Winners of the 2021 Jacques Maritain Prize for Nonfiction
Dappled Things honors the best essays published in the journal in a year through the Jacques Maritain Prize for Nonfiction. Maritain was an influential 20th century Thomist philosopher and Catholic convert whose work covered a wide range of topics, including metaphysics and epistemology, ethics and politics, and—significantly for us—literature and art. His book Art and Scholasticism has been a major influence on Dappled Things' own approach to aesthetics.
The editors of Dappled Things are pleased to share with you the winners of the 2021 Jacques Maritan Prize for Nonfiction chosen from the year’s two double issues:
1st Place
$500 prize
“Angels in Innsbruck” by Anthony Lusvardi, SJ
“This is breathtaking maneuvering, with implications far beyond belief in angels,” is a sentence both pulled from the essay itself as well as true of the writing you’ll find in it. From our judges: This essay was a great blend of personal essay and cultural commentary with "serious" theology. He blends it all together into a meaningful engagement with Rahner's arguments about angels that also goes well beyond the issue of angels.
2nd Place
$300 prize
“Ordinary Time” by Brad Wolf
Brad Wolf relates throughout this piece in arresting images that there is a blend of history and religion here, memory and myth, which makes this county a mystical place for me. Perhaps all places in which you have lived all your life become that way. Or perhaps it is just the way in which you perceive reality regardless of where you are. Time, spiritual or secular, is rarely ordinary.
3rd Place
$200 prize
“The Art of Presence: The Poetry of Les Murray” by J. C. Scharl [essay available only in print or ebook format]
Scharl’s essay is a beautiful introduction to the work of Les Murray and his concept of the art of presence, which Scharl discloses is a difficult one. Murray poured his craftsmanship into capturing what “presence” means for us—and what it demands of us. How, if this is all true, should we live in this fractured, painful world?
We invite you to read or revisit these three outstanding pieces we are honored to share in the pages of Dappled Things, and are grateful to the many authors whose work we have the privilege of presenting to the world. You have our sincere thanks.
Inspired to share your own work for consideration of next year’s prize? Guidelines are found here, and nonfiction submissions are accepted year round.
