We are pleased to announce the winners of the Fifth Annual 1455 Young Poets Contest. The theme for this year’s contest is Connection, and the guidelines requested the poems to reflect on or react to the contemporary sociopolitical and cultural environment (including but not limited to #BLM, #MeToo, COVID, etc.)
Once again, we received an astonishing variety of poems, and as was the case in previous years, the overall quality of the writing exceeded all expectations. On one hand, this made for some difficult decisions; on the other hand, based on this sample of young writers, the future of poetry will be diverse, passionate, and brilliant.
The judges (1455 Founder and Executive Director Sean Murphy, and co-judge Maia Siegel) admired the range of voices and quality of expression, but—like previous years!—some excruciating choices had to be made. As such, it was with no small relief that we had consensus regarding the ultimate finalists.
GRAND PRIZE WINNERS
$500 Award per poet
Category One: Ages 13-18
Naomi Ling
Naomi Ling is a poet, singer, and storyteller based in Maryland. Her poetry seeks to interweave motifs of girlhood, growing pains, and activism between each line. Recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and Best of the Net, she is a 2023 YoungArts Finalist in Poetry, American Voices Winner, and Kenyon Review‘s Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize Winner. If there was one dream she could make true, it would be to ride along the French countryside with a baguette under her arm.
