The University of Iowa’s Magid Center for Writing houses 14 literary magazines across campus. This spring, a new magazine will join the roster, making faith its focus.

The magazine will open submissions in November and begin making selections at the beginning of winter break in December.

Geneva Campus Ministry partnered with UI students to launch The Fount magazine. The Christian ministry aims to help bring together faith and secular communities at the UI and explore topics of faith in the modern world.

Most notably, the ministry hosts the Geneva Lecture Series, bringing in writers, scholars, and intellectuals to speak on topics at the intersection of faith and culture.

Natalie Thomas, a UI second-year student, is one of The Fount’s core founders. She said she hopes the magazine will bridge a gap between faith and creativity she felt all too well during her first year at the university.

“I found that in my first year at Iowa last year, I felt quite isolated as a Christian creative,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I really had a community where those two important parts of myself really converged, and I felt quite lonely and isolated as a result.”

The Fount was created to allow artists and writers to explore how creative works can be produced in conjunction with faith, she said.

Abigail Kloha, a UI fourth-year student and another founding member of the magazine, said the faith-centered mission does not require submissions to explicitly mention God. Rather, Kloha said it invites artists to celebrate the creation of the world, both in beauty and darkness.

“We really want to avoid stereotypical Christian writing where it’s insinuated everyone’s perfect,” she said. “We want these pieces to confront reality and how harsh and scary that can be.”

Each magazine at the UI brings a new voice to the table, whether through submissions dealing with time in The Broken Clock or romance in Venus. Kloha looks forward to The Fount fostering a distinct voice among the plethora of other campus magazines.

“This campus magazine is specifically asking what happens after you die? What is the purpose of your life as a human? And who is the being greater than us that brought all of this into existence?” she said. “I’m really looking forward to this being a space to plant those seeds of curiosity.”

According to the Magid Center’s website, the center typically funds student-led publications directly affiliated with UI. Because Geneva Campus Ministry acts as an independent faith-based organization, Thomas was worried the Magid Center would be hesitant to financially back the magazine.

“It felt like a gray area in terms of the fact it’s a public university, I didn’t really know if that would even be okay,” she said. “I was surprised, but I’m really grateful for it, and it’s really awesome to be able to have the Magid Center backing our project.”

The magazine’s launch comes as Geneva continues to expand its resources for students. On Sept. 16, the ministry opened “The Space,” a room in Old Brick for students, faculty members, and staff to relax and focus on work and fellowship.

Old Brick was formally known as North Presbyterian Church and is one of the few remaining pre-Civil War buildings in Iowa City. Now, its entrance off of Clinton Street showcases a sandwich board sign indicating if “The Space” is open.

The Space offers free coffee, tea, and wifi, and is open from Tuesday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., with additional hours for programs like the Geneva Writers’ Group.

Brett Erickson, director of Geneva Campus Ministry at UI, said the environment of Old Brick is welcoming to anyone, regardless of their faith or worldview.

“It’s not like you have to step into a church to step into this space,” he said. “We want to create programs and host gatherings here that are inviting to people that are curious about bigger questions on life and faith, whether they’re Christian or not. They don’t have to feel like they have to cross themselves when they enter the door.”

The Space is currently in its pilot phase. If it draws enough foot traffic, Brett said he envisions Geneva owning a building of its own within three to five years —a place similar to Old Brick that would expand both the physical space and bring a sense of fellowship and community to Iowa City.

“We want to position ourselves as a space that unites campus ministries and organizations here in terms of the arts and the vocations and how our faith is integrated into those,” he said. “But this also is a space where people can come to appreciate good works regardless of their worldview.”