Illinois Humanities, in partnership with Brooks Permissions, the Poetry Foundation, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards, an annual competition for Illinois poets in grades K–12. The 25 winners and 12 honorable mentions were chosen from 867 submissions from 187 schools across the state.  Gwendolyn Brooks began the Youth Poetry Awards in 1969 during her tenure as Illinois Poet Laureate and led the awards process for more than 30 years, until her death in 2000. Illinois Humanities revived the youth poetry competition in 2017 to honor Gwendolyn Brooks’s tremendous legacy and to celebrate and amplify the words and experiences of young Illinois writers. The Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards competition runs annually from January through May and is open to all Illinoisans in grades K–12. The winning poets will be celebrated at a ceremony on September 13 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Winners will recite their poems for friends, families, and teachers.  Learn more about the awards at ILHumanities.org/Poetry.

Photo Credit: Illinois Humanities