Dappled Things Magazine

08/10/2025

The J.F. Powers short fiction contest is open! https://www.dappledthings.org/deep-down-things/2025-jf-powers-prize-for-short-fiction
Why not read the 2020 winning story, "A Fire in the Hills," by Sally Thomas for inspiration?
https://www.dappledthings.org/fiction/17866/a-fire-in-the-hills

Sally Thomas Winner, 2020 J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction Really, I have no complaints. I love my husband. Our life is good. Our little house, high up in the Avenues, suits us perfectly: nice kitchen, spare room for Declan’s study, built-in bookshelves in every room. We live there comfortabl

08/10/2025

Attention fiction writers! This 2025 JP Powers Prize is now open! Polish that short story you’ve been working on and submit it before the end of the month! Link in the comments.

07/10/2025

Our friends at Wiseblood Books are in the midst of their 2025 Fundraiser. Jane Scharl has donated a poetry critique to the next donor who contributes $500 to Wiseblood.

This special package includes:

1) Line-by-line critique of 3-5 pages of poetry (100 lines total)

2) A 1-3 paragraph “review” synthesizing the strongest and weakest choices I see the poet making

3) Recommended reading list curated to poet’s strengths/weaknesses/interests

You can read more about this and about Jane's forthcoming verse play, The Death of Rabelais, with a Foreword by Tara Isabella Burton, over at Wiseblood's Substack:

The Death of Rabelais by J. C. Scharl

07/10/2025

Part 2 of John McGee’s startling, well-researched interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic play.

03/10/2025

The Catholic Culture Podcast hosted a joint interview with ’ founder and editor-in-chief about twenty years of Dappled Things and how Catholic arts and letters are actually flourishing (but don’t tell anyone!). Link in the comments.

01/10/2025

Do you have a great story inside you, just waiting to come out and amaze the world? The clock is now ticking and you’ve got until November 30 to submit it for the JF Powers Prize for Short Fiction! Link in the comments.
https://www.dappledthings.org/deep-down-things/2025-jf-powers-prize-for-short-fiction

30/09/2025

Have you had a chance to read this interview? Between Two Sounds: An Interview with Joonas Sildre and Adam Cullen.
Tessa Carmen recently spoke with Joonas and Adam about their unique project.
Arvo Pärt is perhaps the world’s most beloved living composer, whose music has a depth that invites the listener into an encounter with the eternal. Few know the story of how he became a musician, however, as no official biography exists. A graphic novel, however, does.

Joonas Sildren’s Between Two Sounds, translated from the original Estonian into English by Adam Cullen, now tells Pärt’s story. Image and word turned out to be the perfect medium to depict the emergence of Pärt’s unique sound and its wisdom of silence.

Ar vo Pärt is perhaps the world’s most beloved living composer, whose music has a depth that invites the listener into an encounter with the eternal. Few know the story of how he became a musician, however, as no official biography exists. A graphic novel, however, does.  Joonas Sild

30/09/2025

John McGee offers a startling, well-researched interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic play.

26/09/2025

Friday Links Ode to the Indies; The Middle-Distance Poem: An Elegy; The Protector of Our Nazareths; CR Episode 289: E.A. Robinson’s Gothic Verse

Ode to the Indies; The Middle-Distance Poem: An Elegy; John Wilson on Muriel Spark; The Protector of Our Nazareths; CR Episode 289: E.A. Robinson’s Gothic Verse

25/09/2025

24/09/2025

Did you know that Dappled Things has an archive-full of stories, poems, interviews, reviews, and more, including this interview with the great novelist Ron Hansen?

Joseph O’Brien The post-war boom in fiction was a moment of hope for the state of Catholic culture. Catholic writers Flannery O’Connor and Muriel Spark were being sent up the same flag poles that flew pennants for Saul Bellow and John Updike. Catholics even managed to c

23/09/2025

Sacramentality and the Mystery Man