Photo: Tina Picz Photography
2024 VERMONT YOUTH POET LAUREATE
Harmony Devoe
Harmony Belle Devoe places a high value on the transformative power of words to educate, inspire, and create social impact. Her multiracial heritage of Filipino, Indigenous Nipmuc, and white, motivates her to address the injustices in our world, especially those brought upon marginalized communities and the Earth. Having lived in five states and among a wide spectrum of communities, she holds a deep belief in the importance of open-mindedness and the need to advocate for others to embrace diversity and understanding. She finds it her responsibility to write in the pursuit of a more just and equitable world. Harmony is a 9th grader at Harwood Union High School, and aspires to publish her first book in the near future. When not writing, she enjoys trail running and eating lots of baked goods.
2024 RUNNERS-UP
Gracie Batsie
Emma Paris
Congratulations to all 10 of this year’s finalists!
Grace Batsie
Harmony Devoe
Elias Francis
Nadia Frazier
Maya Hynes
Mayla Landis-Marinello
Anita Miller
Emma Paris
Maelyn Slavik
Roma Vallabhaneni
We’re partnering with the National Youth Poet Laureate® Program to celebrate Vermont’s next generation of poets
The Program
The Vermont Youth Poet Laureate is a program of Sundog Poetry in partnership with Urban Word. This national program celebrates our nation’s top youth poets who are committed to artistic excellence, civic engagement, and social impact. Teen writers (ages 13-19) submit a portfolio of their original poetry and CV info that showcases their artistic excellence and community impact. State Youth Poets Laureate participate in dozens of national convenings, workshops and performances each year.
Currently, the National Youth Poet Laureate Program serves programs in more than 70 cities, states, and counties, and has been featured in every major news outlet in the country including CNN, PBS, NPR, BBC, NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post, and The Guardian. Youth Poets Laureate have graced the stages of City Halls, the Library of Congress, the White House & the U.S. Capital.
How it works
Questions?
Email us at hello@sundogpoetry.org
The 2024 submission period has now closed.
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A panel of judges will select a group of finalists and the eventual Youth Poet Laureate, to be announced in late April.
The Laureate receives:
• $500 cash prize
• Invitation to regional competition
• Public readings in Vermont
• Broadside edition letterpress print of an original poem with Ruth Stone House
All finalists receive:
• Invitation to participate in national workshops with some of America’s most celebrated poets
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• Age 13 - 19 at the age of submission
• Vermont resident
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Submissions are open February 1 - 28
Submit at youthlaureate.org
Submissions must include
• 3 poems in one document
• cv/resume information: this could include school/extracurricular participation, community and civic engagement, awards and accolades, and more. We encourage creativity here as you communicate your interests and activities both inside and outside of school.*A cv or resume is not needed as a separate attachment. There will be space to add this information in the online application.
Meet Our Judges
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Meg Reynolds is a poet, artist, and teacher from New England. Her work has appeared in The Missing Slate, Mid-American Review, Fugue, The Offing, Hobart, Inverted Syntax amongst others as well as the anthologies Monster Verse: Poems Human and Inhuman, The Book of Donuts, and With You: Withdrawn Poems of the #Metoo Movement.
Her first collection of poetry comics, A Comic Year, is available now from Finishing Line Press. She lives in Burlington, VT with her family.
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Ms. Kia’Rae Hanron is a multidisciplinary and multimedia artist, educator, and activist born and raised in Montpelier, now residing in Burlington. Ms. Hanron graduated from the University of Vermont in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Arts Education. Now, she combines her lived experiences as a Biracial Vermonter with her training, skills, and passion for the arts and education to help youth, educators, and parents use the arts and artistic thinking to practice empathy and curiosity, and to gain strength, confidence, and resilience through creative expression.
Ms. Hanron has been with the 501c3 nonprofit organization Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. (CFF) since 2019. As the Windows To A Multicultural World K-12 Arts Learning Director, she leads curriculum development, field trips, and co-designs teaching artist engagements for CFF's arts-integrated African American history program. Ms. Hanron has been featured in Vermont Visionaries for her work as an independent artist and as an arts-and-culture educator with Clemmons Family Farm. She was selected as New England Foundation of the Arts' Vermont representative in the inaugural 2023 National Leaders of Color Fellowship: a nationwide leadership development program for Black, Indigenous and people of color leaders who are committed to the advancement of cultural equity in the arts.
Ms. Hanron is a proud mental health advocate, and she loves any kind of artistic mediums and types of expression that support her well-being. Some of her favorite means of expression include drawing, painting, collage and assemblage, digital art, creative writing, and spoken word poetry.
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Diana Whitney writes across genres with a focus on feminism, motherhood, and sexuality. She is the editor of a previous collection of poems, Wanting It (Harbor Mountain Press, 2014), and the bestselling anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves (2021), winner of the Claudia Lewis Award. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Kenyon Review, Glamour, and elsewhere.
