An Unexpected Journal: Joy: Finding Happiness in Hard Times

Jasmin is graduating with a Master's degree in cultural apologetics at Houston Baptist University. She loves reading & writing about philosophy, poetry, literature, & cultural analysis. She also enjoys gardening, watercoloring, hiking, and traveling.

Donald W. Catchings, Jr. is co-founder of publishing company, Inkwell and Pen, LLC. Also, Donald holds a Master of Arts in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. Donald regularly contributes to An Unexpected Journal and has numerous published works, including Joy Through a Wardrobe — a poetic companion to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Annie Crawford is a cultural apologist, classical educator, and homeschooling mom who helped to launch An Unexpected Journal in 2017. With a Masters of Arts in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University, Annie teaches apologetics and humanities courses for Manna Classical Academy and Wilson Hill Academy and is co-founder of The Society for Women of Letters where she serves as Senior Fellow.

For over twenty years, Carrie Eben has championed classical education in both the private school classroom and homeschool arenas. She currently serves as founding Board Vice-Chair, Curriculum Chair, and Teacher Mentor at Sager Classical Academy in Siloam Springs, AR. Carrie passionately leads teachers and parents in the classical model of education. She develops and delivers customized workshops for administrators, teachers, and parents in both classical school and homeschool settings via Classical Eben Education Consulting (www.classicaleben.com). Carrie holds a BSE in Intermediate Education from John Brown University and a MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction from Oklahoma State University.She is currently a PhD student in the Humanities program at Faulkner University, a Bluestocking in Residence for the Society for Women of Letters, a CiRCE Institute Master Teacher teaches Integrated Humanities at John Brown University.

Joshua S. Fullman is Professor of English at Faulkner University, where he also teaches in the Great Books Honors undergraduate and graduate programs. He is also Director of the Institute of Faith and the Academy, a university initiative to promote faith-learning integration. His poems have appeared in Mythlore, The North American Anglican Review, and An Unexpected Journal.

Dr. Ann Gauger is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute Center for Science and Culture in Seattle, Washington. She received her Bachelor's degree from MIT and her PhD from the University of Washington. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. Her scientific work has been published in Nature, Development, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Genetic Regulation of Development, In Vitro, In Vitro Cell and Developmental Biology, BIO-Complexity, and Biological Information: New Perspectives, and Journal of Theoretical Biology. She has coauthored the book Science and Human Origins, and co-edited Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. She has written numerous essays and posts for the website Evolution News and Science Today, and articles appearing in Salvo, Christian Research Journal, Behemoth, and others. Her life centers on communicating the reality of God revealed in creation. Besides all the writing, she has appeared in several videos by Illustra Media, and she writes music and poetry as another way to communicate the glory of God. Samples can be found at her website anngauger.blog. She and her husband have been married nearly 33 years and have three grown children and one standard poodle.

Sojourna Howfree is a pen name for Sonja Howard, an Australian biographer, poet, essayist, and English Literature teacher. Residing in the beautiful Sunshine Coast of Australia with her husband of 24 years. Sonja is a mother of 4.

“I am dust that has been drawn into the breath of God, only to be exhaled as something of worth, because in that moment of being drawn into him, there was the great transformation.”  Sonja

Kim Jacobson and her husband reside in Bend, Oregon where she enjoys writing fiction and non-fiction. Attending St. Francis of Assisi Church is an integral part of her life where she co-leads a writing group for the Word on Fire Institute. She enjoys hiking in the mountains in order to connect with the Holy Spirit for writing inspiration.

Tommy Darin Liskey spent nearly a decade working as a journalist in Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. His poetry, fiction and non-fiction has appeared in The Red Truck Review, Deep South, Driftwood Press, and Heartwood among others. Besides the Cultivating Project, his narrative and documentary photography has been published in The Museum of Americana and Midwestern Gothic, among others. He has published the novella-length short story collection, This Side of The River, and collaborated with the poet Kelly Belmonte for poetry-photography book, Transit.

Jason holds a B.A. from York College in York, NE, where he studied English and Psychology. He also recently completed his M.A. in Christian Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. Along with research and writing, Jason plays drums in a band and works in the mental health field. He grew up in Pierre, SD and currently lives in Spearfish, SD. In his spare time does a lot of outdoors activities in the Black Hills area and volunteers at his local parish.

Seth Myers completed his MA in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University in 2017. As a power systems engineer, he has been involved with transformer diagnostics and rural electrification projects by partnering with NGOs in West Africa. A volunteer with international students through local churches, he enjoys conversations with friends from all cultures. He considers himself rich in friendships across time and space, including but not limited to C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bede the Venerable, Augustine, Ravi Zacharias & friends, and many student friends (chess-playing when possible, but not required) typically from throughout Asia. He has recently begun taking online courses in Faulkner University’s Doctor of Humanities program.

Annie Nardone is a two-year C.S. Lewis Institute Fellow with a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. She has homeschooled her three kids for twenty-five years and taught art and humanities at her local co-op. Her heart is for Rohan, Narnia, and Hogwarts, far fairer lands than this. Annie contributes and edits for An Unexpected Journal at www.anunexpectedjournal.com. She publishes online at www.literarylife.org, www.theperennialgen.com, and most recently began writing for the online magazine Cultivating at www.thecultivatingproject.com. She also wrote an historical cookbook for Bright Ideas Press. She can be contacted at: [email protected].

Josiah Peterson teaches Humane Letters at Chandler Preparatory Academy in Chandler, AZ. He previously coached debate and taught rhetoric at The King's College in New York City. He earned his M.A. in Apologetics through Houston Baptist University where he wrote his thesis on Lewis's rhetoric under the advisement of Holly Ordway and Michael Ward. He has written for The Journal of Inklings Studies, Sehnsucht, The Lamppost, VII, Mythlore, CSL, and Touchstone. He lives in Mesa, AZ with his wife and two kids.

Megan Joy Rials holds her Juris Doctor and Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center and works as a research attorney in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is currently working toward an online Master of Arts in Apologetics (cultural track) from Houston Baptist University. She is a Board member of and regular contributor to An Unexpected Journal, and she also serves as Content Editor of the Leadership Council for the Society for Women of Letters. Her work has also been published in the theology journal Perichoresis and the Louisiana Law Review, where she served as Production Editor for Volume 77. She attends Jefferson Baptist Church with her family, and her main apologetics interests lie in storytelling of all mediums, fantasy literature, the theology of suffering, the function of memory in spiritual development, and the work of the Inklings, particularly C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers.

Zachary D. Schmoll earned his Ph.D. in Humanities at Faulkner University and his M.A. in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. He serves as the Managing Editor of An Unexpected Journal, a quarterly publication of cultural and imaginative apologetics. His academic work has been published in Christianity & Literature, Mythlore, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Faith and the Academy, and Fourth World Journal. His essays have also been featured at Public Discourse, Front Porch Republic, and The Federalist.

John Tuttle is a Catholic journalist and essayist. His writing has been published by The Hill, Tablet Magazine, Catholic World Report, The Christian Post, Movieguide, the University of Notre Dame's Grotto Network, and Arizona State University's Starting Points Journal.

Sarah Waters is a Lecturer in English Literature and an Honorary JRF at the University of Buckingham, UK. Recent publications include an article on Pericles and its connections with female agency, melancholia and depression and an article exploring the connections between Out of the Silent Planet and The Tempest.

Donald T. Williams, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. A border dweller, he stays permanently camped out on the borders between theology and literature, serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, Narnia and Middle Earth. He is the author of thirteen books, most recently Deeper Magic: The Theology behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis (Baltimore: Square Halo Books, 2016), “An Encouraging Thought”: The Christian Worldview in the Writings of J. R. R. Tolkien (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2018), The Young Christian’s Survival Guide: Common Questions Young Christians are Asked about God, the Bible, and the Christian Faith Answered (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2019), Stars through the Clouds: The Collected Poetry of Donald T. Williams (Lantern Hollow Press, 2020), and Ninety-Five Theses for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity (Semper Reformanda Publications, 2021).