Poetry and Faith Reading Series
Poetry has always played a central role in the Catholic imagination. From the psalms to St. John of the Cross to the liturgies that make up our rites and rituals, poetic language expresses fundamental truths about who God is, who we are in relation to him, and what it is like to inhabit the world as His creatures. Poetry both forms our faith and forms us in that faith.
Can contemporary poetry help awaken the senses to the beauty and mystery of faith in way that ideas cannot? Does poetry communicate with a non-religious audience in ways that open up the possibility of faith? Join St. Gregory's Hall for a poetry reading series exploring the role of Catholicism in the work of contemporary poetry.
Can contemporary poetry help awaken the senses to the beauty and mystery of faith in way that ideas cannot? Does poetry communicate with a non-religious audience in ways that open up the possibility of faith? Join St. Gregory's Hall for a poetry reading series exploring the role of Catholicism in the work of contemporary poetry.
Past Readings
|
James Matthew Wilson
May 4, 2024 James Matthew Wilson read from his fourth collection of poetry, Saint Thomas and the Hidden Birds (Word on Fire, 2024). Wilson is the Cullen Foundation Chair in English Literature and the founding director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Saint Thomas. He also serves as poet-in-residence of the Benedict XVI Institute, scholar-in-residence of Aquinas College, editor of Colosseum Books, and poetry editor of Modern Age magazine. |
|
|
|
Toby Martinez de las Rivas
April 20, 2024 Toby Martinez de las Rivas read from his books Terror and Black Sun, as well as more recent work. Interspersed throughout the reading, he gave personal and theological context for the poetry and described his notion of the poem as a kind of agonistic prayer. Martinez de las Rivas grew up in England, received his PhD from Newcastle University, and is currently the Blackburn Artist in Residence at Duke University. He has published three books of poetry, including the most recent Floodmeadow. |
|
“Distinguish, But Do Not Divide: A Mortal Tenderness”
with David Mutschlecner November 8, 2023 Directed by what he calls the compassionate imagination, David Mutschlecner will use a Scholastic paradigm to uncover a higher reality, not figured as facts, but rather as symbolic openings. Mutschlecner received an M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College and has published six books of poetry as well as Poetic Faith, a prose investigation into theopoetics. He lives and works in New Mexico. |
|
|
"The Catholic Poet" with Peter O'Leary
Wednesday, October 4, 2023 Reading and talk by poet and scholar Peter O'Leary on what it means to be both Catholic and a poet. By his own admission, Peter O’Leary writes “obscure religious poetry,” reflecting vocations to both religion and literature that have committed him to what St. Bonaventure called the “journey of the mind to God.” He received a doctorate from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and has written several books, most recently The Hidden Eyes of Things, a book-length poem about the unconscious, and Thick and Dazzling Darkness: Religious Poetry in a Secular Age, a critical study of modern and contemporary religious poets. In addition to serving as a lector and catechist, he teaches courses in religion and literature at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives in Oak Park and edits Verge Books, a small poetry press. |
|
