Hillsdale Students and Incarnation: A Journal of the Moral Imagination
Written by Erika Kyba
With its stellar English Department, Hillsdale is known for producing students who know how to analyze literature well. But there are also those that write works of their own. Incarnation: A Journal of the Moral Imagination is a new fiction periodical, which was first released on Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. The first issue featured publications from two Hillsdale students.
Incarnation was created to offer promising new writers a space to be published and read. Its mission is to publish fiction that is “grounded in the Western tradition and the moral teaching of the Catholic Church” (though it specifies that authors do not need to be Catholic to be published). This commitment to honoring the Western tradition makes the journal of interest to Hillsdale students and to everyone who supports Hillsdale’s mission. Hannah Simmons, ’27, and Stella Webster, ’24, submitted to the journal and were published.
Hannah wrote a short story titled “The Last Dance of Marilyn Rodriguez.” The story is a moving depiction of a 102-year-old woman’s birthday, the titular Marilyn Rodriguez, whose greatest desire is to dance again, like she did in her youth. Passionate about writing since early childhood, Hannah began writing short stories in her free time, one of which was “The Last Dance of Marilyn Rodriguez.” She heard about Incarnation through Visiting Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Timothy Green, who informed students in Hillsdale’s Creative Writing Club about the opportunity.
Hannah feels that the beauty of campus helps inspire her writing. “I really enjoy writing outside,” says Hannah. “Campus is so beautiful, and that was a huge setting for me. I also think finding other people that enjoy writing has been inspiring. I’m definitely excited to get more writing feedback from professors as I take the Great Books courses.”
Stella wrote a poem titled “Music,” which describes the powerful and emotional effect that music can have on the listener. “The idea for the poem came from the feeling of being swept up in something musical, which I’ve always found very exciting, and a wonderful experience,” she says. “Most of the poems I write center around an image or a feeling, usually very brief, which I try to put into words.”
Stella had previously published poems through poetry competitions, but this was her first time being published in a more formal capacity. “When I heard from Thomas Greninger, who’s the chief publisher, that they were accepting submissions, I thought, ‘What do I have that would be useful? I want to support him.’” Stella knows Mr. Greninger as a family friend from years past, and she wholeheartedly supports the mission of Incarnation, “which is to have quality writing that expresses truths about the world and Christian belief, but without being explicitly preachy or focusing on a moral message to the detriment of the art.”
Incarnation certainly seems like a perfect fit for Hillsdale students that are creatively inclined, as it fosters values cherished by the College in the fiction and the poetry it publishes. We often think about the fight to “take back the culture,” as it were, in political terms, but at the end of the day, the art a society consumes does a lot to influence cultural values. Incarnation may very well be helping to pave a way forward for a fiction that is grounded in the rich heritage that Hillsdale passes on to its students.
Erika Kyba, ’26, is a prospective English major from Saint Paul, MN. Outside of class, she enjoys reading the classics, watching rom coms, writing fiction, and listening to 80s music.
Published in May 2024