Becca Stevens is a speaker, justice entrepreneur, author, priest, and founder and President of Thistle Farms. She has been featured on PBS NewsHour, The Today Show, CNN, ABC World News, named a CNN Hero, and White House Champion of Change, holds five honorary doctorates, and raised over $75M in funding for justice initiatives. Drawn from 25 years of leadership in mission-driven work, Becca leads important conversations across the country with an inspiring message that love is the strongest force for change in the world.  Becca’s website Thistle Farms website I’m grateful to Becca for her ..read more

I read fewer books this year than last and published fewer book reviews and podcast episodes as well. Work became busier than it was during the height of the pandemic and I spent less time reading…and yet it’s still a pretty good list that I think has something to recommend to almost everyone. I also started more books than I finished. This happens for one of two reasons Either, 1) I didn’t enjoy the book enough to finish it, or 2) I got excited about a new book and started it without finishing the one I was already reading. Although the former does happen occasionally, the latter happens a l ..read more

This episode is one of two that we recorded at the 2022 Boerne Book & Arts Festival and is unlike anything we’ve done before. In this episode, I had the privilege of moderating one of the panels at the book festival and it couldn’t have been more fun. This panel was the last of the day and appropriately titled “The Wine’d Down.” I was joined in this conversation by the authors Sarah Bird and James Wade, and by Sara Potter from Bending Branch Winery. We…and the in-person audience under the pecan trees of Boerne’s town square…tasted Bending Branch Wines and then talked about the books we th ..read more

Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in numerous publications and received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton received the 2021 Thomas Merton “Louie” Award from the International Thomas Merton Society. She is the founding director of Alma College’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, a low residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. www.sophfronia.com YouTube Instagram I was delighted to ha ..read more

This episode is a little different and features short conversations with several authors about their most recent book and involvement with the 2022 Boerne Book & Arts Festival. The format is the same as the one we did for the 2021 Boerne Book & Arts Festival and I’m grateful to the Patrick Heath Public Library for inviting The Deckle Edge back for a second year. For those that don’t know, Boerne is a beautiful bedroom community just north of San Antonio, Texas, and the book festival takes place each year on Main Plaza on the first Saturday in October. This year’s event featured author ..read more

The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water is the latest book from poet, fly-fishing guide, and author Chris Dombrowski. In it, Dombrowski recounts and unpacks his life decisions to become a guide, to become a husband, to become a father, and throughout, to become a writer. It is a memoir of sorts, though thematically it is the story of many of us; the story many of us spar with on a daily basis. I know that the true knowledge of the land, the dense and durable kind, can only be gathered at the landscape’s pace – why do I expect to suddenly attain the accrued intimacy of someone like ..read more

Radney Foster first gained attention as half of the musical duo Foster & Lloyd  (who, with “Crazy Over You” became the first duo in history to top the Country charts with their debut single). His solo debut was on the upstart record label Arista Nashville, where his labelmates included Alan Jackson, Diamond Rio, Pam Tillis and Brooks & Dunn.  Foster’s discography contains countless cuts by artists ranging anywhere from country like Keith Urban, The Chicks, Brooks and Dunn and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band… to contemporary musicians like Marc Broussard, Hootie & The Blowfish ..read more

Beasts of the Earth is the upcoming and third novel from writer James Wade and like his previous books is a raw and riveting story cloaked in literary prose. Clouds in white painted banks sat motionless yet ever moving across a sky so blue the locals called it Texas blue, as if they refused to believe there existed anywhere in the world a color as stark and grand as the one they saw above – as if by their unique assignment of the sky they had likewise sorted the whole of their lives into some more esteemed category. Harlen Leblanc is a quiet, if somewhat odd, man. He lives in the Texas Hill C ..read more

Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in numerous publications and received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton received the 2021 Thomas Merton “Louie” Award from the International Thomas Merton Society. She is the founding director of Alma College’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, a low residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. www.sophfronia.com YouTube Instagram I was delighted to ha ..read more

Since 1970 Jim Tolpin has worked professionally in woodworking as a timber framer, boat finish carpenter, and custom cabinet maker. He’s also been a teacher and a writer, co-founding the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in 2007. Jim has written articles for most of the major woodworking magazines including Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding. He’s also written feature length articles for Coastal Living and Cottage Living magazines. Additionally, he’s written eighteen books that together have sold nearly a million copies. Jim’s latest book, Euclid’s Door, is due out this fall from Lost A ..read more