The Chrysostom Society chose author Howard Schaap as the 2026 Luci Shaw Fellow. He attended the Chrysostom gathering’s annual meeting this year in Colorado as the guest author, proving an opportunity for Schaap to build relationships with the members and share about his first published book.

His new book Brooding Upon the Waters explores place, history, and faith through stories of farming, fishing, and failure in America’s lost landscape—the tall grass prairie of the Upper Midwest. Schaap serves as professor of English at Dordt University, teaching courses such as Advanced Nonfiction Writing, Multicultural American Literature, and Environmental Literature and Ethics. His writing often centers on the intersection of place and faith.

In addition, this year the Fund enabled the Society to bring Douglas Christie into the fold as the newest member of the Society. Christie, too, writes about the work of faith and the land in his book The Blue Sapphire of the Mind. Christie explores how the wisdom of ancient and modern contemplative traditions can inspire both an honest reckoning with the destructive patterns of thought and behavior that have contributed so much to our current crisis, and a greater sense of care and responsibility for all living beings.

The Luci Shaw Writers Fellowship Fund was created in 2024 in honor of our beloved founding member and outstanding poet Luci Shaw to further our mission of supporting writers early in their careers whose work and lives are shaped by the Christian faith. Donations can be made at any time to the Fund to support more writers like Basler and Christie.

The Chrysostom Society looks forward to inviting their next Luci Shaw Fellow to join them at their 2027 annual retreat in Arizona.