Our Story

The world is thirsting for beauty.

Not prettiness. Not hollow flashiness. Not pretentious, self-congratulating nonsense.

Beauty.

The kind that slaps you across the face when you meet it and makes you pay attention. That draws you out of yourself to contemplate truth. That stings you with longing for what is good. At Dappled Things, we’ve had enough of the phantoms on our feeds, of being addicted to fear and outrage, of taking for granted that the modern world must be practical, profitable, and banal.

Back in 2005, we knew we weren’t the only ones left parched by our culture. So we started a magazine.

Dappled Things was born at the intersection of many paths. Like our writers and artists, our team is diverse, multitalented, innovative. Wholeheartedly Catholic, we welcome anyone of good will who wishes to walk alongside us on the way of beauty.

People fascinate us; sin bores us. Beauty amazes us; surface concerns leave us cold. Experience intoxicates us; world-weariness makes us yawn.

We're thirsty for voices that take us to a place of hope beyond the walls of this world—by looking at and through this world, in all its “counter, original, spare, strange” glory, as Gerard Manley Hopkins writes in the poem that gives us our name.

We've been seeking these voices since Advent of 2005, when the first issue of Dappled Things appeared online: when we became, in the words of poet Dana Gioia,

"the journal in which a new generation is discovering itself."

Originally a project of a group of college friends, mostly from the University of Pennsylvania, we were independent for many years before recently coming home to Penn under the aegis of the Collegium Institute's Ars Vivendi Initiative.

We are a journal of ideas, art, and faith for those who find that hope springs eternal. For those who see the other side and strike out for it. For those who live, as fictionist J.F. Powers hinted, “with one foot in this world and one in the next.”

In 2007 we began producing a print edition that features essays, fiction, poetry, reviews, and more, plus iconic images from guest artists. Today we offer print, digital, and combination subscriptions so we can meet you with truth, beauty, and goodness wherever you are. Our blog, Deep Down Things, expands and extends the conversation. 

For centuries, writers, artists, and thinkers in the Catholic tradition have borne a transcendent influence on global culture, thought, and practice. As we carry that tradition forward into the future, we invite you to explore its depths and heights with us.