2022 local & state youth poet laureates
Avalon Hogans - 2022 Houston Youth Poet Laureate
Read I Am (Ethereal), The Match is Getting Shorter, and BIG RED ROAD
Avalon Hogans serves as the 2022 Houston, TX Youth Poet Laureate, a program sponsored by Writer’s in the Schools. Awarded by the Houston Mayor, she is a social justice activist with a passion for volunteering and teaching. Her work centralizes identity, justice, and pride.
Adael Mejia - 2022-2023 Worcester Youth Poet Laureate
Read On Soul, The Grey, and No Way Home
Adael Mejia serves a two year appointment as the 2022 Worcester Youth Poet Laureate, a program sponsored by the City of Worcester Cultural Development Division. Mejia is a multidisciplinary creative, passionate about theatre, dance, music, art and performing. Upon graduating Burncoat High School, Mejia served as an Artist Mentor for the City of Worcester’s pilot Create 508 program, where he found a passion for developing young artists and growing the community.
Amoy Parkes - 2022 Jacksonville Youth Poet Laureate
Read Coming of Age, I Love & Hate Poetry, and The Falling Angel
Amoy Parkes is a 17-year-old poet from Jacksonville Florida who decided to let her emotions, obstacles, and flaws make her and not break her. Amoy has helped feed the homeless with the Helping Hands of Jacksonville, participated in student government, and is a member of the State of Young People Collective.
Elizabeth Shvarts - 2022 New York City Youth Poet Laureate, 2022 Youth Poet Laureate Northeast Regional Ambassador, & 2022 National Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Read Adonis; preschool drop-off, or pottery class but the vase is still a lump of clay; and Career Day
Elizabeth Shvarts serves as the 2022 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, a program sponsored by Urban Word NYC. A fierce advocate for educational equity, she is a Daily Point of Light Award-nominated, co-founder/co-director of Bridge to Literacy, a global, UNESCO-recognized U.S Department of State-funded nonprofit that fosters a love of language through literacy-based mentorship in 150+ youth across 6 continents. A 2021 National YoungArts Finalist in Play/Script and Urban Word NYC Slam Winner, Elizabeth is an avid writer with work recognized by or featured at The New Yorker, PBS, the United Nations, the Apollo, Lincoln Center, NY1, Grist Magazine, the MacDowell Foundation, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Alliance for Climate Education, and more.
Charlotte Maeva Yeung - 2022 Indianapolis Youth Poet Laureate, 2023 Midwest Youth Poet Ambassador
Read horticulture - a markov sonnet
Liam "Lee" Balmeo (they/them) is an award-winning youth poet and multidisciplinary artist based in Long Beach, California, focused on the principles of intersectionality in the form of activism poetry. Through an experimental style and approach to poetics, Lee has been recognized by Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, YoungArts, The Poetry Society, and received a 2026 Best of the Net Nomination. They also served as a 2023-2024 Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador and a 2024-2025 Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador, among other accolades.
Sheerea Yu - 2022 Nashville Youth Poet Laureate
Read reading newspaper headlines, Poetry, and Ghost Girls
Sheerea serves as the 2022 Nashville, TN Youth Poet Laureate, a program sponsored by Southern Word. She writes to perhaps put on a page what would otherwise be lost. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the New York Times, and the Tennessee Magazine.