NCPS Announces 2024 Student Contest Winners
Student contests coordinator Nancy Martin-Young is happy to announce the North Carolina Poetry Society student contest winners for the 2024 season. Judges this year acknowledged that the hundreds of high-quality entries made their decisions difficult. It was wonderful to see the continued support students received from educators, mentors, and family. Poetry in North Carolina is assured for a new generation.
The award recipients listed below will have their poems published in Pinesong, the NCPS awards anthology, and are invited to read their work at the upcoming spring meeting May 18th.
NCPS congratulates the award recipients and thanks all who shared their entries in this year’s contest. A special thanks to the teachers who made the extra effort to submit multiple student entries. Without their help, student contests like this one would not be such a success.
2024 Student Contests Results
TRAVIS TUCK JORDAN AWARD (grades 3-5) Judge Gideon Young
1. Ishaan Mettu “The Land of Walakazoo”
2. Samriddha Rama “Where I Am From”
3. Jovie Hoag “Kitty Kitty”
HM Juliette McCandlish “My Dress”
HM Layla Richardson “Wishing Star”
JOAN SCOTT MEMORIAL AWARD (grades 5-9) Judge Malaika Albrecht
1. Callan Fitzsimmons “Beauty”
2. Annabel Haynes “Ripples”
3. Juliette McCandlish “My Dress”
HM Elias Francis “In Nature”
HM Sylas Johnson “Lance of Light”
HM Nicholas Loaiza “The Blue Town”
MARY CHILTON AWARD (grades 6-9) Judge Michael Gaspeny
1. Selah Greer “dollar cone”
2. Maxwell Wei “The Cigarette and Skull of Van Gogh”
3. Annabel Haynes “Sidewalk persimmons”
HM Arielle Perez “Silence in Stars”
HM Samantha Kawalec “The River”
HM August Gordon “Sing, Little Bird”
SHERRY PRUITT AWARD (grades 10-12) Judge Clark Holtzman
1. Shay Hill “Family Heirlooms”
2. Kenny Ogbata “Welcome to Lagos, Nigeria”
3. Edgar Arredondo “Calphernia’s Grief”
HM Sydney Thune “The Bohemian of Poker Flat”
HM Tucker Ruzicka “Blacksmiths”
HM Ashley Lopez Lopez “the truth of a woman”
UNDERGRADUATE AWARD (freshman-senior) Judge Maureen Sherbondy
1. Sunflower Rosales “Selena”
2. Luna Hou “Grown”
3. Zoe Wynns “In Defense of Generalized Anxiety Disorder”
HM Celia Gibbs “Double-Wide”