The editors of The Adroit Journal are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 Adroit Prizes for Poetry & Prose.
The Adroit Prizes are awarded annually to two students of secondary or undergraduate status. We’re fortunate to receive exceptional work from emerging writers in high school and college, and the best of the best will be recognized by the Adroit Prizes.
The 2024 Adroit Prize for Poetry was judged by Ocean Vuong, while the 2024 Adroit Prize for Prose was judged by Kaveh Akbar.
Ocean Vuong is the author of the New York Times bestselling poetry collection and novel, Time is a Mother (Penguin Press, 2022) and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin Press, 2019). A recipient of a 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, he is also the author of Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2016, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, and winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.
Kaveh Akbar’s work appears in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of the New York Times best-selling novel Martyr! (Knopf, 2024), as well as two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf Press, 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, 2017).
2024 Adroit Prize Winners:
Rosie Hong | Prose – Fiction | Clements High School | 2025
Melanie Zhou | Poetry | Stanford University | 2024
Rosie Hong is a writer from Houston, Texas. A YoungArts Winner with Distinction and Scholastic Gold Medalist, her work is published or forthcoming in Rust & Moth, Eucalyptus Lit, and others. She serves as an editor-in-chief for Fleeting Daze Magazine.
Melanie Zhou studied computer science and poetry at Stanford University. She was a Stanford Levinthal Tutorial scholar and a recipient of the New York State Summer Writers Institute scholarship.
2024 Adroit Prize Runners-Up:
Vivian DeRosa | Prose – Fiction | Smith College | 2024
Kaylee Young-Eun Jeong | Poetry | Columbia University | 2024
2024 Adroit Prize Finalists:
Thia Bian | Poetry | Princeton University | 2025
Courtney Bill | Prose – Fiction | University of Victoria | 2025
Mackenzie Duan | Poetry | Dougherty Valley High School | 2024
Isabelle Edgar | Poetry | Stanford University | 2024
Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey | Prose – Fiction | Reed College | 2024
Annabel Li | Prose – Fiction | Handsworth Secondary School | 2024
Blu Mehari | Poetry | Bennington College | 2026
Renee Morales | Poetry | Columbia University | 2025
Vanessa Niu | Poetry | Special Music School | 2025
Emily Pedroza | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Lynbrook High School | 2025
Miye Sugino | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Yale University | 2026
Chloe Wong | Poetry | Arcadia High School | 2024
Josephine Wu | Prose – Fiction | Georgetown University | 2024
2024 Adroit Prize Semifinalists:
Eli Apple | Poetry | Vanderbilt University | 2024
Gem Arbogast | Poetry | University of Washington | 2026
Iris Cai | Poetry | The Harker School | 2025
Cynthia Gan | Prose – Fiction | Columbia University | 2025
Micah Grotegut | Poetry | Utah Valley University | 2024
Chelsea Guo | Prose – Fiction | Lynbrook High School | 2026
Yong-Yu Huang | Poetry | Northwestern University | 2026
Elane Kim | Prose – Fiction | Harvard University | 2027
Merrik Moriarty | Prose – Fiction | Charleston County School of the Arts | 2024
Roberto Osorio | Poetry | University of California – Santa Cruz | 2024
Aman Rahman | Poetry | Stony Brook University | 2025
Rebecca Ritchey | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Hunter College | 2025
Maanyata Srikantam | Prose – CNF/Memoir | The Quarry Lane School | 2026
Audrey Tan | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Pullman High School | 2025
2024 Adroit Prize Commended:
Boatemaa Agyeman-Mensah | Poetry | University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill | 2025
Michael Battisto | Poetry | Berkeley City College | 2027
Valerie Braylovskiy | Poetry | Santa Clara University | 2025
Morgan Brothers | Prose – Fiction | Western Washington University | 2025
Zhichen Cai | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Mulgrave School | 2025
Ava Chen | Poetry | Phillips Academy | 2024
Julia Chen | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Oregon Episcopal School | 2025
Isabella Cho | Poetry | Harvard University | 2024
Joylynn Chung | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Culver Academies | 2026
Sun Clark | Poetry | The Fine Arts Center | 2026
Joanna Deng | Prose – Fiction | Saint Andrew’s School | 2025
Avah Dodson | Prose – Fiction | Head-Royce School | 2026
Emma Erlbacher | Poetry | University of Iowa | 2024
Claire Guo | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Lynbrook High School | 2026
Kaleb Gebresillasie | Poetry | Phoenix Country Day School | 2025
Charlotte Hass | Prose – Fiction | Valor Christian High School | 2024
Nia Hodges | Poetry | Brown University | 2026
Jina Jeon | Prose – Fiction | University of Chicago | 2027
Nadia Eugene Jo | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Stanford University | 2024
Ela Kini | Poetry | Hunter College High School | 2026
Kyo Lee | Poetry | Laurel Heights Secondary School | 2025
Michael Liu | Poetry | Naperville Central High School | 2025
Rellie Liu | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Stanford University | 2024
Rellie Liu | Prose – Fiction | Stanford University | 2024
Chau Anh Nguyen | Poetry | Kenyon College | 2027
Tanya Rastogi | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Pleasant Valley High School | 2025
Anhai Roantree | Prose – Fiction | George Washington University | 2025
Jonah Ruddock | Poetry | University at Buffalo | 2027
Timi Sanni | Poetry | Lagos State University | 2024
Tallulah Stallvik | Prose – Fiction | Cambridge School of Weston | 2024
Munira Tabassum Ahmed | Poetry | The University of New South Wales | 2027
Elise Tao | Poetry | Academy of the Holy Angels | 2024
Ayanna Uppal | Poetry | Germantown Friends School | 2025
Jacqueline Wu | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Rice University | 2024
Hengzhi Yang | Poetry | Harvard University | 2027
Ava Ye | Poetry | Flintridge Preparatory School | 2024
Ava Ye | Prose – CNF/Memoir | Flintridge Preparatory School | 2024
Claire Zhou | Poetry | Dulwich College Suzhou | 2025
Chelsea Zhu | Poetry | Richard Montgomery High School | 2026
Stay tuned for next year’s Adroit Prizes, which will open in early spring 2025! Click here sign up for updates!
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