Resources for Writing about Faith

From time to time, writers and readers reach out to ask for recommendations for writers, essays, and memoirs that are serious about engaging with their faith in beautiful, complex ways. Here are several lists of recommendations—some available on the web and others elsewhere—that might help an aspiring writer of faith take the next steps along their writing journey.

I provide developmental editing and writing coach services for spiritual memoir or essay collections. If you are interested in this kind of working relationship, please feel free to contact me to schedule a free consultation call at sarahmwells1982@gmail.com.

Contemporary Creative Nonfiction / Essay / Memoir on Faith

  • Nadia Bolz-Weber: Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner Saint
  • Daniel Bowman, Jr.: On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity
  • Barbara Brown Taylor: An Altar in the World
  • Diana Butler Bass: Grounded: Finding God in the World
  • Annie Dillard: Holy the Firm, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
  • Brian Doyle: One Long River of Song, Grace Notes, Leaping and probably anything else you can find by him
  • David James Duncan: God Laughs and Plays
  • Mary Karr: Lit
  • Anne Lamott: Traveling Mercies, Bird by Bird, Help Thanks Wow, Dusk Night Dawn, etc.
  • Madeleine L’Engle: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
  • Sonja Livingston: The Virgin of Prince Street
  • Nancy Mairs: Ordinary Time
  • Beth Moore: All My Knotted Up Life
  • Kathleen Norris: Acedia & Me, The Cloister Walk, Dakota, and Amazing Grace
  • Amy Peterson: Dangerous Territory and Where Goodness Still Grows
  • Jessie Van Eerden: The Long Weeping
  • Christian Wiman: My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer
  • Addie Zierman: Night Driving and When We Were On Fire

Faith-Related Literary Journals and Magazines

Faith-Related / Faith-Friendly Presses