Bright Perspectives: Celebrating Winners of the 2024 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards

Every school year, young Illinoisans in grades K-12 have the opportunity to submit an original poem to earn a Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards. Brooks launched the annual writing competition in 1969 as a celebration of young people’s boundless creative talent, and her tradition continues today, hosted by Illinois Humanities in collaboration with the Poetry Foundation, Brooks Permissions, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.

A record high of 988 students put pen to paper this year, making 2024 our most competitive Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards to date.

List of Winners

In addition to Illinois Humanities’ routine outreach to poetry advocates and organizations across the state when submissions opened, Rebecca Amato, Director of Teaching and Learning says that Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards organizers also mailed over five thousand postcards to public and charter schools, libraries, and school librarians to get the word out. 

Illinois Humanities also produced new video lessons led by local poets and published a DIY toolkit with prompts and advice from peer teachers. Rebecca is thrilled to enhance these resources going into 2025’s award season, adding even more robust resources like lesson plan guides for educators.

“Being a young person at this time in history can feel overwhelming. They have access to so much information, and not all of it is inspiring,” Margy reflected. “I hope that young writers can process difficult experiences on the page so that they can share their perspective and be as bright, bold, and creative as they want to be.”

Winners of the 2024 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards receive a monetary prize, publication in a chapbook, and the honor of participating in Brooks’s legacy. Congratulations to each of these stellar, inspiring poets!

2024 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards Winners

A chapbook containing the poems below will be available soon.

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)