teen sequins
In 2007, Robby Auld was 14 years old. Out of the blue, he emailed me ( I was 26) to say that he had found my poetry online, and that I was (to my surprise) his “favorite poet.” He asked if I might read and comment on some of his work. I had never considered that such a young person might be reading my poetry; I was surprised by Robby’s maturity and passion, and agreed to offer my perspective.
In 2015, Robby and I co-created TEEN SEQUINS, an online feature designed to showcase outstanding poetry from writers ages 13 through 19. This project was born from our mutual respect and delight at our relationship, how it bloomed over the years. Our mission is to celebrate the unique voices of teenagers by providing a platform for their work to be recognized and embraced by a literary community beyond the classroom.
teen sequins 2015
Featured poets in our inaugural year included Daniel Blokh (14), Odelia Fried (15), Kathryn Hargett (16), Jordan Cutler-Teitjen (17), MIchal Leibowitz (18) and Savannah Hampton (19).
TEEN SEQUINS 2016
Our second year featured poets Carrie Zhang (14), Aidan Forster (15), Ben Read (16), Margaret Zhang (17), Talia Flores (18), and Brad Trumpfheller (19).
TEEN SEQUINS 2017
In 2017, we opened our doors to 13 year old writers, because, why not? They're teens too.
Our featured poets were Bella Komisarjevsky (13), Sarah Feng (14), Emily Tian (15), Jacqueline He (16), Sabine Holzman (17), Lucie Richter-Mahr (18) and Juniper Cruz (19).