Poetry University: An Authentic Creative Community Centered on Faith and Belonging

Coming this month for paid subscribers at My Way Back as my FREE gift to you!

Friends near and far! Come one! Come all!

WELCOME TO POETRY UNIVERSITY

It’s finally HERE! Poetry University will launch later this month on Zoom for all paid subscribers of My Way Back as a FREE gift to you! We will meet once a month (live and recorded) to create an authentic community centered on faith and belonging for Christian creatives.

As a professor, writer, editor, counselor, publisher, podcaster, and founder of www.TheWayBack2Ourselves.com, I have so much I’d love to share with you and help you with as you answer the call of “writer.” If God has meant anything for me in my life, it is to be a “teacher” and servant to others, so I am very excited for this NEW opportunity as another way to embody what I say I believe in and help beautify the Kingdom.

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WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT?

Poetry will be a large component of what we do, but we will also deep dive into craft, the artist’s soul, perspectives in art, publishing, building authentic platforms, navigating Substack, and so much more.

Essentially, I want you to bring me all your questions, needs, dreams, and ideas, and I will do my best to help you. What is even better is that community is priceless. I suspect the writers who attend will offer their own rich experiences and perspectives that we can all glean from, and if I know one thing for sure, it’s this: We weren’t created to go it alone!

So, come be a part of this burgeoning community, as we meet each month and continue our conversations in the My Way Back paid subscribers chat, which will launch with Poetry University.

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WHAT ARE YOUR CREDENTIALS?

Great question! Here’s my official bio below, along with my interview with Good Morning America, which I think does a good job of telling my story and showing my heart. You can learn so much more at www.TheWayBack2Ourselves.com.

About Kimberly Phinney:

Kimberly Phinney is a writer, professor, counselor, publisher, and editor. She’s been published in Christianity Today, Ekstasis, Fathom, Solum Literary Press, The Dewdrop, Humana Obscura, Calla Press, and more. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of www.TheWayBack2Ourselves.com. Her poetry is award-winning. “Exalted Ground” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2024. Her poem “An Ode to Hard Dark Nights” won the Audience Choice Award in the Bright Wings Poetry Contest with Ekstasis and Makers and Mystics in 2024. Her small collection of poetry from Of Wings and Dirt won runner-up in Fathom Magazine’s Poetry Contest in 2023.

A doctoral candidate in Community Care and Counseling, Kimberly holds an M.Ed. in English and studied at Goddard’s Creative Writing MFA program. She was featured on Good Morning America for a national award from the Nobel family and NSHSS for teaching through critical illness. Her poetry collection, Of Wings and Dirt, was a bestseller on the Amazon Charts throughout 2024. Her second book of poetry, Exalted Ground: Poems of Praise and Lament for the Living, debuted as a bestseller and #1 in Christian Poetry Charts in April of 2025. She is at work on her large nonfiction project on art and faith, which she hopes will be published in 2027, as well as a third book of poetry and a children’s book on cultivating resilience and faith through difficult times.

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Here are my books and the forthcoming print journal of The Way Back to Ourselves Literary Journal’s Spring Collection.

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SO, ARE YOU COMING?

So, there you have it! The dates, details, and Zoom link will be shared soon with paid subscribers! If you don’t want to miss out on this, just click below to subscribe for only $6 a month.

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A POEM FOR THE ROAD

TO MAKE A HOLY ECHO
by Kimberly Phinney, published in Exalted Ground

What is
     has already been done
          and will be done
               and will be done, again.

See this:

I went out walking in the woods—
beneath the Blue Ridge line
painted across the sky
and where the pink twilight
birthed just above its peaks.

There, 
I found, 
tangled on a beech tree limb,
a mass of golden leaves, 
all airy, all see-through,
save their veiny spines—
          like the finest bobbin lace
          an artisan could weave—
to say God made it first,
          so, then, the artist could. 

And there,
I found,
in the loamy, layered earth
the perfect vermilion
of a turning leaf,
bedded down in the undergrowth—
          like the red of the finest palette
          of watercolors a painter might ever own—
to say God made it first,
          so, then, the artist could.

And at last,
I laid down
in that bed of leaves,
back soft in surrender,
eyes squinted North
toward the bright, winter sun,
numbering the bare branches
that hung above me—
all fingertips and arms and hands—
reaching toward the blue belly of Heaven
just as they were made to do—
          like the dancer’s body groans and moves 
          or like the poet’s pen sings praise— 
all to say God made it this way,
          so, then, the artist could know how to pray.

Yes, we are echoing
all that has been done 
and will be done
and will be done, again.

We are His holy echoes—
His Imago Dei—
Do you hear creation singing?   
Do you hear it cry, “Create!”?

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As always, I am so grateful for you. In case you didn’t know it, My Way Back is growing here, and it was ranked #43 in the Rising Faith and Spirituality category for all of Substack this week! This is because you are here!! So, thank you for giving me inspiration and purpose to keep going on my worst days!

I am hoping to SEE on Zoom very soon.

You belong here,

me