About the Colosseum Institute
The Colosseum Institute is an unincorporated arts organization working in concert with the Franciscan University of Steubenville to publish new books in service of the art of poetry and the renewal of Catholic letters in our time. Our central program oversees the publication of Colosseum Books, an imprint of the Franciscan University of Steubenville Press and the publication of The Colosseum, a journal of arts and culture published in partnership with the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Saint Thomas, Houston.
Support for our work can be made through either Franciscan University or the MFA program at the University of Saint Thomas. Please do help us in the renewal of literature and the flourishing of Catholic culture.
Why the Colosseum?
In the ancient world, the civilizational achievements of Rome were transformed and leavened by the spirit of Christianity. The Colosseum stood as a symbol of the struggle and suffering such a new birth entailed, but also of final victory and union, as Christendom emerged to take possession of the treasures of Athens and Jerusalem with Rome as its spiritual capital. In the modern age, the English writer Christopher Dawson edited the review Colosseum as a forum for the Catholic intellectual world to engage contemporary arts and culture. In its pages such great minds as Dawson, Jacques Maritain, and E.I. Watkin studied and discussed the literary achievement of T.S. Eliot, Sigrid Undset, and other writers of the Catholic intellectual and literary revival and beyond.
In such a spirit of struggle and revival, transformation and synthesis, we propose to provide a home for programs that will nurture a new Catholic revival for a new century. Colosseum will publish important new books by contemporary poets worthy of the serious reader’s attention. The volumes will be at once works of humility and ambition, of craft and spirit, by authors attentive to the workmanlike responsibilities of the artist and to the classical understanding of the fine arts as occasions of epiphany and beauty. They will remind us of the true scope of the intellect, the great drama of human life, the discipline and dedication of serious work, and the great destiny of the human person. We will launch and sustain The Colosseum, a journal of contemporary arts and letters in the Catholic tradition, and we will support the programs of the University of Saint Thomas MFA program in Creative Writing in various ways.
Support for our work can be made through either Franciscan University or the MFA program at the University of Saint Thomas. Please do help us in the renewal of literature and the flourishing of Catholic culture.
Why the Colosseum?
In the ancient world, the civilizational achievements of Rome were transformed and leavened by the spirit of Christianity. The Colosseum stood as a symbol of the struggle and suffering such a new birth entailed, but also of final victory and union, as Christendom emerged to take possession of the treasures of Athens and Jerusalem with Rome as its spiritual capital. In the modern age, the English writer Christopher Dawson edited the review Colosseum as a forum for the Catholic intellectual world to engage contemporary arts and culture. In its pages such great minds as Dawson, Jacques Maritain, and E.I. Watkin studied and discussed the literary achievement of T.S. Eliot, Sigrid Undset, and other writers of the Catholic intellectual and literary revival and beyond.
In such a spirit of struggle and revival, transformation and synthesis, we propose to provide a home for programs that will nurture a new Catholic revival for a new century. Colosseum will publish important new books by contemporary poets worthy of the serious reader’s attention. The volumes will be at once works of humility and ambition, of craft and spirit, by authors attentive to the workmanlike responsibilities of the artist and to the classical understanding of the fine arts as occasions of epiphany and beauty. They will remind us of the true scope of the intellect, the great drama of human life, the discipline and dedication of serious work, and the great destiny of the human person. We will launch and sustain The Colosseum, a journal of contemporary arts and letters in the Catholic tradition, and we will support the programs of the University of Saint Thomas MFA program in Creative Writing in various ways.
James Matthew Wilson, Director
|
James Matthew Wilson is the founder and director of the Colosseum Institute.
James Matthew 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. The author of sixteen books, his most recent collection of poems is Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire, 2024). The Strangeness of the Good (2020), won the poetry book of the year award from the Catholic Media Awards. The Dallas Institute of Humanities awarded him the Hiett Prize in 2017; Memoria College gave him the Parnassus Prize, in 2022; and the Conference on Christianity and Literature twice gave him the Lionel Basney Award. In addition to his role at the University of Saint Thomas, he 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. He has also served as writer-in-residence at Grace College, Hillsdale College, and Oklahoma Baptist University and as distinguished visiting professor at Holy Cross College. To learn more about James Matthew Wilson click here. |
|