2026 Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate Winners
The winners of the 2026 Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate Contest have yet to be selected. The application period opens on September 2, 2025 and closes on October 31, 2025. Complete and submit your official application here!
2026 Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate Judges
Kim Shuck
Photo Credit: 2019 Douglas A. Salin
Kim Shuck is the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco Emerita. Author of ten solo books, co-author of two others, and editor, co-editor, assistant editor and edit-curious of over a dozen others. Shuck has won awards, collected degrees, been to conferences and many of the other expected literary pocket lint that pertains to poetics. She is also fascinated by shiny objects. Her latest book of poetry is Pick a Garnet to Sleep In.
Zac Farber
Zac Farber is editor-in-chief of Berkeleyside, where he has worked as a newsroom leader since April 2021. Before joining Berkeleyside, Zac was editor of the Southwest Journal, a 30,000-circulation biweekly community paper in Minneapolis.
Kent Puckett
Professor Kent Puckett is an English Professor at UC Berkeley. He teaches courses on Critical Theory, Narrative & the Novel, 19th-Century British literature, Poetry, and Film.
Sabrina "Sab" Kim
Sabrina “Sab” Kim is a fourth-year student at UC Berkeley studying History with minors in Creative Writing and Gender & Women’s Studies. As co-president and editor-in-chief of the Berkeley Poetry Review (BPR) for the past three years, Sab has overseen the publication of four editions of BPR. Sab is also a member of Phi Alpha Theta (Chi Chapter) at Berkeley, a national history honors society and will be graduating this spring. Currently, Sab is in the process of working on her senior thesis, which will explore the relationship between spectacle forms of mass culture, urban struggle, and political movements.
William Rumelhart
William Rumelhart is co-president and co-editor of the Berkeley Poetry Review. His work has appeared in Reed Magazine, Coe Review, and the anthology Quilted Remnants. In 2023, he received the Karen Osney Brownstein Writing Prize & Scholarship for literary achievement. He is currently at work on his debut poetry collection, “Disquietude.” William is a senior at UC Berkeley, majoring in English and Political Science and minoring in PPL (Politics, Philosophy & Law). He is writing an honors thesis on the aesthetics of awe and majesty in Renaissance literature.
Aditi Malhotra
Aditi Malhotra is an accomplished bilingual journalist and spoken word artist, fluent in Hindi and English, with a career spanning India and the United States. She is currently based in Oakland, California. With over a decade of editorial writing and multimedia production experience, she has contributed to major publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, PBS Newshour, Chicago Sun-Times and others, focusing on research, reporting, and storytelling at the intersection of gender, migration, mental health, education, and identity. Aditi’s work combines narrative strategy with deep social insights, highlighting human experiences across cultures and continents. During COVID-19, Aditi started expanding her creative practice writing spoken word poetry, and performing at notable events in the San Francisco Bay Area, like the South Asian Literature & Arts festival and Words & Stories at Salesforce Park, featuring readings by members of The Writers Grotto. Aditi is passionate about supporting BIPOC writing communities and fostering safe spaces for creative expression. Aditi is the co-author of an upcoming community health guidebook on epilepsy and seizures, approaching it from a global health and social justice perspective, soon to-be-published by Hesperian Health Guides.
Aniya Butler
Photo and bio forthcoming...
Questions?
Contact the BYPL Committee by email, and we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have: youthpoet@berkeleyca.gov
The Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate program is supported by an alliance of community partners. These community partners include the City of Berkeley Civic Arts Commission and Berkeley Public Schools, with support from Urban Word.
