The Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards
The Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards honor the legacy of Illinois’ own Gwendolyn Brooks: renowned poet, author, and the first Black Pulitzer Prize winner. Each and every one of the young poets who take part in this competition is a part of that legacy. Brooks summed up the contest best in a note in 1977: “All the children who entered the contest are winners… They worked hard. They created. And that is what is important.”
In this recording, enjoy young poets reading their winning poems. Listen to author and educator Dr. Eve L. Ewing, Nora Brooks Blakely, and others express the importance of the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards and the legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks. Watch the 2021 Virtual Awards Ceremony.
Submit Your Poem
2024 Submissions are closed
Winners will be announced in August. Stay tuned for the date, time, and location of the awards ceremony.
Submissions for the 2025 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards contest will open on January 1, 2025.
Contest Guidelines
- The contest is open to young people currently in kindergarten through 12th grade across the state of Illinois. Participating young people can be affiliated with any school (public, private, home, etc.) or other institution.
- Youth can only submit ONE poem and the poem must be written by only ONE author (sorry, we do not accept joint or co-written poems for this contest).
- All entries must be the original work of the young person submitting the poem.
- Poems containing visual elements are allowed, if all images/visuals are original to the poet.
- Please only submit poems written during the current academic year, since poems are judged based on grade level.
- Poems may be submitted by the student, their parent/guardian, or their teacher.
- When submitting a poem, please only enter your name on the entry form and do not include your name or identifying information on the poem itself, since the judging is anonymous.
- At this time, we can only accept and effectively judge poems written in English.
More questions about submitting? Read the submission FAQs.
What You Win
Winners Receive
- $100 for grades K-4 winners
- $200 for grade 5-8 winners
- $300 for grade 9-12 winners
Winners and Honorable Mentions Receive
- A book of poetry
- A certificate of your award
- Publication in the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards chapbook (all winners and honorable mentions receive one copy)
- A Gwendolyn Brooks tote bag
- Recognition at the awards ceremony (winners will recite their poems onstage and honorable mentions will have a line of their poem read by the emcee)
Resources for Educators and Writers
Whether you are an educator or a young writer, Illinois Humanities has writing guides, tips, and short online lessons to help you practice poetry in and out of the classroom. Check out resources from Illinois Humanities and our partners and download the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards Toolkit for K-12 educators.
Contest Winners
The 2024 Chapbook containing all of the winning poems will be available soon.
2024 Winners
Kindergarten
- Winner: Essence Dean, “Special” (Chicago)
- Winner: Nova Lansana, “Super Girl Power” (Chicago)
1st Grade
- Winner: Sawyer Redhair, “The Ducklings” (Frankfort)
- Winner: Ingmar Almqvist, “My School” (Chicago)
- Honorable Mention: Lorenzo Diaz, “Saturday” (Oak Park)
2nd Grade
- Winner: Athena Saleh, “The Man and the Tiger” (Oak Park)
- Winner: Antonio Galindo, “Ode to a Library” (Peoria)
- Honorable Mention: Clara Locke, “The Beach Day” (Peoria)
3rd Grade
- Winner: Sasha Smous, “The Sunset in Me” (Chicago)
- Winner: Sophia Saca, “Irresistible Turkish Delight” (Skokie)
- Honorable Mention: Alta Nekrosius, “Mount Eve” (Oak Park)
4th Grade
- Winner: Milly Graunke, “Brave Rosa, Rosa Brave” (Chicago)
- Winner: Devi Koottanal, “THINK AGAIN” (Des Plaines)
- Honorable Mention: Aria Koshy, “To Time” (Chicago)
5th Grade
- Winner: Cecelia Carson, “Precipitation's Personalities” (Oak Park)
- Winner: Reed Johnson, “If Livid Were a Creature” (Chicago)
- Honorable Mention: Charlotte Chung, “The Cage” (Chicago)***
6th Grade
- Winner: Isabella Castaneda, “The Life of Definement” (Joliet)
- Winner: Callen Teplitzky, “Softball is Everything” (Chicago)
- Honorable Mention: Avani Reddy, “Where do all the flowers go?” (Des Plaines)
7th Grade
- Winner: Cecilia Solorio, “Music is My Peace” (Chicago)
- Winner: Noelle Malek, “The Moon's Visage” (Skokie)
- Honorable Mention: Sheridan Darko, “nighttime.” (Chicago)
8th Grade
- Winner: Heaven Harris, “Once a Burden” (Chicago)
- Winner: Ellie Hersher-Dale, “Diseased Silence” (Evanston)
- Honorable Mention: Sanaia Cole, “We See Each Other” (Springfield)
9th Grade
- Winner: Lucia Almeida, “The House (Pantoum)” (Chicago)
- Winner: Mila Plavsic, “Who I am” (Chicago)
- Honorable Mention: Azreya Lomeli, “What I wish…” (Chicago)
10th Grade
- Winner: Belen Salamanca, “I AM A BAD SPEAKER.” (Chicago)
- Winner: Leena Ahmad, “Learning to Swim, Fishing for Seashells” (Orland Park)
- Honorable Mention: Emily Chorvat, “X” (Oswego)
11th Grade
- Winner: Finch Shaw, “THE ANATOMY OF A ROASTED MARSHMALLOW” (Lincolnshire)
- Winner: Andrew Fajardo, “what it’s like to live in a body that’s failing you (for those who don’t)” (Naperville)
- Honorable Mention: Anonymous, “Heart, Lungs, Teeth” (Chicago)
12th Grade
- Winner: Lance Chaney, “THE TOWN OF SANOK, UNTITLED, 1972” (Mattoon)
- Winner: Raven Belmontez, “Venado” (Chicago)
- Honorable Mention: Kamaria Noble, “to the quiet girl” (Chicago)
The 2024 Chapbook will be available soon.
Missing your chapbook? Contact us.
Previous Winners
Download a chapbook or list to read the poems of previous winners.
Want an earlier listing of winners? Contact us.
Article Spotlight
Community News
Chicago poets reflect on the city’s unique poetry sceneFrequently Asked Questions
What’s the timeline for the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards?
- January 2024: Submissions portal opens
- First Wednesday in May: Submissions close
- May-July: Judging process takes place
- Mid-July - Early August: Winners and honorable mentions are notified
- Mid-August - Early September: Awards ceremony in Chicago
What happens if I win?
Winning poets will be notified before the end of August. Awardees and their families will receive prize packages including a cash award, poetry books, and a copy of a chapbook produced by Illinois Humanities that includes all of the winning poems. Awardees will also be invited to join us at the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards Ceremony in Chicago taking place in late August or early September, where poets will get to read their poems live. Poets who are unable to attend the ceremony live may also submit a video of their poetry reading to be played at the event.
Is there a paper submission form?
We recognize that not all students in Illinois have access to computers or the internet, and for those students we encourage them to mail their submission to Illinois Humanities at 125 South Clark St., Ste. 650, Chicago, IL, 60603. Paper submission forms are available upon request; please do not request or send a paper submission if your student has regular access to the internet.
Can I submit on behalf of a youth poet?
Are you an educator for K-12 students? If yes, then you can submit poems on behalf of your students for consideration in the competition. Simply note on the online submission form when prompted that you’re a teacher or educator, and follow the steps outlined on the submission form.
Can I submit a poem in another language?
At this time, we can only accept and effectively judge poems written in English.
How do I submit a large number of poems at once?
Educators may submit student poems in bulk, such as an entire class or after school program. To indicate this on the submission form, simply choose “yes” in the question about bulk uploading student work, then follow the directions at the bottom of the page. Poems must be uploaded as a single PDF or Word document and must:
- Be prefaced with a cover sheet containing the student’s name, grade, age, gender, and preference for anonymity
- Contain only one poem per page, per student
- Include only the poem’s text and title on the page (no names or identifying information)
What’s the judging process for student work?
All poems are judged anonymously. Once the submission deadline has been reached, Illinois Humanities sends the entries, without the author's identifying information, to a team of first-round reviewers for an initial screening round. Those reviewers assign a score to each poem, and those scores are averaged to determine the top scorers from each grade. Depending on the outcome of the scoring, the top 5-10 poems from each grade are sent on to a final judging committee comprised of representatives from Illinois Humanities, Brooks Permissions, and the Poetry Foundation. The judging committee selects two winners and one honorable mention for each grade.
Are scanned copies of poems acceptable rather than typed copies?
Yes! Our younger poets often submit hand-drawn pictures with their poems, and we love to see them. Scans are always welcome. We prefer that all poems be submitted on white paper in a standard font with black text.
Do you accept erasure poems or spoken word?
We, unfortunately, do not accept erasure poems or any other poetry based on the words of other writers, and we are very strict about plagiarism. We accept spoken word-oriented poems, but the poem must be able to live comfortably on the page so that it can be read and evaluated by our judges.
Is it okay if poems include profanity?
On principle, we do not censor student work for this competition. We ask that you exercise judgment in submitting poems that include profanity or potentially triggering content, as most of our student audience is children below the age of 14. However, we value our youth poets’ voices and that sometimes may include controversial vocabulary choices.
I need a copy of the last GBYPA chapbook with my student’s poem in it! How do I get a copy?
Please contact us for a copy of the chapbook.
Contact Us
Rebecca Amato
Director of Teaching and Learning
poetry@ilhumanities.org
(312) 374-1554