Sacred Poetry Contest 2025: Reading by Winners and Finalists

Join CLA members and friends to celebrate the 2025 Sacred Poetry Contest winners and finalists. This year’s Sacred Poetry contest asked writers to compose poems in response to a curated selection of sacred art which can be found at https://www.catholicliteraryarts.org/2025-sacred-poetry

This year’s judge is Sally Read.

Sally Read is editor of Word on Fire’s 100 Great Catholic Poems and an award-winning poet. Her first collection since her conversion from atheism to Catholicism, Dawn of this Hunger, was written as poet-in-residence at the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs. Sally’s poetry has been recorded for the UK’s Poetry Archive, and her writing, in both poetry and prose, has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including The Times Literary Supplement, The Picador Book of Love Poems, and Forward’s Poems of the Decade. Her poetry has also been featured on BBC Radio, and episodes of her Radio Maria England show, “Poetry for the Season,” are available on Spotify.

Sally has written lyrics for the sacred music of Paul Flynn, and their songs have been performed by The Palestrina and Trinity College Chapel Choirs in Dublin. Her memoir Night's Bright Darkness recounts her conversion, and her following book, Annunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World, was the subject of a short film for EWTN Great Britain. Sally’s literary memoir, The Mary Pages, is newly released from Word on Fire.

More information can be found at www.sallyread.net

This event will include:

• Comments by this year’s judge
• Reading by winners and finalists

Host or Publisher Catholic Literary Arts