How could we possibly describe how it feels to be releasing the twentieth(!!) issue of The Mockingbird magazine? That a print publication like this should even exist — well, sometimes it seems frivolous but, for that same reason, essential. These pages are dedicated not only to fine language and art but more than anything to grace: fresh expressions of surprise, gift-receiving, and the power of unconditional love despite everything. Issue 20 is the Success and Failure issue. In it, we talk a big game about the upshots of failure — but to our readers, subscribers, and donors who have kept this thing going over the years: Thank you. You make us feel like a roaring success.
Below, find the table of contents. The essays tell of ineffective religious crusades, under-baked pastries, unfinished races, stalled business ventures, and pastors with controversial haircuts. Sarah Condon’s incisive advice column continues, and David Zahl returns to the soapbox to preach on the shell game of status games. Be sure to look at the interviewees, too, and judge for yourself whether or not this lineup is a success. Keep your eyes on this site — and, if you subscribe, your mailbox! — for more.
Pre-order here. Shipping next week.
*****
ESSAYS
Undercover Campus Crusade
by Grantland J. Rollins
The Pastor You Got, Not the Pastor You Wanted
A Life of Never Failing Up
by Tasha Genck Morton
No Hero Stories
Eff-Up Nights and the Power of Failing in Public
by Joseph McSpadden
The Long Defeat
Alan Paton’s Quest to Become an Instrument of God’s Peace
by Bryan Jarrell
This Failure Isn’t Half Bad
The Dining Room Table as a Metaphor for Work
by Karen Stiller
Scarlet Letter Secrets
The Good News about Bad Words
by Grace Leuenberger
DNF
The Cross and the Finish Line
by Ali Kjergaard
What Truly Matters
The Apostle Paul as Paradigm and Paradox
by Todd D. Still
INTERVIEWS
The Saints and Sinners Matchmaker | Karen Wright Marsh
The Squiggly Line of a Successful Life | Madeline Levine
Inverting the Pyramid | Nick Mohammed
“Big Circumstance” Has Brought Us Here | Bruce Cockburn
POETRY
Quick Walk to Figure Out Everything by Nate Klug
My Jonathan Edwards by Nate Klug
Had it not been spring! by Stephen Sexton
FICTION
Neon: A Legend by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
SERMON
Shell Game by David Zahl
LISTS & COLUMNS
Dear Gracie… by Sarah Condon
5 1/2 Habits of Remarkably Ineffective People by Bill Borror
The Confessional
A Bruce Cockburn Starter Playlist by Ben Self
…..
Cover photograph by Tim Davis.
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[…] The Success & Failure Issue of The Mockingbird magazine — our 20th issue! — is now available for preorder. Can you believe we got Nick Mohammed — Ted Lasso’s Nate the Great! — for an interview? And Canadian folk music legend Bruce Cockburn? Read the intro to Issue 20 here and check out the table of contents here. […]