Re:Echo Journal — Issue 1

Micha Boyett is the author of Blessed Are the Rest of Us and Found: A Story of Questions, Grace, and Everyday Prayer. A poet and disability advocate, she writes about prayer and the wonder of ordinary life.

Andrew E. Colarusso is author of The Sovereign (2017), Hívado (2022), Black Body Index (2024), and Pettyg-d (2026). He is the owner of Taylor & Co. Books, an indie bookstore in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, where he grew up.

Kendall Cox is a professor, writer, and artist living on the Main Line of Philadelphia. She studied Studio Art and Religion and has her MDiv and PhD in Religious Studies. Kendall teaches ethics and aesthetics in the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, where she is involved with the gallery and arts programming. Her ten-year-old has mostly taken over the studio now, so they often paint and print together. 

Calvin Cummings is a writer from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His work appears in Volume Ø, Soft Union, Blue Arrangements, SARKA, Haskell Industries, and elsewhere. 

John Cunningham leads a culture-engagement fund dedicated to connecting ideas with broader public life. He lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife, three children, and one dog. He wants to talk to you about food, wine, or books.

Michael Dechane is the author of The Long Invisible (Wildhouse Publishing, 2024). His poetry has appeared in Image, Spiritus, Tar River Poetry, Lake Effect, and elsewhere. He lives in the historic Stackhouse home in Marshall, NC.

Janelle is a multimedia artist specializing in graphic design and cinematography, drawn to stories that sit at the intersection of music, community, and social change. Her video work includes Storming (forthcoming on Independent Lens), PBS docuseries Getting Off the Streets, Live on KEXP, and At: Guitar Center. Her illustration and design work spans the full breadth of human endeavor — from global NGOs to Trader Joe’s. She is currently Art Director and Graphic Designer at inquisitive Magazine by Heterodox Academy — where she wrangles esoteric ideas into well-behaved visuals. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two children, and can usually be found reading, daydreaming and staring at the sky.

Charlotte Donlon is a writer, spiritual director, and gatherer. Her work has woven together themes of belonging, art, and soul exploration for more than 25 years. With a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and a certificate in spiritual direction, Charlotte guides writers and other creative souls in developing sanctuaries of acceptance and connection.

In 2020, Broadleaf Books published Charlotte‘s first book, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life is slated for release by Here Below in September 2026. Three volumes of Charlotte‘s “Guidebooks for the Soul”—Take More Retreats, The Great Belonging Project, and Belonging Through Art—will also be published in 2026.

Her essays have been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, and The Millions, among others. A new essay about art conservation, Joan Mitchell, and mystery is forthcoming in Image journal.

Abigail Engel lives in Haddon Heights, NJ with her husband (Nick) and dog (Gertrude). She is an active and enthusiastic member of the Resurrection community. She holds a BFA from NYU and a Certificate in Screenwriting from Chapman University.  

Laurel Garver is the author of the poetry collection Muddy-Fingered Midnights and three novels: Never Gone, Ever Near, and Almost There. She is managing editor of the Journal of Modern Literature (Indiana UP) and a freelance editor in Philadelphia.

Ashton Gooding is a photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. His work focuses on human interactions within a populous city. The overall theme of each collection gives the subject a constructive platform while soliciting positive feelings from the viewer. Today and moving forward, he seeks to have his images look and feel as if they embody the quiet moments of everyday life; the moments we could spend a little more time with if we were not in such a rush. In his free time, he is also spearheading a photo community in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn at Taylor & Co. Bookstore; a monthly gathering for photographers with each meeting centered around a photo book. Throughout the year, he is an acting director of the Camera of the Month Club; a unique gathering of dedicated photographers from across NYC and a supportive space for emerging to mid-career photographers to share their work, receive critical feedback, and develop their portfolios.

eggnogg photography

Heather Lanier’s memoir, Raising a Rare Girl, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. She is also the author of four poetry collections, including Psalms of Unknowing. She is an associate professor of writing at Rowan University.

Tripp Lybrand is a writer and artist living in Austin, Texas. His work has appeared in Joie de Vivre. He’s been a fellow at The Glen Workshop and holds an MFA in fiction from Seattle Pacific University.

https://www.tripplybrand.com

Catherine Ricketts is editor-in-chief of Re:Echo Journal. She is the author of The Mother Artist: Portraits of Ambition, Limitation, and Creativity (Broadleaf, 2024). Her essays appear in Image, Comment, The Christian Century, Ploughshares and elsewhere. She lives near Philadelphia and works at Villanova University.

Joshua Stamper is a transdisciplinary artist and composer whose work explores hiddenness, revelation, ephemera, and archive.

He has worked as an orchestral arranger, studio conductor, and session musician for Columbia / Sony BMG and Concord Records, Lionsgate Films, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Legendary Entertainment, and for independent labels Domino, Dead Oceans, Important Records, and Smalltown Supersound.

He has received fellowships from MacDowell, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Speranza Foundation, the BAU Institute at the Camargo Foundation. Joshua’s work has been supported by the American Composers Forum, the NewAm Composers Lab, the Lilly Endowment, the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, the Eric Stokes Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

joshuastamper.com

Kory Stamper has been a professional editor for over 25 years and has edited works for small journals and large publishing houses. She is currently a freelance copyeditor and proofreader with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, where she works on nonfiction and fiction in translation. Kory is also the author of Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries and True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color—from Azure to Zinc Pink. She roasts her own coffee.

korystamper.com

Caleb Stoltzfus (b. 1992 Elverson, PA) began learning to draw and paint at an atelier under Nelson Carlin in 2008. He receiving a BA in Art from Covenant College in 2015 and studied landscape painting and composition under Daud Akhriev from 2016-2017. He completed the Mount Gretna Studio Seminar in 2023.

Caleb is based in Philadelphia and has exhibited his paintings throughout the North East, including a solo show at Gross McCleaf, group shows at Procession Gallery in Philadelphia, Art at Kings Oaks in Newtown, First Street Gallery and Pushup Gallery in New York, as well as internationally at the Hampstead Society in London. Caleb has done three previous installations for Resurrection Philadelphia, including Pentecost in 2018 and Easter in 2020 and 2024.

Christopher Yates is a philosopher, writer, and occasional woodworker from Crozet, Virginia. He teaches at James Madison University, is an associate fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, and is a longtime student of, especially, aesthetics and phenomenology.