IMAGE journal and its board of directors, including Orcas Islander Dick Staub, are presenting a reading from the twentieth anniversary anthology, “Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of IMAGE” on Friday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the parish hall of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

Readers include poet Luci Shaw, fiction writer Deborah Joy Corey, and IMAGE editor Gregory Wolfe.

IMAGE journal produced its first book-length anthology, Bearing the Mystery, published by Eerdmans in 2009, to celebrate two decades of bringing readers the best contemporary art and writing informed by – or grappling with – religious faith.

The anthology features some of the most dynamic and innovative artists at work today, including writers like Annie Dillard, Ann Patchett, Richard Rodriguez, Denise Levertov, Kathleen Norris, Franz Wright, and Ron Hansen; film director Wim Wenders; composer James Macmillan; and such visual artists as Makoto Fujimura, Ed Knippers, Zhi Lin, Barry Moser, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., and many others.

Says founder and editor Gregory Wolfe, IMAGE is “not interested in art that merely regurgitates dogma or falls back on easy answers or didacticism. Rather, IMAGE publishes work that embodies a spiritual struggle that seeks to strike a balance between tradition and a profound openness to the world.”

Space is limited, and registration is required at www.TheKindlings.com.