Pulitzer Center Update July 1, 2026
Fighting Words Poetry Contest 2026: K-11 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 winners and finalists of the 2026 Fighting Words Poetry Contest for grades K–11!
Read the winning entries below, and explore this year’s young adult poems here.
Register for a July 30 workshop and conversation with past contest winners here.
Poetry invites us to look inward, and journalism pulls us into the wider world, contextualizing and enriching our individual perspectives. Through the Fighting Words Poetry Contest, young writers respond to Pulitzer Center-supported news stories and show how the headlines hit home.
This marks the contest’s ninth year, and the first year in which we have been able to expand the opportunity to include young adults. We received over 1,250 entries from students in grades K–11, and judged entries from graduating seniors and ages 18–24 separately.
These students’ work is a testament to the power of language to bear witness and to move us. Please join us in celebrating the 23 young poets whose poems appear below!
Contest Winners:
(* = poem is accompanied by an audio recording)
Issue 1: Climate and Environment
1st Place
"Where the Water Remembers Us" by Jayla Renee Mason-Taylor
10th grade | Caddo Parish Magnet High School | Louisiana
2nd Place
"Salt Still Grows Green" by Arielle Pineda
6th grade | Blue Ridge Elementary School | Arizona
3rd Place
"Where Will Everyone Go?" by Samya V.
11th grade | CS Academy | Coimbatore, India
Issue 2: Global Health
1st Place
"The Yellow Inheritance" by Noor Fatima*
11th grade | Somerset County Vocational High School Academy | New Jersey
Finalists
"What We Breathe" by Ethan Hutchison
8th grade | Timberstone Junior High School | Ohio
"Descent into the Salt Pit" by Noel Fang
10th grade | Ballantyne Ridge High School | North Carolina
"Outside the Box" by Shloka Ashveena Mayank
11th grade | Neerja Modi School | Jaipur, India
"Beneath the Surface" by Suah Cho
10th grade | Valley Christian High School | San Jose, California
Issue 3: Human Rights
1st Place
"The Way Back" by Viraj Lal*
11th grade | Chinmaya International Residential School | Coimbatore, India
Finalists
"Visibility" by Analise Braddock
9th grade | School of The Holy Child | New York
"We Deserve" by Wallace Ianicelli Lovell McAnany*
4th grade | Longfellow Elementary School | Maine
"She Was Never Only Thread" by Luluh Hussam Al Saleh
8th grade | Makers Learning School | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
"Untitled" by Claire Elizabeth Rihely
8th grade | Beaver Area Middle School | Pennsylvania
Issue 4: Information and AI
1st Place
"Madness of Two: A Golden Shovel" by Myra Bisnik*
8th grade | Juan Cabrillo Middle School | California
Finalists
"Ground Truth" by Shal Shen
7th grade | Pleasant Valley Junior High School | Iowa
"Tutakoke" by Vladimir Ermolenko
10th grade | Gymnasium No. 13 Akademgorodok | Krasnoyarsk, Russia
"Begrudging Smudge" by Elena Gil*
11th grade | R.L. Paschal High School | Texas
"Deleted by AI" by Adriel Pineda
11th grade | Canyon Day Junior High School | Arizona
Issue 5: Peace and Conflict
1st Place
"What She Would Not Forget" by Egor [also available in Russian]
10th grade | Secondary School No. 145 | Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Finalists
"Held Through Ruin" by Vicky Zhao*
10th grade | Old Scona Academic | Edmonton, Canada
"What Survival Demands" by Lauren Gayle Magno*
7th grade | Walker Junior High School | California
"What the Pink Balloon Knows" by Dev Rai
11th grade | Oakton High School | Virginia
"The Things That Stay Awake" by Nataly Almomani
11th grade | Florida Virtual School Full Time | Florida
Thank you to our semifinal and final round judges: Kara Andrade, Hannah Berk, Alexandra Byrne, Jermaine Ervin Jr., Donnalie Jamnah, Mark Schulte, and Ethan Widlansky.
