2027 Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate
The 2027 Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate contest will take place in Fall 2026. Applications will be accepted from September 1, 2026 through October 31, 2026. All applications will be submitted via an online submission form.
SUBMISSION PORTAL WILL OPEN ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2026
2027 Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate Judges
Brenda Hillman
Brenda Hillman was born in Tucson, Arizona and has been an active part of the Bay Area literary community since 1975. She has published chapbooks with Penumbra Press, a+bend press, EmPress, A Minus Press, and Albion Books, as well as twelve full-length collections with Wesleyan University Press, including Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation (September 2026), In A Few Minutes Before Later (2022); Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire (2013), which received the International Griffin Poetry Prize; and Extra Hidden Life, among the Days (2018), winner of the Northern California Book Award. Other recognitions include the Pen (Oakland) Lifetime Achievement Award, and the William Carlos Williams Prize for Poetry. A collection of essays, Three Talks, was published by University of Virginia Press in 2024. She is Professor Emerita at Saint Mary’s College of California and currently serves at Poetry Director of Community of Writers in Olympic Valley.
Donte Clark
Donte is a prolific communicator, poet, filmmaker, actor, and lifelong dreamer through the arts. Using body language, and voice as instruments to uplift stories of the past, purify the present and reimagine the future. Donte has written 3 stage productions, Te’s Harmony, which is also featured in an award winning documentary Romeo Is Bleeding, executively produced by Russell Simmons, followed up by Po’Boys Kitchen, and This is Home. Donté has also released 4 collections of poetry, his latest being We Cry Freedom, with his 5th collection Overnight By Sunset soon to be released February 2027.
Lindsey Boldt
Lindsey Boldt is the author of Weirding (Dogpark Collective, 2022), Overboard (Publication Studio, 2012), and several chapbooks, including There Are No Cops in America and the Streets are Paved w/ Cheese. Her latest poetry collection, Tripper, is forthcoming from City Lights Books. She is the editorial director of Nightboat Books and hosts readings at Tamarack with fellow collective members. She lives in Oakland, California.
Sichen Li
Sichen Li is a senior at UC Berkeley studying English and philosophy. She is co-editor-in-chief of the Berkeley Poetry Review, and creative director and editor of Beetle in a Box, UC Berkeley's undergraduate philosophy review. She is a sentimental writer and voracious reader of poetry, who especially loves Anna Akhmatova and Pablo Neruda. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the United States. Sichen is about to begin work on her English honors thesis, which will likely be to do with magical realism.
Arushi Reddy Neravetla
Arushi Reddy Neravetla is a senior at UC Berkeley double majoring in Molecular Therapeutics and Neuroscience. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Poetry Review and a research intern at the Sandler Neuroscience Center at UCSF. She has published a book titled Midnight Labyrinth on Amazon, which addresses themes of human nature, memory, self-acceptance, and personal growth. She is a passionate writer and an avid reader of the poetry of Louise Glück and Emily Dickinson. She is also a member of the UC Berkeley Pre-Medical Honor Society, an organization that advocates for academic excellence in the practice of medicine. Arushi is currently working on another book focused on the themes of discovery, innovation, and self-reflection.
Alex Wilson
Bio coming soon!
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.
