The Randall Albers Young Writers Awards Ceremony & Open Mic returned for its third year. On Saturday, May 17, we presented awards to young writers of both prose and poetry and listened as they read aloud from their work. We were joined by families, friends, teachers, and a host of notable Chicago writers. It was a touching and entertaining way to welcome our new generation of great Chicago writers. This year's poetry judge was National Book Award winner Daniel Borzutzky; the prose judge was acclaimed bestselling journalist Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan. Congratulations to our our prize-winning student authors. Our judges 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.The quality of submissions was better this year than ever. 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 III, “Blue Swallow of Hope” Bodhi Haines, “Gumbo” Prose 1st Place: Ivy Faust 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) Aanya Santosh, “Everything Comes to Be” Destiny Sacluti, “Rising from Setbacks” Photos by: Don Seeley #CLHOF #RAYWA #YoungWriters #Chicago #Youth #Poetry #Prose #Poets #chicagoliteraryhalloffame #ChicagoHighschools #YoungWritersAward (fb)

TONIGHT 📆 Thursday, May 29 As part of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Board Secretary @jhseu will host a showcase of Chicago’s Asian American literary community. https://t.co/FRe8tP3w4C #asianamericanhistory #AsianAmericanHistoryMonth https://t.co/ygpFbvU7By (tw)