Inkwell Wrapped
Some stats, stories, and glorious follies from a bizarre year
JUST LIKE THAT, Q1 of the century comes to a close. Despite the sheer chaos of 2025, it seems like something has burned away. A kind of clarity is emerging from a year that might actually sound like sci-fi if explained to a time traveler from even just a few decades ago. We look at the mess around us, clumsily debating, and finally remembering what we really long for as humans, as creatives, and as Christians.
We explored these undeniable yearnings in our editorial series throughout the year, namely, for hearty community, Christ-centered beauty, reading great literature, inhabiting old myths and crafting new ones, and living in the folds of sacred time with the people we love. When things get weird in our society, we can burrow down into these divine realities to stay sane. Each of these desires is really a key, collectively unlocking what it means to be human.
AND WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO BE HUMAN? This is the question that will undoubtedly dominate the discourse in 2026, as AI slop, technological progress, rampant loneliness, and unsettling social trends thicken like dark storm clouds around our communities.
Yet research tells us that more young people are turning to God right now than in decades past. Mounting discontents with our context, paired with the deep ache for our oldest human longings, seem to be ravaging culture right now, driving people into the folds of the church and into the arms of God.
So we come to 2026 ready to be surprised, ready to gather, ready to create, ready to feast, ready to mend, and ready to lean into the goodness of God and the lore of the world around us. - Carolyn Morris-Collier Editor at Inkwell
Some quick stats from 2025
880,000 reads on Substack
1,500,000 views on Instagram
1,000+ attendees at Inkwell live events
100+ writers and artists featured online & in-person
#1 Rising Substack in Faith & Spirituality (for 2 days, ha!)
Now we’re asking… What’s coming in 2026?
Conor Sweetman, Founder of Inkwell
“OVER THE NEXT YEAR, I think we’ll see a big turn towards creative Christian media that has an overtly journalistic quality: writing that talks about real people, real events, and real movement. In this amorphous realm that we call ‘art & faith,’ we often use lofty language about community and craft, but I think these frames can get tired from overuse. Humans are interested in other living and breathing humans because God wired us that way. We crave a “character” that we can follow, interpret, and analyze. Journalism takes a person’s story seriously and traces the outline of influences, conditions, and effects that our actions have on one another. I think we need more of that in this creative space we occupy.”
Josh Nadeau, Creator of Every Day Saints and Sword & Pencil
“FOR A LONG WHILE, we’ve been very busy explaining ourselves. Learning how to talk beautifully about imagination without actually using it. This is the curse of those who have stopped making, of those who have stopped living. Talking about stories is not the same thing as telling them. Whatever comes next will have to speak the language of the heart. It will have to awaken love. It will be embodied, risky, and unmistakably alive. There will be no substitute. These stories, and the transformation we hope for, will come from those who have lived what they’re trying to say.”
Nicole Massie Martin, CEO of Christianity Today
“ONE SURPRISING THING I see ahead is a renewed hunger among younger generations for deep faith to counter deep fake. In a fragmented, falsified, algorithm-driven world, the truth of God’s Word and the authentic stories of believers will become radically relevant again. I also anticipate a rise in super weird, trendy gifts.”
Cheers to beautiful writing!
Congrats to our top 5 Inkwell essays of the year!
*An honorable mention to the Substack meme lord, Coby Dolloff, for his essay, The Third Place Revival, coming in hot just after the top five.
This year, raising up talent is top of mind.
The Young Storytellers Fellowship
WE KICKED OFF our second annual Young Storytellers Fellowship in Washington, D.C. We’re continually surprised at how quickly and deeply bonds form when you get people in the same room with a shared sense of artistic calling and desire to build skills for the sake of the kingdom. Be on the lookout for the projects they’ll be working on over the next few months and connect with our Fellows on socials: Rosa Lía Gilbert, Natalie Bassie Cross, david jericho, Lily Journey, Blake Petteway, Ella Zona Bryant, Eric Russell Johnson, Madison Zuñiga, Jacob Shaffer, Feyisayo Aluko, Noah Peterson, Deborah Kargbo, Grant Dutro, & Daniel Holdridge
And so is incubating brilliant ideas!
The Christianity Today Story Fund
WE’RE BRIMMING with excitement to bring you the creative offerings that have been in the works for the last 6 months. Here’s a little sampling: Joshua Luke Smith will lead us through his 8-part workshop for Inkwell Locals to demonstrate the power that we have as writers. Sho Baraka is working on a short film that will showcase the art of storytelling in our modern media landscape. Via video, Kaiti Yoo will create poetic renderings of the theology of the everyday and bring forth new lore for the moment. These projects and more have each come to life through the work of our Christianity Today Story Fund.
Speaking of Christianity Today—where Inkwell calls home—check out CT’s print subscription if you’re hungry to read physical magazines this year and immerse yourself in well-crafted and Christ-centered journalism.
Oh, and we’ve gone Local.
ONCE UPON A TIME, we hosted a simple event in London, England, where glimmering poems and essays were read aloud by a handful of local creatives. This was the very first Inkwell Evening in 2024, and we were overwhelmed by the hunger for in-person gatherings focused on beauty and friendship. So, over the last year, we’ve set up shop in Chicago, Charlotte, Nashville, DC, Malibu, and Oxford to let well-crafted words do the heavy lifting of bringing people together.
We soon realized that these gatherings were needed in places beyond just the typical urban hubs of creativity. So we started beta-testing Storytelling Dinners all over. Inkwellians like Griffin Gooch, Young Woong Yi, Laura Wifler, Eniola Abioye, and A. A. Kostas hosted small groups of friends—breaking bread with this simple instruction: “Tell me a story that changed you.”
Then something really magical happened. It finally clicked for our team that we truly needed to go local—that we wanted to see consistent creative fires across big cities and small towns alike. We launched Inkwell Locals and have been gathering forces through Christmas feasts and city-wide mixers. But now we’re gearing up for 2026, when we’ll get down to business—resourcing your Local group to hone your crafts and stay inspired together.
Words from some of our fearless Inkwell Local leaders…
Leighton Kennedy & Kendall Miller in Nashville 🤠
"Last night, I helped host the Nashville Inkwell mixer. I met a lot of really kind people, and listened to a lot of beautiful words in a warmly-lit home, wearing a cowboy hat… Maybe the person you ask to hang out now will multiply into a whole community within a year.”
Samuel Christian in London 🇬🇧
“This is what it’s all about. Creators from across the city coming together to celebrate and be inspired by each other at the warmth of the table.”
Jenna O'Brien in New York City 🗽
“Building a community takes vulnerability, which sounds so straightforward and noble until you picture what that actually means. A good gauge of how vulnerable you are being is how nauseous you feel.”
Mark Your Calendar for these Upcoming Locals Mixers
📍 Kansas City: Jan 23, 2026 📍 Charlotte: Jan 23, 2026 📍 NYC: Jan 30, 2026 📍 Dallas: Feb 21, 2025 📍 Los Angeles: Date TBD. If you’re interested in attending and meeting other creatives in your city, email to reserve a spot at inkwelllocals@gmail.com!
For Locals and paid subscribers only, keep scrolling to find exclusive monthly content for you and your group. Including: 1) Introduction to Inkwell Sessions 2) The 2025 Creative Examen Exercise 3) Exclusive Webinar on Craft
