Advent Contest 2026: Reading by Winners and Finalists

Join CLA members and friends to celebrate the 2026 Advent Contest winners and finalists. This year’s Advent contest asked writers to compose poems in honor of Mary Immaculate, Vessel of Light. The anticipatory season of Advent provides a time particularly appropriate to inward journeying and prayer as mankind awaits the birth of the Divine Savior.

This year’s judge is Maura H. Harrison.

Maura H. Harrison is a writer and artist from Fredericksburg, VA. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. Her works have appeared in Dappled Things, Ekstasis Magazine, St. Austin Review, THINK Journal, The Windhover, Solum Journal, Clayjar Review, and others. Her works have been anthologized in collections from Amethyst Review, Solid Food Press, and La Rotonde Review. She has received recognition in competitions sponsored by Catholic Literary Arts and the Society of Classical Poets. She publishes heroic-couplet captioned photographs on her Substack publication, “Two Duties Told.”

This event will include:

· Comments by this year’s judge

· Reading by winners and finalists