Vita Poetica Journal

Mary Lanham is a queer writer, editor, and collage artist based in Minnesota. She is originally from the South; her accent is still around if you know where to look. Mary's poetry has appeared most recently in Sheila-Na-Gig and Amethyst Review, and her online home is inspiritedword.com.

Jessica Hudson reads her review, "The Still-ness of Space," a review of the poetry collection Lost Cities by Valencia Robin (Persea Books, 2025) from our Spring 2026 issue.

Jessica Hudson (she/her) currently lives and libraries in Albuquerque. Her work has been published in DIAGRAM, New Delta Review, Quarterly West, and elsewhere.

Caleb Horowitz reads his poems "Where is that boat going?" and "We are wearing history heavy like a raincoat" from our Spring 2026 issue.

Caleb Horowitz is a North Carolinian poet, teacher, and penguin enthusiast. When he is not chaperoning dozens of students across the country for high school speech and debate tournaments, you can find him reading or writing poems about whales. You can find more of Horowitz's writing with Jewish Book Council, Gashmius, Psaltery & Lyre, Tiger Leaping Review, and Calul Journal.

Darius Stewart reads his review, "Permeable Devotion": A Review of The Natural Order of Things by Donika Kelly (Graywolf Press, 2025).

Darius Stewart is the author of Intimacies in Borrowed Light: Poems (EastOver Press, 2022) and Be Not Afraid of My Body: A Lyrical Memoir (Belt Publishing, 2024), which was named a 2025 Stonewall Book Award–Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Honoree and a Lambda Literary Award finalist for Gay Memoir/Biography. His essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Arkansas International, Brink, Bat City Review, Brooklyn Review, Colorado Review, Fourth Genre, and Salamander, among others, and received a Notable Essay distinction in Best American Essays 2022. He lives in Iowa City with his dog, Gizmo.

Co-Editor Caroline Langston introduces our new Spring 2026 issue with her letter, "Be Quiet Like the Tree." Tune in for what's to come, including a contemplative practice by Pico Iyer, essay from Daniel Cooperrider, three reviews of poetry collections for National Poetry Month, new poetry by Daniel Thomas, Joshua Coben, Marci Rae Johnson, and many others.

Evan Leslie reads his poems "Ricercar (rēCHərˈkär) music composition derived from the verb ricercare" and "Evensong," from our Winter 2026 issue.

Evan Leslie grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and now lives in Houston, Texas, with his husband, Ryan, and their rescue pit bull, Rimbaud (formerly Rambo). A cellist and arts educator, he directs the University of Houston’s Community Arts Programs, the Texas Music Festival, and previously served as Artistic Producer at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. His poems have appeared in The Pinch, Troublemaker Firestarter, and New Verse News.

Ali Beheler reads her poem "Vessel," and Bern Mulvey reads his poem "Snowfall at Aojima Shrine, New Year’s Day."

Ali Beheler’s recent work appears in The Shore, SRPR, Rogue Agent, Tupelo Quarterly, Harpur Palate, ballast journal, and elsewhere. Winner of the SRPR Editor’s Prize (2024) and the Milton J. Kessler Memorial Prize in Poetry (2025), as well as residencies at Sundress Academy for the Arts and Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, she teaches at Hastings College in Hastings, NE. Find her at www.alibeheler.com.

Bern Mulvey lived in Japan for seventeen years. His first book, The Fat Sheep Everyone Wants, won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize, and his second book, Deep Snow Country, won the FIELD Poetry Prize. He lives now in Arizona and teaches writing at Eastern Arizona College.

In this contemplative practice, "Lectio of Belonging: Resting in the Voice of Love," John Farrelly guides us in a meditation on Psalm 100:3.

John Farrelly has been married to Mary for 40 years and is a dad and grandad. He is a Special Needs Assistant working with 5th- and 6th-grade children with autism. He is a spiritual director and coordinator of the Guided Prayer Centre at Knock Shrine in Ireland. He leads contemplative retreats and founded the Silence@Six online prayer community that gather each day for 30 minutes of silent prayer in The Online Meditation Chapel. He contributes regularly to Contemplative Outreach’s Word of the Week reflections and is just now birthing a new Substack called Living from The Quiet Heart.

Liza Moore reads her poem "Under Van Gogh's Stars," and Johanna Caton, O.S.B., reads her poem "Little Dog" from our current Winter issue.

Liza Moore is an artist and storyteller who resides with her husband and son in Round Rock, TX. She has created three children’s books, and some of her artwork, poetry, and essays have been published in various journals, including Fathom Mag, Ekstasis Magazine, EcoTheo Review, Apple Valley Review, Thimble Lit Mag, Humana Obscura, St. Katherine Review, and Calla Press. To learn more about Liza and her creative work, please visit https://campsite.bio/liza_moore_art.

Johanna Caton, O.S.B, is a Benedictine nun of Minster Abbey, in Kent, England. Her poems have appeared in a number of publications, including The Christian Century, St. Austin Review, Ekphrastic Review, Amethyst Review, One Art, Today’s American Catholic, Fathom, Fare Forward, Windhover, The Catholic Poetry Room, and in two anthologies published by Amethyst Press: All Shall be Well, Poems for Julian of Norwich and Thin Places and Sacred Spaces. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee.

In this episode, Luke Wood guides us in the contemplative practice of silence, from our current Winter issue. We invite you to find a quiet spot during a pause in your day to engage in this meditation.

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Luke Wood is a writer and artist who serves in the fields of spiritual formation, ministry, and counseling. His work explores the integration of spiritual formation and psychology, helping others experience healing and transformation. He lives in Colorado with his wife and their three children.

Trevor Cunnington reads his poem "Banlieue Blues," and Richard Jackson reads his poem "The Centurion's Report," from our current Winter 2026 issue.

Trevor Cunnington is a writer/artist/educator who lives in Toronto. They are the poetry editor of KayTell Ink, and their work has appeared in Poetry Super Highway, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Literary Heist, BlazeVox, God's Cruel Joke, and others. You can find them on Instagram @trevorcunnington.

Richard Jackson is the author of eighteen books of poems as well as a dozen of essays, interviews, translations, and editions. Winner of Guggenheim, Fulbright, NE, NEH, and The Order Of Freedom from the President of Slovenia, his poems have been translated into seventeen languages.

Rachel Grandey reads her review, "'A kind of tribute to what we are': A Review of Marilynne Robinson's Reading Genesis."

Rachel Grandey is a UK-based doctoral researcher in Extinction Studies, exploring religious perspectives around environment and culture in South East Asia. Her writing has featured in Agape Review, Amethyst Review, Paper Dragon and Monk in the World. She can be found on social media as @RachelGrandey or at rachelgrandey.wordpress.com.

Temima Weissmann reads her poem "It Happened," and Dion O'Reilly reads her poem "It Is What It Is."

Temima Weissmann is an eighteen-year-old poet from Passaic, NJ. She was the Editor-in-Chief of her high school literary journal Sambatyon, and was awarded The Hersh & Fannie Fluss Memorial Award for Excellence in Hebrew Literature at her high school graduation. Previously published in The Lerhaus, Temima's poetry explores the presence of religion and faith in everyday life.

Dion O'Reilly is the author of Sadness of the Apex Predator (Cornerstone 2025), Ghost Dogs (Terrapin Books 2020); and Limerence, a 2025 finalist for the Floating Bridge Chapbook Competition. Her work appears in Cincinnati Review, Rhino, Alaska Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast, The Sun, and Rattle. A ​podcaster at The Hive Poetry Collective and co-editor of Ent•Trance Journal, she splits her time between California and Washington.

In "Making Sense of Things in Community," poet Jon Bishop speaks with Vita Poetica Interviews Editor Christopher Honey about the influence of his Catholic faith and monastic community on his writing, teaching, and intellectual life.

Jon Bishop holds an MFA in poetry from the University of St. Thomas in Houston. His work has appeared in both print and online, and he lives in New Hampshire with his family.

On the podcast today, Kelly Sawin reads her poems "In the Beginning" and "Study in Light" from our current Winter issue.⁠

Kelly Sawin's work has appeared in Ekstasis Magazine, The Windhover, River Teeth: Beautiful Things, the Appalachian Review, Susurrus, the Virginia Literary Review, and elsewhere. She was a finalist in the 2024 National Poetry Series, a semifinalist in the 2025 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry and in the 2024 Orison Poetry Prize. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her husband and three small children.

K.D. Battle reads his essay "In Defense of Bad Meditation" from our Winter 2026 issue.

K.D. Battle is a multi-genre writer and teacher living in Kalamazoo—he's a father, Navy submarine veteran, and a composer of musical theatre, and more. Battle's poems, stories, and essays have been published in anthologies and literary journals like White Wall Review, Line of Advance, and Vita Poetica, and he recently won the Wright Memorial Writing Award. He earned his MFA from Western Michigan University, where he is now pursuing a PhD and serves as the nonfiction editor for Third Coast. Battle is a Buddhist and invites you to walk the Dao with kindness, humility, and grit.

Mary B. Moore reads her poem "Everything in the Dream is Me, Says Jung," and James B. Nicola reads his poem "Epiphany XIV: Nigh."

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Mary B. Moore’s newest poetry collection Amanda Chimera, won Madville Publishing’s Arthur Smith prize and came out January, 2025. Prior poetry books include Dear If (Orison Books 2022), a contest finalist; Flicker (Dogfish Head Prize, 2016); The Book Of Snow (Cleveland State U Poetry Center, 1997); and prize-winning chapbooks Amanda and the Man Soul and Eating the Light. Poems have appeared lately in New Letters, Catamaran, POETRY, I-70 Review, South Dakota Review, Birmingham Poetry Review (BPR), NELLE, Nimrod, and Prairie Schooner. ⁠

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James B. Nicola is the author of eight collections of poetry, the latest three being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Actor’s Guide to Live Performance won a Choice magazine award. A graduate of Yale, he has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller's People's Choice award, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels stunned and grateful.⁠

Chris Weigel explores dementia as a bardo state in her essay "As the Mind Dissolves" from our Winter 2026 issue.

Chris Weigel is a professor of philosophy at Utah Valley University, where she has been teaching for over 20 years. She received her bachelor’s degrees in music performance and philosophy from Lawrence University and her Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University. She has published academic papers on confabulation, free will, and most recently, on the ethics of caregiving for people with dementia. She lives in Salt Lake City with her family and her mom, whom she has been taking care of since 2018.

Co-Editor Caroline Langston introduces our new Winter 2026 issue. Tune in for a preview of what's to come, and listen to Caroline's letter, "⁠⁠Frozen Fire."

On this Giving Tuesday, we invite you to support Vita Poetica with a tax-deductible donation. Gifts of any amount help us sustain our work to uplift artists of faith and enliven spiritual conversations through the arts. Thank you!

This multimedia piece features Onyeka Ndukwe's poetry and music, "Lay Me Down Gently."

Onyeka Ndukwe, a Canadian artist currently residing in Ottawa, Ontario, is a lyrical poet whose work has graced the pages of esteemed publications. His first poem titled "Trust Half Spent" was featured in the Praised by December anthology (2021) published by Wingless Dreamer. Beyond his poetic endeavors, Onyeka is an avid history reader and occasionally indulges in anime, forging a creative path that blends artistry and intellectual curiosity.

Julia Lisella reads her poem "Amulet," and Lisa López Smith reads her poem "Emigrant."

Julia Lisella’s latest collection of poems, Our Lively Kingdom (Bordighera Press), was named a finalist in the 2023 Paterson Book Prize and Grand Prize Finalist and Poetry Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her other collections include Always, Terrain, and the chapbook, Love Song Hiroshima. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Alaska Quarterly, The Common, Nimrod, Pangyrus and many others. She has received writing residencies at MacDowell, Millay and the Vermont Center for the Arts. She teaches at Regis College and co-curates the Italian-American Writers Association Literary Reading Series in Boston. For more, see www.julialisellapoetry.com.

Lisa López Smith is a mother and farmer based in Mexico. Her poems and essays have appeared in over sixty literary journals and have been nominated for the Pushcart, Best New Poets, and Best of the Net. She has a chapbook published by Grayson Books and a forthcoming collection from Nightwood Editions.

Ellen June Wright discusses her artwork featured in our current Autumn issue. ⁠View the art and read her artist statement here⁠.

Ellen June Wright, an artist, photographer and poet, was born in England but raised in New Jersey. Her artwork revolves around the power of color and the emotions and memories they evoke. She is inspired by the works of Stanley Whitney, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Howardena Pindell and Frank Bowling. Her watercolors have been published by Gulf Stream Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, Burningword Literary Journal, Hole In The Head Review, Oyster River Pages, Kitchen Table Quarterly, NOVUS Literary Journal and others. To see more visit https://8-ellen-wright.pixels.com/

Natalya Raduenz discusses her artwork I Am Near (featured on our Autumn 2025 cover) and Zeit.los!, both part of her Echoes of Infinity series. View the art and read her artist statement here.

Natalya Raduenz (b. 1980, Ukraine) is a metamodern artist and iconographer based in Germany. Her art combines traditional and modern methods and creates multi-layered, symbolic pictorial spaces that deal with themes such as transformation, spirituality, and the intersection of cultures. Her works have been exhibited and honored worldwide and are held in private collections across Europe.

Brittany Deininger reads her poems "The Seed Collectors," "Sarah's Dream," and "Rebirth Motif."

Brittany Deininger is a poet, feminist theologian, and educator. She received an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and an MATC from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. Her work has appeared in On Being, EcoTheo Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Metphrastics, Pensive and elsewhere. She lives in New York.

Anne Myles reads her poem "The Woman Who Lives without Bread," and Jonathan Chibuike Ukah reads his poem "I Am Going Higher."

Anne Myles is the author of Late Epistle (Headmistress Press, 2023), and her work has appeared in numerous journals. She is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Northern Iowa and holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from New York, she now lives in Greensboro, NC. Learn more at annemyles.com.

Jonathan Chibuike Ukah lives in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in Lucky Jefferson Literary Magazine, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets, and elsewhere. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024, the Second Poetry Prize Winner at the Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024, and Winner of the Poet of the Month December-January 2025 at the Literary Shark Poetry Contest. His chapbook, A is for Anfang, is forthcoming from Island of Wak Wak.

Lory Widmer Hess grew up near Seattle and now lives in Switzerland, where she works with adults with developmental challenges. Trained as a spiritual director, she companions individuals in their spiritual journey and leads online groups in the practice of Sacred Reading. Her writing has been published in magazines and journals including Parabola, Amethyst Review, Handwoven, Pensive, and Motherwell, and she is the author of When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey Through Healing Stories in the Bible (Floris Books, 2024). Find her online at enterenchanted.com.

William Doreski reads his poem "These Can't Be Real Angels," and Lauren Suchenski reads her poem "Prometheus."

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has taught at several colleges and universities. He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell’s Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in various journals.

Lauren Suchenski has a difficult relationship with punctuation. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and four times for The Best of the Net. Her full-length collection All You Can Measure (2022), as well as a chapbook Full of Ears and Eyes Am I (2017), is available from Finishing Line Press. Another chapbook, All Atmosphere, is also available from Selcouth Station (2022). More of her writing can be found on Instagram @lauren_suchenski.

Steven Ovadia reads his short story "Negative Space" from our Autumn 2025 issue.

Steven Ovadia a writer and librarian. He lives in White Plains, New York, with his wife and two daughters. This is his debut fiction publication.

Co-Editor Caroline Langston introduces our new Autumn 2025 issue. Tune in for a preview of what's to come, and listen to Caroline's letter, "An Invitation to Brilliant Multiplicities."

Maureen Sherbondy reads her three poems, "Imposter Syndrome of the Jewish Kind," "Rabbi Rachel Is Dead," and "Trying to Change the Past" from our current Summer issue.

Maureen Sherbondy's forthcoming book is The Body Remembers. Her work has appeared in European Judaism, Calyx, Southern Humanities Review, and other journals. Maureen lives in Durham, NC.

This is the last episode of our podcast seasons. Be sure not to miss other works from our Summer issue, including art by John L. Gronbeck-Tedesco, Douglas Campbell, Mary Jane Miller, and our cover artist Robert T. Rogers.

David Blumenfeld is a former philosophy professor who resumed writing stories and poems after a more than 40-year break. Since 2022, he has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, one of his pieces received a “notable essay” mention in The Best American Essays 2023, another was in The Best American Haiku, 2023, and 10 of his works were finalists or received other high praise in literary magazines.

Shirley Paulson reads her review "“Sacred Rage” and Spiritual Defiance," discussing the book The Girl Who Baptized Herself by Meggan Watterson.

Shirley Paulson is the principal producer of the Early Christian Texts website, earlychristiantexts.com, which features the “Bible and Beyond” series of blog posts, articles, online courses, events, discussions, and a monthly podcast. Shirley’s academic work focuses on early Christian texts, especially those relating to healing practices and theology.

Riley Morsman reads her poem "Like a Mother Peeling Oranges," and Claire Scott reads her poem "Lord, Give Us Seven Hearts."

Riley Morsman’s poetry and nonfiction work has been published in Fathom Magazine, Coffee + Crumbs, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Her current writing projects include a poetry collection about the prairie and a hybrid memoir about matrilineage and mental health. You can find her on Instagram and Substack at @rileybethmo.

Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review and Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t.

Vita Poetica's Contemplative Practices Editor Deb Baker invites us to be "Awed by Creation." Many of our fellow beings have ways of knowing that elude us, and Deb presents us with an opportunity to consider the presence of all our kin in creation -- and the Creator who brought all of us into being.

Deb Baker lives in New Hampshire and works for a climate justice organization and in a hospital. She is a poet and spiritual director, and writes about what she’s been reading at bookconscious.wordpress.com.

Alea Peister reads her poem "Thoughts upon Reading On Beauty and Being Just at the Oncologist's Office."

Alea's writing has been featured in Relief, Solum, Ekstasis, The Curator, Whale Road Review, and Art for the Isolated, among others. In 2025, she will graduate with an MFA in Spiritual Writing from Seattle Pacific University. Alea is passionate about the relationship between creativity and prayer, which she explores in ministry at her church. She daylights as a copywriter at a marketing firm. You can follow her writerly escapades on Instagram at @alea_peister and Substack at aleapeister.substack.com.

Philip Davydov is a second-generation iconographer with an MA from the State Fine Art Academy of Saint Petersburg (faculty of Theory and History of Art). Since March 2022, he lives and works from the Republic of Georgia, teaching iconography in Australia, Italy, and the United States. Learn more about his work, workshops, and courses at iconography.online and sacredmurals.com. 

Barry Casey reads his poem "At Prayer," and Elizabeth Cranford Garcia reads her poems "Tree of Faith" and "Trash Meditations."

Barry Casey is the author of Wandering, Not Lost, a collection of essays on faith, doubt, and mystery, published by Wipf and Stock (2019). His recent work has appeared in Brevity, Faculty Focus, Detroit Lit Mag, Fauxmoir, Humans of the World, Lighthouse Weekly, Mountain Views, Patheos, Pensive Journal, Rockvale Review, Spectrum Magazine, The Dewdrop, The Purpled Nail, and The Ulu Review. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion from Claremont Graduate University. He writes from Burtonsville, Maryland.

Elizabeth Cranford Garcia’s debut collection, Resurrected Body, received Cider Press Review’s 2023 Editor’s Prize. Her work has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Tar River Poetry, Image, RHINO, Chautauqua, Rappahannock Review, Portland Review, CALYX, and Mom Egg Review, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is a PhD student at Georgia State and mother of three. Read more at elizabethcranfordgarcia.com.

Pastor and spiritual director Holly Porter Phillips shares about expanding our understanding of prayer and guides us in a practice of lectio divina with poetry.

Holly Porter Phillips is a pastor, writer and trained spiritual director (Anam Cara). She loves the slow pace of spiritual direction and the gift of walking alongside others, bearing witness to their lives. Holly serves as co-pastor at a small church in Austin, Texas, where she lives with her musician husband, their three kids, and a backyard full of birds. She can be found on Substack at hollyporterphillips.substack.com.

Eric Machan Howd reads his poem "Doorways," and Fred Gallagher reads his poems "The Mystic in Between" and "Anamnesis."

Eric Machan Howd (Ithaca, NY) is a poet, musician, and educator. His work has been seen in such publications as Slab, Caesura, Stone Canoe, Vita Poetica, and Nimrod. He is currently working on a collection of poems based on flowers.

Fred Gallagher is a writer whose faith informs his poetry, short stories and essays with an incarnational worldview. His work has appeared in the St. Austin Review, Agora, Sanskrit, and the Cold Mountain Review, among others. He was a finalist in the 2024 Catholic Literary Arts Sacred Poetry Contest and winner of Prime Number Magazine's 2023 Annual Poetry Prize. He is also a Pushcart Prize nominee. He and his wife reside in Charlotte, NC.

Co-Editor Caroline Langston introduces our new Summer 2025 issue. Tune in for a preview of what's to come, and listen to Caroline's editorial letter, "The Quest for Discernment."

Wayne Bornholdt reads his poems "Sunday Prayers" and "Intinction."

Wayne Bornholdt is a retired bookseller. He holds degrees in philosophy and theological studies. He lives in West Michigan with his wife, three Golden Retrievers and stacks of unread books.

Abigail Carroll reads her poem "For What Do You Give Thanks?" and Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo reads her poems "Samsara Study" and "And Sanctify Us Also."

Abigail Carroll is author of three poetry collections: Cup My Days like Water, Habitation of Wonder, and A Gathering of Larks: Letters to Saint Francis from a Modern-Day Pilgrim. She lives and writes in Vermont. Find her at www.abigail-carroll.com.

Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo is a poet, educator, faith leader, and caregiver. Her debut collection INCARNATION, AGAIN was published in 2022 by Wipf & Stock. Recent poems can be found in The Christian Century. Elizabeth curates the Visiting Writers Series at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, where she serves as Canon for Education and the Arts.