Winners of the 2020 Paraclete Poetry Prize

March 25, 2020 – After several months reading and discussing sixty-three outstanding entries, judges Mark S. Burrows, Luci Shaw, and Jon M. Sweeney are pleased to announce the winners of the First Paraclete Poetry Prize.  

First Prize winner is Laura Reece Hogan of Calabasas, California, for her manuscript, Litany of Flights. In addition to a talented poet, Hogan holds both J.D. and M.A. degrees. She is also a Third Order Carmelite.

Second Prize winner is Amy Bornman of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for her manuscript, There Is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash. Bornman is a small business owner and a new poet, aged 26.

Judge Luci Shaw, an award-winning poet herself of many decades, says: “It was a pleasure to read and review so much profoundly good poetry. This gives me hope for the world, that we can express ourselves through poetry in a way that heals the disjuncture we are experiencing. ‘Distancing’ can be overcome, and hope and beauty can be celebrated.”

Both winners will be published by Paraclete Poetry – Laura Reece Hogan in Fall 2020, and Amy Bornman early in 2021. 

Click here to read the title poem from the First Prize-winning manuscript.

For more information, please contact Publicist Rachel McKendree at  rachelm@paracletepress.com or 1-800-451-5006, ext. 301.

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