest look into the emotional journey of those deconstructing their faith. His decade-long “reconstruction” offers comfort to the doubter and wisdom to the church seeking to become a more hospitable community.“In this story, as in many others about deconstructing faith, before is a mythical land of certainty, where belief is easy and God is very, very real. It’s the kind of land you assume you’ll live in forever—until you don’t.”
🕵🏽♂️ 2-Minute Book Review: The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton with
If you’re looking for quick, zappy book reviews to steer your reading list, follow
. Start with this post on the rowdy and notoriously fun writings of G.K. Chesterton—a spirit which Coby shares. For more of his wit, check out his other Substack,“There is a dream-like randomness, a strangeness, an inevitability of events, so many abrupt changes of scenery, a foreboding and ominous atmosphere that’s difficult to put a finger on. But what’s interesting is that in the midst of all the terror, it’s rollicking good fun.”
The Cafe: Where faith mingles with contemporary culture
🌽 I Saved Kathleen Norris and Kathleen Norris Saved Me with
This week, one of our notes sparked a dialogue on regional creative spirits. Midwestern creatives rose up to give voice to their distinct artistic scene. Cameron pitched in as well. Here’s an essay about the origins of his book of poetry, Forbearance, which lean into his “spiritual geography,” literary heritage, and the great winds and plains of the Dakotas.
“The metaphor stirred me. I had never thought of boring-old South Dakota as a kind of desert. But then, I had never read anyone write about the spiritual significance of my home state—and Norris can write.”
🌒 suffering & the melody of thin places with
There are several life events which shake the soul, changing everything, and becoming a wellspring for writers. Listen to the Haley’s visceral words on childbirth taking her to the edge of mortality. Hear
’s unfiltered tale as well in this piece, Saved Through Childbearing.“The juxtaposition of life with death—or the threat of it—intensify the veil, heighten the soul’s sensitivity. What is unimportant is stripped away. Helplessly cracked open, I reemerge with vision clarified just a bit more.”
🤝🏽 Partnership Over Compromise with
Marriage has been a hot topic on Substack lately, especially after the viral essay “Would You Rather Have Married Young” put the modern notion of independence over commitment on trial. Instead, come read this marriage tale about the labor of growing, changing, and building a life together.
“He has bound us together, just as we asked, yet not by fulfilling each of our individual interests and purposes; he has bound us together by giving us shared purposes, and by making us mutually dependent partners, in one another and ultimately in Him.”
The Pub: Your watering hole for big ideas
📚 As Good as Hemingway with
This poem weaves the burning ambition to be a great writer with the ordinary rhythms of life, and the unassuming beauty of overlooked places. Follow
for more poems, essays, and thoughts on book-writing from someone in the industry.“I guess some of us were meant to remain small, remote, never to be swallowed up by a big city or flourish beyond the reflection of a few stoplights. Maybe it’s God’s blessing, after all, to shop at Walmart, and refrain from climbing a platform I would only fall off of, breaking my neck.”
🖋️ Prose and Principalities with
If fiction-writing is on your mind (something's clearly stirring), this post is alive with insight, wrestling with the question: “How should a Christian write a novel?” If you’re hungry to read the genre, enjoy this list of Great Christian Literary Fiction or check out profiles like
by .“Maybe the next best thing I can do—that all of us who aspire to write fiction can do—is to draw a lesson from it: that it is possible to write a good, perhaps even a great, Christian novel. Within it, the world must burn with life in all its complexity.”
🏆 Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award with Plough Quarterly
Submit your poems by April 30th to the Rhina Espaillat award. If you need some inspiration, start with her poem Bilingual/Bilingüe.
also plugs her work in this post. Best of luck to all our poets!“The Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award will be awarded for an original poem of not more than fifty lines that reflects her lyricism, empathy, and ability to find grace in everyday events of life without having to be explicitly religious.”
The Sanctuary: Church chat with a side of wonder
📜 Basically… The Bible Project but for Church History and Theology
Just launched: ChristianStory. This new YouTube channel is breathing life into the history and theology of the Church. Think Swiss oil painters, animators, Oxford academics, beautifully crafted storytelling, and crowd-funded magic. Subscribe and stay tuned if you’re curious what a church service in the early church would have looked like—the first episode drops this weekend!
“Most, if not all, of the questions that we think are new to us are actually questions that Christians have been wrestling with for centuries or even millennia. Monks in deserts were reflecting on human psychology almost a thousand years before ‘psychology’ was even a word… There is no question that we have today that we need to start from the ground up.”
⬛ Sacred Stills 008 with
As we get closer Good Friday, we quietly lean into prayers of repentance and purification. Join Becoming Dust for a still and holy moment to do just this. Follow along for essays and regular pauses infused with poignant photography, scripture, and contemplative prayers.
“Lord, Search my heart today. You know my innermost thoughts. Purify my intentions. Replace them with that, of an agape kind of love. The kind of love only You can provide. Amen.”
👣 God is Limping with
This poem by our friend JLS is disruptive—a piercing awakening to the embodiment of Christ. His Substack is also worth following for notes like these, where he argues for raw in-person gatherings, exchanging stories.
“God is limping through the desert plains, / Bent double, chapped lips, His ribs on display. / I heard He’s been out here for days. / The sun beats down with burning fists upon His back.”
A few more quick links for you:
🎭 a comedy, a tragedy, and the home of Ernest Hemingway. with
🗺️ Poetry Explored an interview with
🔥 Why Read and Write While the World Burns? at MILLER’S BOOK REVIEW 📚
🎙️ Rhyme and Reason podcast with Rabbit Room by
😉 College Students Aren't All Illiterate with
💥 Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. recommended by
Do you have any resources you recommend—like the podcasts or Substacks you’re currently hooked on? Please share. We’re eager to hear!
A Moment of Ekstasis 💫
Pause, breath, and take this in. Ekstasis was born out of a desire to help us be brought outside of ourselves in an experience of awe, wonder, and worship.
“On this day of each year, Humanity wakes with the awakening of Spring,
and stands crying below the suffering Nazarene” — Kahlil Gibran
Thanks Carolyn. We won't have great Christian novels again until we start reading and supporting great Christian short fiction and Substack is the place to start.
This story is a great place to start reading, but I have a few more fiction pieces at Waymarkers: https://waymarkers.substack.com/p/umberto-and-the-duke
Honored, friend!