Katherine Chase

My name is Katherine, and I live in Brooklyn, New York! Freelance writer, editor, and poet. I am in love with words and the way they tell stories. I own a hardback copy of the Oxford English Dictionary and my walls are covered in cards with my favorite words on them.

An Exercise in Noting

This essay illustrates the process of noticing everything about a poem without trying to impose an argument or meaning onto the poem. I set a timer for one hour, writing the entire length of time without engaging with technology. I wanted to explore what it means to be present, to give oneself over to art. This is not a poem. This is an essay. “We talked with each other about each other” by Emily Dickinson: An Exercise in Noticing We talked with each other about each other Though neither of us spoke – We were + too  variants: engrossed with the Second’s Races + were listening to the and the Hoofs of the Clocks – + Foundering Faces Pausing in front of our + Sentenced Time compassion Faces Time’s Decision shook – took Arks of Reprieve he opened to us – Ararats – we took I am using an egg timer for this exercise, so I can hear the “Second’s Races and the Hoofs of the Clock.”

She Played Us the Fool: Emily Dickinson and Children's Games

Emily Dickinson loves to play. She toys with her readers’ attempts at interpretation (“My life had stood – a Loaded Gun,” J754, the poster child poem for evading dissection), plays with theological principles (“Eden – a legend – dimly told,” J503 reducing a theological pillar to mere legend), and entertains intense topics with theatrics (“I heard a Fly Buzz – when I died --,” J465). Her equally contemplative and jocund approach to poetry culminates in a marriage of perspicacious subjects and humorous critiques, such as depicting a gentlemanly Death offering a joyride and Hope as a flighty bird who might abandon one at any given moment. Critics use various types of historical evidence to situation Dickinson and her poetry in relation to historical, anthropological, and sociological arguments. How, then, can we better understand Dickinson’s playfulness in a historical context? What possible historical evidence suffices to demonstrate her mischievous approach to such disturbing subjects? I propose to illuminate Dickinson’s playfulness within her poetry by looking for comparisons and contradictions between her work and children’s games . . .
SCIO •

Christianity at Oxford

When I arrived in Oxford to study through SCIO, I was only the second student from my university to do so. I was feeling inadequate and lonely, coming from a small school in Mississippi with no similarities to Oxford. I was studying English literature at my home school (Belhaven University) and decided to finish up my major credits at Oxford. When I first arrived, I was intimidated by the fellow SCIO students, by the faculty and staff, and by the idea of adjusting to a new culture. At my core I
Frontier Camp •

Friday Stories for Frontier's 50th - Volume 32

I met with Stuart Sanders in his office at Tomball Bible Church where he is the senior pastor. He has books lining the wall by the door. An ancient Hebrew textbook sat on the desk, propped by a large book stand. He welcomed me with a smile and asked how I was. We talked about life for a bit and Frontier Camp’s 50th anniversary. That led to a short interjection about how I was only eleven at the 40th anniversary weekend. After a few more laughs and polite exchanges, I sat on the black sofa in his
Frontier Camp •

Friday Stories for Frontier's 50th - Volume XXII

Guest blogger, Kate Humes, is back. If you’ve been following our Friday Stories, she authored the series on “Faith”, “Fun”, Friends”, and “Food”. This week she is back with a story about her dad, Andrew Humes, and how he daily uses a biblical concept he learned while working at Frontier Camp in the early 1990s. 1 Peter 5 is the model, so to speak, of leadership training. The passage is about leading others by example, highlighting the service aspect of leadership. Jesus encompasses the ultimate
Frontier Camp •

Friday Stories for Frontier's 50th - Volume XX

Today’s Friday story is our final installment of our Faith, Fun, Friends, and Food series. As were the other installments, Food was written by guest blogger, Kate Humes. Fill Us Up: Food at Frontier Camp Anyone familiar with Frontier Camp’s weekly summer schedule knows it is full and eventful. Words not often found in the FC summer camp vocabulary are “relaxation” and “leisure”. The campers and staff stay super busy with daily activities, Bible drama, Trading Post (TP), night games, and Bonus
Frontier Camp •

Friday Stories for Frontier's 50th - Volume XIX

What follows is the Friends installment of our Faith, Fun, Friends, and Food series. It was written by guest blogger, Kate Humes, as were the previous stories, Faith and Fun. I was homeschooled, so my sisters and I attended Frontier Camp’s homeschool week (Week 1) every summer. Homeschoolers comprising a small population, we all pretty much knew each other, or at least knew everyone’s names, formal introductions lacking. Summer 2011—a dry and arid summer and relentlessly hot —was my first teen
Frontier Camp •

Friday Stories for Frontier's 50th - Volume XVII

“Faith, Fun, Friends, and Food” written by guest blogger, Kate Humes…today’s installment is all about FUN! One of the first questions a parent asks after picking up their child from camp is, “Did you have fun?” Fun: a word that connotes much and denotes little. Its interpretation is entirely dependent upon its application to any given scenario or situation. Saying, “It was fun to fix the car” and then saying, “It was fun to take a 2-week vacation” have two entirely different perceptions of the
Frontier Camp •

Friday's Stories for Frontier's 50th - Volume XIV

If you were a scientist and, in an effort to find out the key ingredients of a “Frontier Camp experience”, you were to heat it up in a Bunsen burner, you’d distill the ministry down to a simple formula: Faith + Fun + Friends + Food! Over the next few weeks during our Friday stories, through the writing pen of guest blogger, Kate Humes (a seven-year camper and a three-year staffer), let’s take a look at each of these components. Won’t you consider writing in a comment with a short story of your o