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Sixteenth Annual Caldwell Poetry Awards - April 2022
The Caldwell Poetry Awards were announced at the End-of-Year Festival on April 13, 2022, and thousands of dollars were awarded (thanks to the generous gift of Jeanne and Will M. Caldwell).
Per usual, the Caldwell Poetry Awards were divided up into two categories (written and performance) as well as broken up into two groups of participants (first-year students and students leaders/alumni).
The winning written poems will also be included in this year’s Arts & Literary Journal, which will be distributed in the fall.
Written Poetry
First Year Students
First Place: Isabella Crow for "dryer lint," "in crystal lake, and we have to go to work soon, but," and "womanhood and i get into fights"
Second Place: Hailey Love for "One Night Only," "When I Smile," and "As Women"
Third Place: Asha Rajagopal for "Not Yet Green" and "Always Never Yours"
Fourth Place (tie!): Sam McKinnon for "Gli Innomorati, or Reach Out, I am Close Enough to Touch"
Fourth Place (tie!): Martha Schaller for "Green Crayons" and "summer."
Student Leaders and Alumni
First Place: Alejandro Derieux Cerezo for "The Origin of Things," "It's Your Fault I'm Like This," and "Service"
Second Place: Elizabeth Blackwell for "mormon girls"
Third Place: Rachna Iyer for "I Am. I? Am. I? Am. I? Am."
Fourth Place: Roma Uzzaman for "Duplex"
Performance Poetry
First Year Students: Original Performances
First Place: Tyae Grant for "Color Me Beautiful"
Second Place: Hailey Love for "Black Women"
Third Place: Asha Rajagopal for "Matchstick"
First Year Students: Interpretive Performances
First Place: Asha Rajagopal for "For Three Days" by Marie Howe
Second Place: Tyae Grant for "To the random dude who started dating my ex-girlfriend two days after we broke up (Yes, I read that on Facebook)" by Rudy Francisco
Third Place: Charlie Pappalardo for "Lester" by Shel Silverstein
Student Leaders and Alumni: Original Performances
First Place: Maddie Agne for "The Long Poem"
Second Place: Rachna Iyer for "I Am. I? Am. I? Am. I? Am."
Third Place: Elizabeth Blackwell
Student Leaders and Alumni: Interpretive Performances
First Place: Emma Laible for "A Litany for Survival" by Audre Lorde
Second Place: Maddie Agne for "Poet, Breathe Now" by Adam Gottlieb
Previous Caldwell Poetry Winners
Fifteenth Annual Caldwell Poetry Awards - April 2021
The Caldwell Poetry Awards were announced at the End-of-Year Festival on April 14, 2021, and thousands of dollars were awarded (thanks to the generous gift of Jeanne and Will M. Caldwell).
Per usual, the Caldwell Poetry Awards were divided up into two categories (written and performance) as well as broken up into two groups of participants (first-year students and students leaders/alumni).
The winning written poems will also be included in this year’s Arts & Literary Journal, which will be distributed in the fall.
Written - First Year Students
First Place: Zoya Uzzaman for “the railroad line”
Second Place: Alex McCullough for “I’m Still Bruising”
Third Place: Julia Boughner for “Compass”; “During a Full Moon, the Maternity Ward is More Occupied than Usual”; and “The Circumference of my Wrist”
Honorable Mentions:
Eli Neumann for “Fragments”
Julia Watt for “Men: Dream State” and “Ninety-Seven Percent”
Sophia Johnecheck for “If I Had Time to be Free” and “Permanent Petrov and the Peach”
Written - Alumni and Student Leaders
First Place: Alejandro Dereiux Cerezo for “Nesting,” “Rubbernecking,” and “How to Fillet Bluefin Tuna”
Second Place: Dylan Gilbert for “Appointment” and “The day before I leave to go to my first national park”
Third Place: Malin Anderson for “Items I would sew into my pockets if I am told to leave home” and “You Will Inherit that Cat”
Honorable Mentions:
Lauren Champlin for “Pulling Teeth” and “Doing my boyfriend’s makeup”
Kailyn Bondoni for “Sitting Underwater like Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird” and “Antifreeze”
Maddie Agne for “A Big Rupi Kaur Joke That Got Very Real Very Quickly”
Original Performance - First Year Students
First Place: Sam Hubenet, “Ophelia”
Second Place: Ishtiyak Shahan, “Motor City Movements”
Third Place: Parasar Athmakuri, “Days of My Week”
Interpretive Performance - First Year Students
First Place: Emma Laible, “Men” by Maya Angelou
Second Place: Parasar Athmakuri, “Cartoon Physics Part 1” by Nick Flynn
Third Place: Sam Hubenet, “At Any Given Moment” by Ari Banias
Original Performance - Alumni and Student Leaders
First Place: Rachna Iyer, “Gmaj7, colorized”
Second Place: Dylan Gilbert, “The day before I leave to go to my first national park”
Interpretive Performance - Alumni and Student Leaders
First Place: Kailyn Bondoni, “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” by Olivia Gatwood
Second Place: Dylan Gilbert, “Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘E•MO•TION’” by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
Fourteenth Annual Caldwell Poetry Awards – April 2020
The Caldwell Poetry Awards were announced by email and on social media on April 22, 2020, and thousands of dollars were awarded (thanks to the generous gift of Jeanne and Will M. Caldwell).
Per usual, the Caldwell Poetry Awards were divided up into two categories (written and performance) as well as broken up into two group of participants (first-year students and students leaders/alumni). Students submitted recorded performances this year.
The winning written poems will also be included in this year’s Arts & Literary Journal, which
will be distributed in early fall.
Written—First Year Students:
First Place: Brooke Lange for "The Wonderful Rules of Love," "Dust Mite," "The Female Pelvis," and "To Cure Period Cramps"
Second Place: Maddie Agne for "For Bakker*" (*Whose Name Is Protected), "Mary," and "Rumpelstiltskin"
Third Place: Steve Liu for "Promotion Day" and "Bedrock Winter"
Fourth Place: Ahmad Kady for "Cool Sexy Hairstyles for Men w/ Curly Hair" and "What I'm doing, and why"
Honorable Mentions:
Giselle Mills for "Diva" and "Self-Portrait of Who I Wish I Wasn’t"
Kayla Tate for "a poem of B's"
Cynthia Huang for "I like eating air with chopsticks on top of mountains"
Written—Alum:
First Place: Dylan Gilbert for "I am surprisingly alive" and "According to Legend"
Second Place: Alejandro Derieux Cerezo for "Manscaping" and "Descriptions of 'Pin Rug' by Mona Hatoum"
Honorable Mentions:
Kailyn Bondoni for "A Women's Sonnet For Our Past and Present Assassins"
Marjorie Gaber for "Apocalypse Poem"
Krysten Dorfman for "I love you, Malus pumila"
Performance
First-Year Students:
First Place: Steve Liu, "Promotion Day" (original) and "Digging" by Seamus Heaney (interpretive)
Second Place: Brooke Lange, "To Cure Period Cramps" (original)
Original Work—Alumni:
First Place: Dylan Gilbert, "God if i die don’t let it be by a white woman"
Second Place: Kailyn Bondoni, "the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up & the Girl Who Had to"
Third Place: Dominique Witten, "While the kids get high"
Interpretive Work—Alumni:
First Place: Kailyn Bondoni, "How to Succeed in Heartbreak" by Victoria Morgan
Second Place: Dominique Witten, "Dinosaurs in the Hood" by Danez Smith
Third Place: Dhriti Deb, "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou
Thirteenth Annual Caldwell Poetry Awards – April 2019
The Caldwell Poetry Award results were announced at the LHSP End-of-Year Festival on April 17, 2019, and thousands of dollars were awarded (thanks to the generous gift of Jeanne and Will M. Caldwell).
Per usual, the Caldwell Poetry Award was divided up into two categories (written and performance) as well as broken up into two group of participants (first-year students and
students leaders/alumni who are still at the University of Michigan).
The winning written poems will also be included in this year’s Arts & Literary Journal, which
will be distributed in early fall.
Written—First Year Students:
First Place: Alejandro Derieux for: "Describe Fentanyl to MC Escher," "Cider Press," "Elephant Funeral," "Puddle Jumping"
Second Place: Niharika Kalia for "Rabbit Holes," "Tuesday Nights," "productive insomnia"
Third Place: Sidney Fisher for "Jazzed on Life," "How to Open Up to Your Therapist," "Stalled"
Fourth Place: Teuta Zeneli for "Galatea," "La Ville de Mes Reves," "Open Letter to My Father"
Honorable Mentions:
Charlie Pardales, "Untitled 11," "Ghazal for some lost love"
Annie Ning, "Chengdu"
Tommy Wiaduck, "A Midwest Story," "I'm Still Getting There"
Lauren Champlin, "A Lesson in Floating"
Written—Alum:
First Place: Dylan Gilbert for "After The Morning is Full by Pablo Neruda," "Everything Smooths in the Water But Me", "I wonder who I'm here to make room for," "the mother, the moon, and everything is holy"
Second Place: Laura Dzubay for "listening to boots of spanish leather at a gas station in leland, michigan," "listening to mitski on the drive to my mom's house"
Third Place: Alex Mullen for "I," "From Behind a Pilot’s Eyes," "The Sturdy Jackalope Observes His Reflection"
Honorable Mentions:
Jack Lancaster, "Palo Alto" "Naxolone"
Grace Coudal, "Unapologetic Apricot Jam"
Dominique Witten, "The Family Tree"
Erin Wakeland, "Looking into My Backyard Fields"
Alexis Aulepp, "Yin and Yang"
Performance
Original Work—First-Year Students:
First Place: Rashi Watwani, "I am a poet"
Second Place: Charlie Pardales, "Poem of Numbness"
Original Work—Alumni:
First Place: Dylan Gilbert, "I've been writing this poem since I was 15"
Second Place: Grace Coudal, "I Make Out with the Water in the Evening"
Third Place: Alex Mullen, "You Are (Not) a Latin Lover"
Fourth Place: Jack Lancaster, "The Man Foretold"
Honorable Mention:
Dominique Witten, "Filling Out My Tindr Bio"
Interpretive Work:
Tie for First Place: Dhriti Deb, "The Type," by Sarah Kay
Tie for First Place: Kailyn Bondoni, "The Fisherman Takes the Fish Home & Tells Her He Loves Her" by Brenna Twohy
