Sixteen Rivers Press is pleased to announce the winners and finalists of our first Youth Poetry Contest. This nationally advertised contest for teen poets opened with a call for submissions on August 4, 2021. The contest was limited to 100 entrants. Ninety-seven teens, from 15 states and the District of Columbia, entered. Thanks to an anonymous grant to the press, each received a copy of our anthology, America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience. The entrants were asked to write a poem of their own that was inspired by or in conversation with a poem in the book. The winners and finalists were selected by seven members of the press.
The six winners will each receive $500 and a certificate from the press. Read on for the list of winners and finalists.