Pulitzer Center Update June 26, 2024
Fighting Words Poetry Contest 2024: Winners and Finalists
Students are invited to enter poems written in response to news stories to the Fighting Words Poetry Contest. This workshop guides teachers and students in how to craft a successful entry.
The Pulitzer Center congratulates the 2024 Fighting Words Poetry Contest winners and finalists!
Every year, students around the world participate in the Fighting Words Poetry Contest by identifying a global issue that matters to them and writing poems in conversation with Pulitzer Center-supported news stories on those issues.
In this seventh annual contest, we received 1,400 entries written by students in 16 countries, 36 U.S. states, and the District of Columbia. We are grateful to every student who used this contest as an opportunity to learn about global issues, cultivate empathy, and take action through their writing.
Please join us in celebrating the 21 young poets whose work appears below. Judged in categories based on the issues their poems centered, they include 5 first place winners selected by guest judge Irene Vázquez, as well as 16 finalists.
Contest Winners:
(* = poem is accompanied by an audio recording)
Issue 1: Climate and Environment
1st Place
"No Land Between Us" by Rohan Packer
7th grade | The British International School | Turkey
Comments from judge Irene Vázquez: The power of the persona poem to bring us in tune with our non-human kin is on full display in this poem. I love the bold use of perspective in “No Land Between Us” and the intimate way it brings the concerns of the humans and the elephants onto the same plane, illuminating for the reader how each is uniquely subject to the whims of corporate greed.
Finalists
"Whispered by the Wind" by Violet Sandridge*
7th grade | Summit Charter Middle School | Colorado
"Healing Roots" by Charisma Holly*
11th grade | Detroit Edison Public School Academy Early College of Excellence | Michigan
"Scarlet Rains" by Emma Nakhle*
11th grade | Stuyvesant High School | New York
"Mahogany Sisters" by Ava Strancke
12th grade | Arrowhead Union High School | Wisconsin
Issue 2: Global Health
1st Place
“exposure / exposé / exposed” by Max Lee*
11th grade | Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Techonology | Georgia
Comments from judge Irene Vázquez: This poet knows how to wield language sharply like a warning, like a portent. They write: “when rows of electrical boxes decompose into chains of symmetrical coffins,/when single-file lines of veins are poisoned with the residues of negligence,/how many more dust-covered veterans will need to devolve into ash?” The use of repetition in this poem astutely mirrors the cumulative effects of carcinogens slowly building up in the body.
Finalists
"Super Banana" by William Taylor*
2nd grade | Home School | Tennessee
"Is it the end or a new beginning?" by Aadhyaa Aravind*
5th grade | VidyaNiketan School | India
"The Unbreakable Chain" by Riddhima Das
8th grade | Kamiakin Middle School | Washington
"Chemical Dreams, Chemical Despair" by Nabeeha Jalali
12th grade | Salem High School | Michigan
Issue 3: Human Rights
1st Place
"Namai" by Emma Zhang
11th grade | Branham High School | California
Comments from judge Irene Vázquez: The poet brilliantly evokes the imagery of the Peruvian Amazon in “Namai,” and in doing so, they illuminate the worlds that are lost when language is lost. They write: “tongue-tied, tongue-lost in the creases of açai palms,/blood swelled thorough hyacinth macaws and dart frogs/exhaling perspiration to skin like another word for home.” The turn towards the intimate and relational in the second stanza shows us as readers how vital the role of community is in the fight for language justice.
Finalists
"A New Condition" by Jacob Jing*
11th grade | Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science | Texas
"What Family Is For" by Wesley Little
11th grade | Community School of Davidson | North Carolina
"Wild Violets" by Evan Mackett
11th grade | Plymouth High School | Michigan
"Somos Gente" by Angelina Soto Pavia
11th grade | Woodburn High School | Oregon
Issue 4: Information and Artificial Intelligence
1st Place
"binary bodies" by Aigerim Bibol*
11th grade | Sidwell Friends School | Maryland
Comments from judge Irene Vázquez: This poet powerfully contrasts the if/then supposedly objective language of computer programming with evocative, first person stanzas that give voice to the women whose bodies are objectified through AI content filters. As the speaker describes the system’s “gaze, ravenous & insatiable” as it consumes "every byte/embedded in the system’s calculative grasp,” they show us exactly how the systems of power that devour women in the physical world are brutally re-enacted in the digital world.
2nd Place
"Disconnect" by Sophie Zhang*
7th grade | Wilmette Junior High School | Illinois
3rd Place
"i don't believe you" by Piper Sobel*
8th grade | Home School | Illinois
Issue 5: Peace and Conflict
1st Place
"the bush is for the animals, not for the people" by Lily Scheckner*
11th grade | Montgomery Blair High School | Maryland
Comments from judge Irene Vázquez: Wow. Just wow. This poem took my breath away. The simplicity of the repetition of “We don’t know it yet” belies its power, much like the avenues for dialogue that the women patiently but forcefully and repeatedly open up in the Congo. A good documentary poem knows when to take a back seat to its subject, and this poem masterfully centers the potent metaphor that the women themselves use, that the “bush is for the animals, not the people,” and builds a world around it.
2nd Place
"Press Enter to view keybinds" by Mindy Phan
11th grade | Skyline High School | Utah
3rd Place
"to all the warriors" by Giya Agarwal
10th grade | Interlake Senior High School | Washington
In addition to Irene Vázquez, thank you to our semifinal and final round judges, who ensured all entries were reviewed by at least two readers: Elliott Adams, Hannah Berk, Alex Byrne, Kendra Grissom, Donnalie Jamnah, Jessica Mims, Doménica Montaño, Fareed Mostoufi, Sushmita Jaya Mukherjee, Cate Riccio, Mark Schulte, and Ethan Widlansky.
