Writer, editor, publisher, and teacher, Gregory Wolfe has been called “one of the most incisive and persuasive voices of our generation” (Ron Hansen). Both as a thinker and institution-builder, Wolfe has been a pioneer in the resurgence of interest in the relationship between art and religion—a resurgence that has had widespread impact both on religious communities and the public square. As an advocate for the tradition of Christian Humanism, Wolfe has established a reputation as an independent, non-ideological thinker—at times playing the role of gadfly but ultimately seeking to be a reconciler and peacemaker.
In 1989, Wolfe founded Image, which Annie Dillard has called “one of the best journals on the planet.” Now one of America’s top literary quarterlies, Image is a unique forum for the best writing and artwork that is informed by—or grapples with—religious faith. Material first published in Image has appeared in Harper’s, Utne Reader, and the Wilson Quarterly as well as the Pushcart Prize anthology, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Best American Spiritual Writing, O. Henry Prize Stories, The Art of the Essay, New Stories from the South, and Best American Movie Writing. Image has also been nominated by Utne Reader for an Alternative Press Award for Spiritual Coverage. Image’s Glen Workshop was featured on the public television program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
From 2000-2016, Wolfe served as Writer in Residence at Seattle Pacific University, where he taught English literature and creative writing. He was the founding director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at SPU, the first program of its kind to integrate a studio writing degree with intensive reflection upon the literary and aesthetic riches of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
In 2013, Gregory Wolfe launched his own literary imprint, Slant, through the Wipf & Stock publishing company. In 2021, it was announced that Slant had been re-launched as a fully independent, non-profit press.
He served as Senior Fellow at the Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture at Seattle University during the 2016-17 academic year.
Wolfe has written over 200 essays, reviews, and articles in numerous journals, including the Wall Street Journal, America, Commonweal, The Lamp, Comment, and First Things. His essays have been anthologized in collections such as The Best Christian Writing and The Best Catholic Writing.
Among his books are The Operation of Grace: Further Essays on Art, Faith, & Mystery (Cascade, 2015), Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age (ISI Books, 2011), Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, & Mystery (second edition, Square Halo, 2017), Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography (ISI Books, 2003) and Sacred Passion: The Art of William Schickel (2nd edition, University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). Wolfe is also the editor of The New Religious Humanists: A Reader (Free Press, 1997), God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Advent & Christmas (Paraclete, 2007), God For Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent & Easter (Paraclete, 2013), and Here at Last is Love: Selected Poems of Dunstan Thompson (Slant, 2015).
Wolfe was born in 1959 and grew up in New York City, Long Island, and the south shore of Boston. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Hillsdale College in Michigan and his M.A. in English literature from Oxford University.
In 2014, he was awarded the Doctor of Letters honoris causa, from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, and inducted into DSPT’s College of Fellows.
A convert to the Roman Catholic Church, Wolfe is a member of the international lay movement Communion and Liberation.
His wife, Suzanne, served as Writer in Residence and taught English literature and creative writing at Seattle Pacific University for nearly two decades. Her second novel, The Confessions of X, won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in 2017. The Wolfes have four grown children—Magdalen, Helena, Charles, and Benedict—three grandchildren, and live in the Richmond Beach neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
