2025 Poetry Competition Winners

Posted on: May 13, 2025

THE WINNERS ARE IN …

First, Friends of Falun Gong thanks all its poet participants. We received some great submissions! It was a delight to read so many touching and well-crafted poems. Our lists of contest winners and honorable mentions are below, with easy, clickable links to the poems. We happily publish these poems today to help commemorate World Falun Dafa Day, 2025.

AWARDS

1^st Place – $500

Twila Base, “Captured Souls”

2^nd Place – $250

Maura H. Harrison, “July 20, 1999”

3^rd Place – $100

Kristy Angley Marett, “The Fate of Falun Gong”

4^th Place

Maureen Browne, “The Gentler Art”

Honorable Mentions

Pascal Nnamani, “Stand Not in Silence”

Rachael Omage, “The Rise of Zhen”

Jenna Tedesco, “The Falun Gong”

Thor Kangas, “Falun Gong Forever Free”

Logan Blakeslee, “Yearning for Liberty”

Perseas Vanebo, “They Rise”

Contest Judges

Evan Mantyk, President of The Society of Classical Poets

(with additional helpful eyes from the FoFG Editorial Staff)

Note from the Editors: most of these poems were written by poets who just recently learned about Falun Gong and the persecution. While we recognize and commend these poems as voices of support, they do not represent Falun Gong itself or even the views of FoFG as an organization. For a genuine understanding of the practice, one would have to explore the teachings at their very source.