Welcome to My Way Back, a Substack from Kimberly Phinney, writer, professor, editor, publisher, and founder of TheWayBack2Ourselves.com, a literary journal, podcast, publisher (The Way Back Books), and creative community. If you’re new, WELCOME! You are warmly invited to subscribe and join our rooted community.
You get to hear it first, dear Substack friends! The theme for The Way Back to Ourselves Literary Journal’s Fall Collection is ROOTED, which is a continuation of the powerful summer retreat we just hosted in historic downtown Greenville, SC. Our fall theme is based on Jeremiah 17:7-8. Keep reading below to learn more!
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.
The Cultivate Retreat left such a profound impact on our community—and in many ways, it felt like the conversation was just getting started—so we decided to continue it with this NEW edition of The Way Back to Ourselves Literary Journal. Whether you attended the retreat or not, this Fall’s ROOTED Collection is a gracious and expansive invitation to everyone in our greater community.
Keep reading below to learn more about the theme and submission details.
It’s a fair critique to say that modernity has led to a restlessness, a sort of uprootedness, if you will. The messaging of hyper-individualism is ubiquitous. Institutions, in many ways, have failed us. The rise of AI and other dubious technological advances has left us unmoored and rightfully fearful over what the near future may hold. Political divisions and wars—and the rumors of wars—have torn us asunder, as we raise our eyes to the heavens and cry, “Help us, oh Lord!”
It is this uncertainty that we would like to step into with this fall’s offering—carrying our literary lanterns into the dark nights, offering our healing balm for what ails the soul, carrying a message of eternal rootedness that cannot be uprooted, even by the most savage of storms.
“How could this possibly be?” you might ask. “The world is falling apart! The odds are against us! It’s a fool’s errand to try to stop the ships that are running us aground…”
By the world’s terms, you’d be right. But, you see, we serve a God who redeems the wretched, who works beauty from ashes, and who said with his life, “I am making all things new!” The true myth, as C.S. Lewis called it, is this: Even in the face of persecution, devastation, and crucifixion, there is always, always, always a Resurrection. These supernatural roots run deep. They cannot be ripped up by the winds of change or the floods of disaster. The raging fires cannot touch us at the depths to which we have rooted.
And in the most impossible set of circumstances, the faithful choose to fruit. As creatives and writers, we know that our most important work happens in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. It happens at Gethsemane and Golgotha. It is in the ninth hour when the artist gets to work.
So, dear faithful creatives and writers, bring us your rooted work, offer up your budding and ripened fruit. Set a table this fall with the thanksgiving of your poetry, stories, essays, photos, and fine art. There are at least one million ways to celebrate the Christian’s rooted life in the years of drought. Our brothers and sisters need what we have to offer. And in the words of my good friend and mentor, Stephen Roach, “Keep creating. The world needs your art.”
If you are looking to get inspired by our ROOTED theme, you can read Kimberly Phinney’s opening talk, “Your Art is Not About You,” from the Cultivate Retreat HERE for free.
If you’re looking for even MORE inspiration and you missed the Cultivate Retreat, you can enjoy the virtual experience by pre-ordering the recordings HERE. They will be available in early August. Hear from Stephen Roach, founder of The Breath and the Clay and Makers and Mystics, Amanda Held Opelt, author and musician, Ben Palpant, author of An Axe for the Frozen Sea with The Rabbit Room, Kimberly Phinney, professor, author, and founder of TWBTO, Deidre Braley, editor and author with Revel Books… and so many more!
If we were sitting in a classroom together, I’d ask you to take this down in your notebook. Here are just some of the unique ways you might engage with this year’s theme:
direct engagement with Jeremiah 17:7-8
personal engagement about your own seasons of uprootedness and how God delivered you to rootedness
cultural engagement with uprootedness and how to become rooted again in Christ and community
the artist’s unique engagement with roots and fruits
trees, roots, and fruits as metaphors for some other spiritual discovery
the forest as a place of meeting (humans rooted by an encounter with God)
rootedness as divine beauty (God’s creation on display)
the forest as a place of testing (failure, temptation, brokenness as a threat to rootedness)
the forest as a place of revelation (clearer vision, divine truth, eternal wisdom)
roots as a symbol of permanence (stability, God’s eternal Kingdom)
liminal spaces, thin spaces, the now and not yet as it relates to the many metaphors found in trees, roots, and fruits
going ekphrastic and seeing how you can connect a piece of fine art to the theme of rootedness
writing in response to a poem that is about rootedness, for example, Wendell Berry’s “The Sycamore,” Robert Frost’s “Birches,” Seamus Heaney’s “Digging,” or Langston Hughes’s “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
and so many more…
Here’s what we are not looking for:
anything made with AI at any process in the creative act: brainstorming, writing, and editing.
politically charged or divisive work (we worship the Lamb, not the donkey or the elephant)
topics that do not align with historical Christianity and sound biblical teaching
unpolished work that lacks a commitment to craft and the rules of grammar and syntax
previously published work (this includes Substack, Instagram, or personal websites/blogs)
work that is explicit in nature
work that is not on the fall theme
work that is obvious, simplistic, or proselytizing
I hope these rich offerings stoke your creative fire as you consider our fall theme and the many ways you can engage with it.
You can learn about all of the details at our website: TheWayBack2Ourselves.com.
PLEASE CONSIDER SUBMITTING AND SHARING THIS WIDELY. THANK YOU!
You belong here,
TWBTO Team and me
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.