Congratulations to the 2021 Young Minds Dreaming Poetry Contest Winners!

The Young Minds Dreaming poetry contest debuted in 2017 as a companion celebration of poetry to the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture sponsored by the Association for Library Services to Children and awarded to the South Carolina State Library.

Since that inaugural year, the State Library has hosted this contest and celebrated the winners with such award-winning poets and writers as Jacqueline Woodson, Kwame Alexander, and Juan Felipe Herrera. We completed the contest in 2020 but unable to recognize the winners in a celebration with Pat Mora, our planned guest. Luckily, Pat was willing to join us for a dual year celebration!

We are proud to announce the 2021 Young Minds Dreaming winners who shared with us their poems about inspiration and being inspired!

Grades 9-12

1^st  Cam Srivastava, Spartanburg Day School

2^nd Roshni Nandwani, Socastee High School

3^rd Emily Ledford, Spartanburg Day School

Grades 6-8

1^st Alivia Church, Cross Schools

2^nd Kinsley Everett, Green Charter School of Spartanburg

3^rd Addison Merrell, Gilbert Middle School

Grades 3-5

1^st Blake Maynard, Belton Elementary School

2^nd (Tie) Collette Johnson, Buist Academy and Savannah Bryan, Buist Academy

3^rd Riley Phan, Hammond School

We look forward to welcoming Pat in the late Fall in a celebration of the 2020 and 2021 winning poems and poets!