Congratulations to Corinne Clark (Somerville College) who has been awarded the English Poem on a Sacred Subject Prize 2025 for her poem 'The Revelation of Sister Mildred’. The English Poem on a Sacred Subject Prize runs every third year. The prize is awarded for the best poem on a specified theme.
Corinne commented: "I was (perhaps aptly) in the middle of attending a conference on medieval devotional literature when I received this lovely news. I’m very honoured that Mildred and her Revelations made an impact, particularly when the direction in which the quotation from Donne took me was towards charity – charity meaning love, compassion for others, and bravery in their defence – all of which are as vital in the here and now as they are to my imagined medieval nun. And if, along the way, I got to reference Julian of Norwich, the Gawain-poet, and Richard Rolle, then I can only thank them for letting me steal some of their generous inspiration, and thank as well both the prize for encouraging Mildred into being and the judges for enjoying what she had to say."
The judges commented: "This poem stood out for its ambitions as a narrative poem, its surprising and deft employment of the alliterative bob and wheel stanza in a modern idiom, and its sustained and profound engagement with the chosen sacred theme. Notably, the persona’s vigorous language and figures successfully gave a sense of inhabiting a historical era without succumbing to antiquarianism."
The judges awarded a “proxime accessit” to “Funeral Games” by Andrew Wynn Owen (All Souls College, 2015–2022) for "its wit, heart, technical assurance, and sprezzatura performance in response to the sacred theme". Andrew commented: "I am very grateful to the judges, it's a real encouragement to be listed for an award like this. If people are interested in reading my poetry, two collections are available through Carcanet Press: The Multiverse (2018) and Infinite in Finite (2023)."
