Oak Park seems to be a special town for poets, especially those enrolled in elementary school.
Two Oak Park students won at their grade level in the statewide 2024 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards, and another two more received honorable mentions.
Third grade winner Cecelia Carson, second grade winner Athena Saleh and first grade honorable mention winner Lorenzo Diaz are from The Children’s School.
Alta Nekrosius, 9, now in the fourth grade at Lincoln School, won an honorable mention among third graders.
What made their success all the more impressive was the competition as there were a record 988 submissions representing more than 150 schools statewide.
Gwendolyn Brooks began the Youth Poetry Awards in 1969 during her tenure as Illinois Poet Laureate and continued to administer the awards until her death in 2000.
The awards were born out of Brooks’s belief that a poet laureate “should do more than wear a crown — (she) should be of service to the young,” according to a news release.
Illinois Humanities, in partnership with Brooks Permissions, the Poetry Foundation, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, sponsored the annual competition for Illinois poets in grades kindergarten through 12.
Nekrosius used her own memories to write “Mount Eve,” the poem that earned her an honorable mention.
“My dad’s dad has a cabin in Wisconsin, in the woods. I named the poem after Mount Eve and we like to climb it,” Alta said.
“This wasn’t my first poem. It was kind of hard coming up with an idea but once I wrote it, it was kind of easy,” she said.
Given it is Wisconsin, Mount Eve “Is more like a small bluff,” Alta said, but it’s still quite relaxing.
“It sort of slopes down below. There’s a lot of trees and it’s really pretty,” Alta said.
The poem mentions kings and queens “because I like to play games up there and chess came to mind.”
Yes, she was surprised her poem was chosen. Each poet honored gets a bound book featuring the other poems.
Lee Hasselbacher is proud of her daughter, but not too surprised.
“She enjoys writing. She writes short stories and poems. I was not surprised she was interested in writing a poem (for the competition),” Hasselbacher said.
Alta said she “started really, really, really, really enjoying it probably a year ago. It started when I was finishing second grade, I think.”
“My little brother (Graham) and I set up a little library in the basement and we started writing books. That got me really interested in writing,” Alta said.
Hasselbacher said Alta may have been influenced by her father, Sam Nekrosius, who teaches English at the Lab School in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
Over the summer, Alta wrote about “my greatest fear, which are cicadas,” adding “they’re kind of creepy.”
Katharine Klette, her third-grade teacher at Lincoln, said in an email, “Alta is such a curious kid and avid reader,” adding “if Alta could have a book on hand all the time she’d be happy. She’s a word gobbler.”
Klette wrote that Alta is a hard worker who is “open to feedback on how to keep growing.”
“Her parents are supportive of her academics, value her hard work, and encourage her to be herself. I can’t wait to read more of her work and follow her journey through life,” Klette added.
In 2017, Illinois Humanities revived the youth poetry competition to honor Brooks’ tremendous legacy and to celebrate and amplify the words and experiences of young writers from across Illinois.
More than 4,400 poems have been submitted from youth poets all across the state since then.
“The Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards are a testament to the profound creativity and imagination of our state’s youth,” Gabrielle Lyon, executive director of Illinois Humanities said in a prepared statement.
“It is both an honor and a privilege to carry on Ms. Brooks’ legacy and amplify the voices of the next generation of Illinois poets,” she said.
The Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards competition runs annually from November through May and is open to all Illinoisans through the 12th grade.
Winners of the 2024 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards receive a monetary prize, publication in a chapbook, and the honor of participating in Brooks’ legacy.
A ceremony honoring the winning poets was held on Sept. 14 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Winners recited their poems for friends, families, and teachers.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.