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 Years:

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:

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”

Performance

Original—First-Year Students:

First Place: Sam Hubenet, “Ophelia”

Second Place: Ishtiyak Shahan, “Motor City Movements”

Third Place: Parasar Athmakuri, “Days of My Week”

Interpretive—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—Alumni:

First Place: Rachna Iyer, “Gmaj7, colorized”

Second Place: Dylan Gilbert, “The day before I leave to go to my first national park”

Interpretive—Alumni:

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