The Fernando Rielo Foundation has announced the ten finalist poetry collections for the 45th edition of the Fernando Rielo World Prize for Mystical Poetry, one of the longest-running and most prestigious awards in the genre in the Spanish language. This year, 435 works were submitted from numerous countries.

The selected titles represent the geographical diversity and creative vitality that have characterized this competition since its creation in 1981. Among the finalists are authors from Spain (five), Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, the United States and, for the first time in the history of the prize, a poet from the Republic of Korea.

The complete list of finalists is as follows:

• Way of the Cross: Via Crucis in Verse – Basilio Rodríguez Cañada (Madrid, Spain)
• Lux Silentii – Gema Matías (Golden, Colorado, United States)
• Letter from the Shade of the Wisteria – Han Muk (Republic of Korea)
• Alchemy of worship – Jessica Mariella Cardozo Castro (Canelones, Uruguay)
• Contemplations – Jesús Martínez García (Zaragoza, Spain)
• Place of your voice – Jorge de Arco (Madrid, Spain)
• Rescued castaway – Luis María Llena León (Sobrado dos Monxes, La Coruña, Spain)
• Where Light Has No Form – Patricia Aliaga Rodrigo (Tarragona, Spain)
• Spiritual Axiom – Piedad Serna Figueroa (Bogotá, Colombia)
• Prelude to the End of the World – Yazalde De Abreu (La Victoria, Venezuela)

The announcement and award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. in the Aula Magna of the Abat Oliba CEU University in Barcelona. Admission is free until capacity is reached, and the event will include a musical poetry reading to complement the ceremony.

The prize includes 7,000 euros, publication of the winning work, and a commemorative medal. The jury, chaired by the president of the Fernando Rielo Foundation, will announce its verdict publicly during the event.

Since its inception, the Fernando Rielo World Prize for Mystical Poetry has established itself as an international benchmark for the genre, attracting hundreds of poets each year who explore transcendent experience through verse. This year’s inclusion of a Korean author underscores the competition’s growing universal reach and its ability to bridge diverse cultures through mystical expression.

The Fernando Rielo Foundation, established by the philosopher and poet Fernando Rielo Pardal (1923-2004), is dedicated to promoting intercultural dialogue through mystical poetry, sacred music, and humanistic thought. In addition to this award, it annually organizes the International Sacred Music Prize and carries out numerous academic and cultural activities in Europe and the Americas.