The National Endowment for the Arts on Friday announced that Jessie Leitzel, a 12th-grade student at Charleston County School of the Arts in South Carolina, won the 2024 Poetry Ourselves competition in the written category for her original poem, "We Must Be in the Harvest Again."
Poetry Ourselves is an optional competition open to the state champions competing at the Poetry Out Loud National Finals. The students have the opportunity to showcase their creativity by submitting an original work of poetry in one of two categories: either a written poem or a video of a spoken poem, both of which were judged by poet José Olivarez and announced at last night’s National Finals.
Leitzel was also one of nine finalists who competed in last night’s Poetry Out Loud National Finals. The full text of Jessie’s poem is available on the NEA website.
