Transforming the Culture through Beauty

Building Sacred Places

The Angelico Arts Guild Poetry Contest 2026

Building Sacred Places

1st Prize: $500
2nd Prize: $250
3rd Prize: $100

Please submit a separate entry for each poem.

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Separate entry for each poem submitted.

The Angelico Arts Guild seeks submissions of original poems inspired by the built sacred places located in Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana for its 2026 Poetry Contest, Building Sacred Spaces. First, second, and third place winners will receive cash prizes. Winners and honorable mentions will receive digital publication and prominent feature by The Angelico Project, with potential inclusion in a future print or curated collection. Please read the contest details below for entry fees, submission requirements, and the wider vision of the Angelico Project.

Join a movement to seek what is higher!

Through experiences of art, thought, and culture, the Angelico Project invites people to encounter beauty, seek the sacred and transform the culture one soul, one family, one event at a time. The Arts Guild has a specific focus within the Angelico Project to enrich the faith and work of artists; to nurture a taste for Goodness, a longing for Truth, and a love of Beauty; to deepen the artist’s relationship with the Creator; to build networks of artists in friendships, collaborations and mentorships. Inspired by the pulchritude of the Incarnate Word, the Literary Arts branch of the Arts Guild is sponsoring a poetry contest to affirm the truth that well-written words matter.

Poetry Contest 2026: Building Sacred Places

Humanity has a unique vocation to create alongside the Creator. We want to encounter your poems about sacred spaces—places in the region designed and built with our human ingenuity as we imagine and discover God. The Angelico Arts Guild seeks poems on these places of divine remembrance specifically located in Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana. In your poetry, help us to notice the unexpected or see things in a new light. Bring images of levity or gravity that convey a sense of that particular place and its story. What gatherings, moments, or peoples have hallowed these places? What corners of these spaces have encouraged divine encounter? Poems will be judged on how they display a command of the language, manifest vivid imagery, convey a deeper visage of the real, and are consonant with the mission of the Angelico Arts Guild.

Judging

This year’s judge is Carla Galdo, a poet, writer, and editor. She has written for a variety of publications, including Well-Read Mom, Humanum, Word on Fire, Notre Dame Magazine Online, Our Sunday Visitor, Front Porch Republic, and others. Her poetry has appeared in First Things, Dappled Things, Verily, Modern Age, New Verse Review, Solum Journal, and on Irish Southeast Radio. She is the recipient of the 2024 St. Austin Review Prize for Poetry. She has taught classes in literature, theology, poetry, and book reviewing. Carla earned a Master’s in Theological Studies from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family and an MFA in Poetry from the University of St. Thomas-Houston. She and her husband live with their six children on a hobby farm in Virginia, and more about her work can be found at carlagaldo.com.

Angelico Arts Guild Poetry Contest 2026 Prizes and Guidelines

1st Prize: $500
2nd Prize: $250
3rd Prize: $100

  • We are accepting poetry submissions until March 15, 2026.
  • The entry fee for each submission is $25 per poem
  • An italicized line of text below the poem’s title should give the specific, built, sacred structure in Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana which inspired the poem.
  • Each submission should be an original poem as outlined above not exceeding 40 lines, not including the title and line indicating the place about which the poem is written.
  • Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please notify Angelico Project if any such submissions are accepted at other publications while the contest is on-going. Writers may submit up to three poems as separate entries.
  • Poems should be previously unpublished. Rights revert to the author upon publication in Angelico’s materials, though the Angelico Project will retain the right to reprint poems across its various platforms and publications.
  • No AI-generated submissions will be accepted.
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