The Nightstand

Imagining Divine Participation

No matter how fallen or distant from God the world around us may seem, the distance is never absolute.

On Flannery O’Connor and Jack Black

Maybe O’Connor’s narrative can teach us that people—and the places they call home, the places that form them—need not be defined by their flaws.

They Stood On Their Feet

The poetry in this book captures some of those everyday moments and holds them up in a light that makes possible another kind of clarity, not that of simply worded declarations on a page, but that which concerns our own selves and souls.

Thinking about the Post-Pandemic (and, Maybe, the Post-Suburban) Neighborhood

Chuck Marohn's work, whatever disagreements one may have with it, gives us some good counsel on where to start changing suburban-addicted minds and fiscal incentives.

Tanya Berry’s Faithful Art

Women like Tanya bring artistry and honor to everything they touch: the homes they inhabit, the land they steward, the children they raise. These photographs are testimony to the clear, sharp eye of a woman who is herself an artist—and who brings that artistic gaze to every endeavor she undertakes.

Culinary Plagiarist: An Interview with the “Author”

Recently FPR's Bar Jester sat down with the Culinary Plagiarist to discuss a new book by Jason Peters, The Culinary Plagiarist: (Mis)Adventures of a Lusty, Thieving, God-Fearing Gourmand.

The Domestic Arts: Finding a Quiet Dignity in the Mundane

As Sarah Orne Jewett knew, "everyday tasks” and the celebrations they engender are the condition upon which many other arts rest, including poetry.

Building Institutions in an Age of Platforms and Hashtags

When institutions can’t serve their social function, our social problems are harder to address. And a society that cannot adequately respond to its problems is not a society that is cohesive or supportive of the people within it.

Should We Read the Words of the Unsavory Dead?

Alan Jacobs is right that if we would receive a blessing from the dead, we will have to wrestle with them.

Free America, The Front Porch Republic, and America’s Decentralist Tradition

The contributors to Free America belonged to one another and to the vision of a humane society, one founded on distributed property. Just because this vision has been drowned out by the purveyors of the bigger-is-better and the latest-is-greatest doesn’t mean a decentralist vision is not worth defending and, even more so, practicing.