About the Prize
The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers, created in 2007 to recognize outstanding young poets, is an annual contest for poets who are sophomores and juniors in high school. The contest is named in honor of Patricia Grodd in recognition of her generous support of The Kenyon Review and its programs, as well as her passionate commitment to education and deep love for poetry.
The poems by the winner and runners-up will be published in The Kenyon Review, and the winner receives a full scholarship to a Kenyon Review Young Writers workshop. Submissions for the contest are open every year November 1 through November 30.
If you are not a high school sophomore or junior, you do not qualify for this contest. Please submit to the Kenyon Review Poetry Contest.
- Submit your poem on our Submittable page.
- Fill out the fields, attach your file, and click the “submit here” button.
- Please submit only one poem to the contest. Only unpublished work will be considered for the prize. Please do not simultaneously submit your contest entry to another magazine or contest.
- You must be a high school sophomore or junior to enter.
- Make sure your file is one of the following formats: PDF, Word document (.doc or .docx), Rich Text Format (.rtf), Microsoft Wordpad and Notepad, Apple TextEdit (.txt).
- We charge no entry fee. It is free to enter.
- Submit between November 1 and November 30, 2025. The submissions portal closes at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on November 30.
- Any winning submitter who has previously attended the Young Writers Summer Residential Workshops will have their scholarship applied to their choice of either Young Writers Summer Online or Winter Online Workshops.
Winners will be announced in March 2026 via email, on The Kenyon Review website, and in the March 2026 Kenyon Review newsletter.
2025 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers Judge: Krysten Hill
Krysten Hill is the author of How Her Spirit Got Out (Aforementioned Productions, 2016), which received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Her work has been featured in The Academy of American Poets, apt, B O D Y, Boiler Magazine, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Muzzle, PANK,Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Winter Tangerine Review and elsewhere. The recipient of the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award and 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship, she received her MFA in poetry from University of Massachusetts Boston, where she currently teaches.
Thanks for your interest in The Kenyon Review.
2025 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, Cate Marvin
Winner: Qiaorui Zhang (she/her), “Tiger Mom”
Runner-up: Ryan Li (they/them), “Prayers to the Buddha in My Costco Jar of Vaseline”
Runner-up: Isabelle Cox-Garleanu (she/her), “Neglect from a Woman with Blue Breasts”
2024 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, Richie Hofmann
Winner: Cloris Shi, “son as white plant”
Runner-up: Acadia Reynolds, “Dissection of my Grandmother’s Eye”
Runner-up: Tiffany Aurelia, “Origin Myth as Hand-Me-Down”
2023 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, Ruth Awad
Winner: Naomi Ling, “Haibun for Cantonese, ‘The Bird Language'”
Runner-up: Aamina Mughal, “Paradigm Shift”
Runner-up: Evan Sandifer, “Because I Am Young, Stubborn, and Covered in Skin”
2022 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, Molly McCully Brown
Winner: Sophie Bernik, “Come Closer”
Runner-up: Maddison Xu, “For My Father, Who Lives Alone”
Runner-up: Myra Kamal, “Diptych on Getting from Point A to Point B”
2021 Winners
Introduction
Winner: Daniel Zhang, “Golden”
Runner-up: Blair Enright, “Dr. Freud’s Magic 8-Ball”
Runner-up: Gaia Rajan, “Ghost Town, Ohio”
2020 Winners
Introduction
Winner: Manasi Garg, “Cutglass”
Runner-up: Eric Gottlieb, “(B)lack”
Runner-up: Annie Cao, “Meat”
2019 Winners
Introduction
Winner: Jay Martin, “November Picnic with Louise”
Runner-up: Martha Shaffer, “Stars”
Runner-up: Stephanie Chang, “Post Meridiem”
2018 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by Natalie Shapero
Winner: Audrey Kim, “What I Left Behind”
Runner-up: Emily Perez, “Extraterrestre”
Runner-up: Jenny Li, “Chapter Seven Quiz”
2017 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by Natalie Shapero
Winner: Eileen Huang, “Movie Scene on a Highway Shoulder”
Runner-up: Daniel Blokh, “Family Portrait with Lost Map”
Runner-up: Isabella Victoria, “Clemente Curls”
2016 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by Natalie Shapero
Winner: Alyssa Mazzoli, “Death Uses a Lot of Laundry Detergent”
Runner-up: Carissa Chen, “Parable”
Runner-up: Annalise Lozier, “ƒ(x)”
2015 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by Natalie Shapero
First-Prize Winner: Caitlin Chan, “Tlingit Farewell: Glacier Bay, 1966”
Runner-up: Gavin Murtha, “I Spent a Lot of Time in There”
Runner-up: Emily Zhang, “Story for the Salt”
2014 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers
First Place: Michaela Jenkins, “indigo sister”
Runner-up: Dalia Ahmed, “Open in the Spring”
2013 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by Natalie Shapero
First Place: Ian Burnette, “Full Blood”
Runner-up: Alicia Lai, “Saung”
2012 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by David Baker
First Place: Victoria White, “Elephant Grave”
First Place: Truman Zhang, “Dear Poet”
Runner-up: Nandita Karambelkar, “Rangoli”
2011 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by David Baker
First Place: Natalie Landers, “Ode to Words”
Runner-up: Hayun Cho, “Halmoni”
Runner-up: Emily Nason, “Ripening”
2010 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by KR Editors
First Place: Anna Faison, “Han”
Runner-up: Emma Broder, “Nkoaranga”
Runner-up: Megan Gallagher, “Clutch”
2009 Winners
Young Poets Introduction, by David Baker
First Place: Felicity Sheehy, “Letter”
Second Place: Haley Markbreiter, “The Solitude of Hungarians”
Third Place: Arbil López, “Ciudad”
2008 Winners
Young Writers Introduction, by David Baker
First Place: Molly Brown, “Terra Incognita”
Second Place: Weihui Lu, “(Why) Can’t I Hear You Anymore?”
Third Place: Samantha Berstler, “Self-Portrait”
2007 Winners
First Place: Rebekah Latour, “Twisted Like Dogwood”
Second Place: Frankie Romano, “The Night You Questioned the Purpose of Flowers”
Third Place: Hannah Irvin, “For My Father”
2006 Winners
Now formally known as the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers
On the First “Kenyon Review” Poetry Prize for Young Writers, by David Baker
First Place: Justine Li, “El Norte”
Second Place: Laura Winnick, “A Quantum Leap”
Third Place: Dan Li, “A Heap of Fruits”
2005 Winners
2nd Annual Kenyon Review Poetry Prize for Young Writers
Introduction: On the Second Kenyon Review Poetry Prize for Young Writers, by David Baker
First Place: Emma Hansen, “Good Morning America”
Second Place: Sarah Winsberg, “Evolution”
Third Place: Amrita Khalid, “Apology for the Death of Your Father”
2004 Winners
1st Annual Kenyon Review Poetry Prize for Young Writers
On the First “Kenyon Review” Poetry Prize for Young Writers, by David H. Lynn
First Place: Robin Myers, “A Birth”
Second Place: Madeline Weinstein, “Art Appreciation”
Third Place: Laura Bennett, “Spilled Rice”