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Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Randall Albers Young Writers Awards

Congratulations to our our prize-winning student authors. Our judges have evaluated nearly 150 submissions and selected four place winners and two honorable mentions in each category, poetry and prose. Thanks to each and every student who participated. In this, the third year, the quality of submissions was better than ever. The evaluation process was difficult and nuanced; there were many, many worthy submissions.

 

Poetry

1st Place: Oluwatomi Ogundimu, “Sundance // Opulence”

2nd Place: Emma Keating, “Beneath the Surface”

3rd Place: Ashra Roshy, “Know Me, the Ugly Girl”

4th Place: Parker Koehler, “What the Tea Leaves Tell Us”

 

Poetry, Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

Simon Archer, “Blue Swallow of Hope”

Bodhi Haines, “Gumbo”

 

Prose

1st Place: Ivy Lefebvre, “Directions”

2nd Place: Fiona Jin, “L’Hôpital’s Rule”

3rd Place: Lucinda De Maio, “Tail of a Frog”

4th Place: Lucille Hachtel, “In the Modern World”

 

Prose, Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

Prabha Santosh, “Everything Comes to Be”

Destiny Sacluti, “Rising from Setbacks”

 

Please join us to celebrate these young authors at our awards ceremony on Saturday, May 17 at the Harold Washington Library Center. (400 S. State Street, Chicago, IL). The program begins at 2 p.m. Refreshments will be served after the presentations and readings. The program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. 

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