The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers partner to present the National Student Poets Program (NSPP), the country’s highest honor for youth poets presenting original work. Five outstanding high school poets whose work exhibits exceptional creativity, dedication to craft, and promise are selected annually for a year of service as national poetry ambassadors.
National Student Poets are chosen from among the National Medalists in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards with input from a jury of established poets and leaders in education and the arts. Throughout their year of service, the Poets will serve as literary ambassadors and will share their passion for poetry, literacy, and the literary arts with their communities and throughout their regions. This will be done through activities that include service projects, workshops, and public readings. In addition, each Poet will receive a $5,000 academic award.
Let’s meet the Class of 2022!
Jesse Begay is a queer Indigenous poet and screenwriter born and raised on the Navajo reservation. Their work typically revolves around familial relationships, identity, and generational trauma. They are currently attending New Mexico School for the Arts, studying Creative Writing & Literature. Their work has been published in the 2021 edition of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ annual anthology, Best Teen Writing, and Dreams of Montezuma 2: An Anthology of Poetry and Proses. Jesse is a two-time National Medalist of the Scholastic Awards, as well as a recipient of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ 2021 Best-in-Grade Award.
Winslow Hastie is a senior in the Creative Writing program at the Charleston County School of the Arts in Charleston, SC. He began writing poetry in elementary school and has continued in middle and high school through the Creative Writing program. Living in Charleston for most of his life, he has learned to love and appreciate the outdoors and finds inspiration in the landscape and wildlife around him in the South Carolina Lowcountry. He frequently uses nature and the outdoors as common themes throughout his poetry and short stories. He enjoys using poetry as a medium to articulate and convey imagery, in particular to recreate vivid images from the natural world. In his free time, Winslow loves to go boating, fishing, and spending time at the beach.
Emily Igwike, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has lived in Brown Deer all of her life. She attended St. Eugene’s for ten years and now attends University School of Milwaukee. She is the daughter of two loving Igbo Nigerian immigrants. Emily developed her passion for writing through reading novels from an early age and grew fond of telling stories from countless late nights with her mother. She never failed to recount her life, detail by detail. By hearing these stories, Emily fell in love with the idea of sharing her own, even if her life wasn’t glorious. Through poetry, Emily not only curated her voice but let others hear her. Beginning with short stories and choppy poems, Emily formulated her ever-developing craft into one that spoke to her. Emily hopes to be a role model for young black girls like her and be a testament to the power of the spoken word.
Vidhatrie Keetha is a senior at Horace Mann School in the Bronx. She is interested in exploring the ways in which words can be woven together to create experiences and tell stories, as well as the ways such stories can be used to uplift the voices of those who are unheard and systemically silenced. Her work is influenced by the mysticism that typically accompanies mythology and folklore, which she combines with cultural details, an awe of the natural world, and her own personal experiences. She ultimately hopes to use her poetry as a tool for activism and for enacting meaningful change. Apart from writing, in her free time, you can probably find her drawing, taking walks outside, listening to music, or reading obsessively.
Diane Sun is a senior at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington, but she was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She is the president and founder of her school’s art and literary publication, The Interlake Review, as well as the philosophy club. When she’s not writing, she’s debating, either for her school or as a member of the national team. When she’s not debating, she’s writing, merging the (terrifying) passage of time, the intersection of femininity and nature, and her love of her Chinese culture and community in a blend of tea leaves and late nights.
Class of 2021 Jurors
All student submissions in consideration for the National Student Poets Program are judged by literary luminaries and leaders in education and the arts based on exceptional creativity, dedication to craft, and promise. This year’s panel of jurors were:
Juan Felipe Herrera, United States Poet Laureate (2015-2017)
Edward Hirsch, Poet, President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Ricardo Maldonado, Managing Director of 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center, poet and translator
Moncho Alvarado, Academy of American Poet’s John B. Santoianni Award winner
Nicky Beer, National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellow
Franny Choi, Princeton University’s Holmes National Poetry Prize winner
Michaela Coplen, National Student Poet Class of 2013
Sarah Gambito, co-founder of Kundiman
Jeffery Gleaves, Academy of American Poets
Michael Kleber-Diggs, 2022 Minnesota Book Award finalist
Thank you to all of our wonderful judges and congratulations to these talented poets! Stay tuned for more news about the new Class of National Student Poets.