Academy of American Poets Announces 2025 Recipient of the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award and the University & College Poetry Prizes
New York, NY (February 4, 2026)—The Academy of American Poets announces the 2025 recipient of the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award, Oleisia Johnson, a student at Spelman College, as well as the winners of the 2025 University & College Poetry Prizes, part of the Academy’s annual suite of literary prizes honoring the work of poets at all stages of their careers.
“Poetry gives us language for moments we are still learning how to name,” said Robert Casper, President and Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets. “Oleisia Johnson’s ‘The Weight She Gives Me’ speaks with honesty, courage, and care, reminding us how poetry gives form to lived experience while opening space for empathy and connection. Through the University and College Poetry Prizes and the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award, the Academy is honored to support young poets as they discover the power and potential of their own voices.”
Established in 1955, the University & College Poetry Prizes program began with ten schools. Since then, the Academy of American Poets has continued to recognize the exceptional work of emerging poets by awarding cash prizes to nearly ten thousand student poets at over two hundred colleges and universities across the United States. Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Kimiko Hahn, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Li-Young Lee, Robert Pinsky, Sylvia Plath, Mary Jo Salter, Mark Strand, Ocean Vuong, and Charles Wright are among the university and college prize winners who have gone on to become leading voices of their generations through their visionary work and contributions to literary communities.
Prizes are independently administered by university and college English and writing departments participating in the program, which are sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.
The Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award, established in 2013, recognizes a student poet twenty-three years old or younger with a cash prize of $1,000 and publication on Poets.org. Current winners of the University & College Poetry Prizes were considered. The 2025 award was judged by Chancellor Emeritus Kevin Young.
About Oleisia Johnson, Winner of the Most Promising Young Poet Award
Oleisia Johnson is a poet and digital creative born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. She is pursuing a degree in computer science at Spelman College and currently lives in Atlanta. About her poem “The Weight She Gives Me,” Kevin Young writes: “Oleisia Johnson’s brave and compelling poem testifies to a beauty unseen, unappreciated, and too often unexpected. In the manner of poets Lucille Clifton and Langston Hughes, in plain but precise language, she invokes a history of self-doubt while giving herself the tools to overcome it. By catalyzing humor and heartache, as well as the limitations of family, Johnson learns not just how ‘to call myself / enough,’ but how a poem can tell ‘a story / not a stain.’ It heralds a voice both new and necessary.”
To read Johnson’s poem, visit: https://poets.org/poem/weight-she-gives-me
To read poems by the 2025 winners of the University & College Poetry Prizes, visit: https://poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes/university-college-poetry-prizes
2025 University and College Poetry Prize Winners
The 2025 University & College Poetry Prizes recognized 131 student poets from 122 colleges and universities across the United States.
Olivia Rosario (Agnes Scott College); Lauren Chumbley (University of Alabama); Clara Chiu (Amherst College); Jenna Hoinke (Aquinas College); Rose Paulson (University of Arizona); Bria Winfree (University of Arkansas); Ashby Hendrickson (Auburn University); Aurora Clark Page (Beloit College); Blu Mehari (Bennington College); Yerin Jeong (Bergen Community College); Maisie Williams (Boston University); Isabella Jingyuan Huang, Ai Lee Woods (Bowdoin College); John M. Tangel (Bradley University); Henry Wicks (Brandeis University); Kate Romney Johnson (Brigham Young University); Lindsey Pannor (Brown University); Clara Vy (Bryn Mawr College); Dawn Parker, Taylor Seals (California State University, Fresno); Hedia Anvar (California State University, Northridge); Aidan Carr (University of California, Davis); Jacob Deason (University of California, Irvine); Alex Bravo (University of California, Los Angeles); Zora Sowinska (California Polytechnic State University); Josephine Kim (Carnegie Mellon University); Cailey Calhoun (Central Michigan University); Ricky O’Neill (Centre College); David Brady (Chatham University); Lili Alimohammadi, Erin Noehre (University of Cincinnati); Lucía Reynoso (The City College of San Francisco); Gwyneth Morrissey (College of the Holy Cross); Conrad Schaefer (Colorado State University); Meghan Olivia Arenz (Columbia College Chicago); Grace Q. Song (Columbia University); Rhye Nelson (Cornell College); Lamakū (Creighton University); Lauren Mills (Dartmouth College); Katie Forrestor (Davidson College); Riel Saylor (University of Delaware); Vanessa Abraham (Dickinson College); Murphy Fonseca (Drew University); Tyler King (Duke University); Aubrie Dickson, Marin Madden (Emerson College); Francis Ittenbach (Emory University); Natalia Martinez (Florida International University); Luciana Callegari, Qiang Meng (Florida State University); Adithi Vimalanathan (Fordham University); Sara Marija Smith (Franklin and Marshall College); Claire Lee (George Washington University); Evelyn Blanchette (Georgetown University); Christina Keen Faber, José Genao (Georgia College); Kiyanna Hill (Georgia State University); Amber Bailey (Gettysburg College); Renz Iurino (Grinnell College); Dylan Buckser-Schulz (Hamilton College); Meer Singh (Hartwick College); McGowin Grinstead (Harvard University); Carmen R. Miller (Haverford College); Kalilinoe Detwiler (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa); A.P. (Hofstra University); Bo Hee Moon (University of Houston); Kimberly Fetherson (Hollins University); AnnaLeah Lacoss (Hope College); Maria Cangro (Hunter College); Spencer Robert Young (University of Idaho); Abraham Bishop (Illinois Wesleyan University); Lama Ghrayeb (University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign); William D. Landau (Indiana University Bloomington); Sarah Lee (Indiana State University); Car Simione (University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop); Hannah Kosak (Johns Hopkins University); Nicole Yun Wang (Kenyon College); Sierra Sczesniak (Keystone College); Urvi Thakker (Lafayette College); Andrew Ramirez (Lewis and Clark College); Daniel Gaughan (Loyola University Maryland); Mena Sutphin (University of Lynchburg); Katherine Norquist (Macalester College); Quayle McKay (Marietta College); S. Lieto (University of Maryland, College Park); Aaliyah Anderson (University of Mary Washington); Hunter Larson (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Abbie McCabe (University of Massachusetts Boston); Sabrina Spence (University of Memphis); Becca Nicolson (Messiah University); Jordyn Damato, Lucille Enneking (Miami University); Monica Joy Claesson (University of Miami); Ryan D. Webb (Millersville University); Rebecca Hawkes, Ruby Josephine Lewis (University of Michigan); Sandra Del Rio Madrigal (University of Minnesota); Jo Aguilar (Mississippi State University); Joa Bren Smith (University of Montana); Josephine Fitz (Mount Holyoke College); Trey Kirssin (Muskingum University); Ashley DeVrieze (University of Nebraska at Omaha); Gianna Valdez (New Jersey City University); Karen Sherk Chio (University of New Orleans); Madelyn Parker (New Mexico State University); Olivia Ebel (New York University); Boatemaa Agyeman-Mensah (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Eliana Franklin (University of North Carolina at Greensboro); Xavier Searle (North Carolina State University); Ella C. Weinmann (University of North Dakota); El Bentivegna (Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts); Brian Czyzyk (University of North Texas); Roy Zhu (Northwestern University); Daryna Gladun (University of Notre Dame); Connor Beeman (Ohio State University); Katie McMorris (Oklahoma State University); Eben Atreyu Bracy, Helen Peluso (Old Dominion University); Flora Snowden (Oregon State University); Savannah M. Ford (Pace University); Lauren Ajebon (Pennsylvania State Harrisburg); Ky McKenna (Pennsylvania State University); Christos Kalli (University of Pennsylvania); Thomas Riley (University of Pittsburgh); Charlie Fetsko (University of Pittsburgh–Johnstown); C. J. Maruyama (Portland State University); Claire Beeli (Princeton University); Vannida S. Kol, Corbin Underwood (Randolph College); Sadie Forkner (University of Redlands); Chae Eun “Annie” Kim (Reed College); Ann Sabin (University of Richmond); Gabriel Plata (University of Rochester); Chloe Berwick (Rutgers University); Tess Patalano (St. John’s University); Ellie Hoyt (St. Lawrence University); Valerie Braylovskiy (Santa Clara University); Tenny Liu, Leni Rogers (Sarah Lawrence College); Nelly Carbonell Nieves (Shimer Great Books School at North Central College); Kenton Woods (Shippensburg University); Lydia Geering (Smith College); Brock William Storey (Southern Illinois University Carbondale); Oleisia Johnson (Spelman College); Alexa Manuel (Spring Hill College); Rowan Geddes (Stetson University); Olivia Drury, Jenn Powers (SUNY Binghamton); J. D. B. Elm, Julianne Neely (SUNY Buffalo); Isaiah A. Bedoar (SUNY Oswego); Tanisha Dunac (Swarthmore College); Zinfandel Perez (Temple University); Danny Lenois (Trinity College); Ruby Goodman (Tufts University); Z. Y. Churchhill (Tulane University); Alex Wentz (United States Naval Academy); Carolina Acevedo Gomez (Valdosta State University); Makayla Lachelle Scott (Valparaiso University); Kinsale Drake (Vanderbilt University); Eliza Gilbert (Vassar College); Alexa Luborsky (University of Virginia); Julia St. John (Virginia Commonwealth University); Riley O’Mearns (Virginia Tech); Iliana Booth (Wake Forest University); Sophie Kilbride (Washington College); Kaia Beddows (Washington and Lee University); Shelby Edison, Safa Khatib (Washington University); Lillian Morton (University of Washington); Wafaa Mustafa (Wayne State University); Izzy Toy Rettke (Wellesley College); Simone Russell (Wesleyan College); Mariema Tall (Wesleyan University); Salma Amrou (College of William and Mary); Varya Kluev (Williams College); Ittai Payne (Wilson College); Gabriel Z. McCreath (College of Wooster); Maisie Bilston (Yale University); Ryun Gie Hahn (Yonsei University–Underwood International College); Marissa Stambaugh (York College of Pennsylvania).
About The Academy Of American Poets
Founded in 1934, the Academy of American Poets is a leading publisher of contemporary poetry in the United States. The organization annually awards more than $1.3 million to poets at various stages of their careers through its prize program. It also produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; organizes National Poetry Month each April; publishes the Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; provides free resources to educators; hosts public poetry programs and special events; and coordinates a national Poetry Coalition that promotes the value poets bring to our culture.
To learn more about the Academy of American Poets, including its staff, its Board of Directors, and its Board of Chancellors, visit https://poets.org/.
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A photo of Oleisia Johnson is available here.