Dear Participants,
Thank you so much for contributing to our 2023-2024 Poetry of Resistance Contest. Our judges were deeply moved by the poems of over 1200 youths from 60 countries. It was clear that you had poured your hearts and souls into your work.
This year we had an unprecedented number of submissions and choosing the winners was an extremely difficult task. After going through two selection rounds, 19 poems were selected as finalists and shared with poet Joy Roulier Sawyer who chose the top three winners and honorable mentions.
One hundred and four poems were selected for publication.
First Place: “But the Man Still Stands” by Derek Wang
Second Place: “Color Theory” by Valerie Edem
Third Place: “When All The Pages Turn Upside Down” by Mackenzie Carpenter
Honorable Mentions:
“I Matter” by Safiya Prasad
“African Rain Dance” by Piou Adjato
CONTEST FINALISTS:
Linden Azad (California, USA)
Liam Balmeo (California, USA)
Divit Bhargava (Bengaluru, India)
Jonathan Bu (Maryland, USA)
Kai Grenham (Maryland, USA)
Tabitha Kyalo (Machakos, Kenya)
Leah Hawa Nazim (Berkshire, UK)
Ariel Or (Singapore)
Adesiyan Oluwapelumi (Ibadan, Nigeria)
Deondra Rose (New York, USA)
Hindoli Roy (West Bengal, India)
Mishika Tripathi (London, UK)
Haleigh Warner (Kansas, USA)
Isabel Xu (Washington, USA)