We welcome poets of all creative dispositions, styles, and backgrounds and want the YPL program to reflect the diversity of voice and experience in our state.
is a joint initiative of Urban Word NYC and the Nebraska
Writers Collective. This is a national network that begins, for us, at the state level, and produces poets like our 2021
Inaugural Poet, Amanda Gorman. The winner of the Nebraska
YPL position will have the opportunity to apply for the regional and national competitions.
is a non-profit that believes in the power of using performance poetry and writing to build community. Since 2008, the Nebraska Writers
Collective has fostered self-empowerment and built community
through creative writing and performance poetry. The Youth Poet
Laureate program is designed to amplify diverse voices of young
leaders so that they might engage creatively and civically with their communities in Nebraska.
Am'Agyn Spencer is an 8th grader at Beveridge Magnet Middle School. While only in junior high, Am'Agyn is a poet, public speaker, and youth advocate. Am'Agyn uses poetry to share her testimonies, experiences, opinions, tribulations, and culture. Am'Agyn’s most recent award was first place in The Living
The Dream Original Social Justice Short Essay, Music, Dance, & Poetry Competition 2nd Place (2023), amongst several others. Am'Agyn enjoys reading, writing, shopping, and traveling with her mom.
Amelia Escalante
is a senior at Bellevue West High School. Escalante is a film fanatic, lover of everything spicy, a part time chef, and environmental enthusiast. Escalante explores race, fuzzy family memories, and the laziness of Nebraskan plains in sometimes abstract speech or clarity of aggression in her poems. In March 2023, Escalante became the State Champion for Poetry Out Loud. In her few free mornings, Escalante enjoys reading a book and sipping coffee.
Ta'tiyona Copeland
is a 15 year old poet attending the UNO OPS Middle College.
She is from a single-parent family, with two older sisters.
She has learned what it is like to struggle, not have everything desired yet still come out on top and be stronger.
Through her experiences, she's learned hard work pays off, being kind to others is the best, and learned to adjust to the many changes life throws at us all. In her free time she enjoys art, writing, dancing, and obsessing over K-pop.
Aliyah American Horse
is a senior at Gordon-Rushville High School with a passion
for helping Native American communities, promoting equal
rights, and destigmatizing mental health and addiction. She
plans to study business, law, and Native American studies at
Black Hills State University. As an artist, poet, musician,
actress, and advocate, Aliyah's passions shine through in all
her artistic work and she has received several awards for
her journalism and poetry, including a State championship
for editorial cartooning and first place in the Nebraskans For
The Arts Poetry Advocacy contest in 2022.
Eve Bishop is a freshman at Chadron High School. Bishop is a poet, author, reader, and artist, loving essentially anything and everything to do with literature. Her poetry is a diverse landscape inspired by a plethora of concepts and styles. Because of this, she can often be found writing away in her room, articulating feelings about nature, introspection, and much more. Her works have been published by the
Scholastic Writing and Art Awards, as well as by Creative Communication. Despite being an avid poet, she also very
much enjoys traveling and trying new experiences.
is a Lincoln-native youth educator and community advocate. A proud Lincoln High and Arts and Humanities Focus Program alum, she graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2017 with double majors in journalism and history. Since then she’s worked in youth programs at libraries, public schools, daycares and domestic violence shelters.
Nanc y Be r g ( s he / he r ) is a disability advocate in Omaha, NE. She is the content creator for the Instagram account @Accessible402 where she writes about her life after sustaining a spinal cord injury. She also uses her platform to feature accessible and adaptive activities for wheelchair users in the Omaha metro area. She is the president of United Spinal Association of Nebraska.
Jennife r ( JP ) Pe r r ine
is the author of four books of poetry: Again, The Body Is No Machine, In the Human Zoo, and No Confession, No Mass. Perrine lives in Portland Oregon, where they cohost the Incite: Queer Writers Read series, teach writing and gender studies, and serve as a wilderness guide.
Angelina Magerl (she/her)
is a Community Food Associate with the Center for Rural Affairs, on their Native communities team where she works to aid tribal communities with their food sovereignty efforts, create culturally relevant programs and educational resources to the tribes in N.E. Nebraska.
Angelina is an Enrolled Member of the
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and currently lives on the UMOnHOn reservation in Walthill, Nebraska.
Lenora Castillo
is a poet and writer originally from Lyman, Nebraska. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Iowa State University.
Lenora recently retired after spending 19 + years
as a research analyst at the Nebraska
Department of Labor, Labor Market Information.
Her work has appeared in Nebraska Poetry : A
Sesquicentennial Anthology and VOCES : Latina / Chicana Emerging Issues, among other journals.
an Omaha native and first - generation college
udent. He attended the historically black
niversity, Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio where he attained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. He received his Master of Science degree in Counseling with a concentration in Student Affairs Practices in Higher Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and is presently completing his Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Educational Leadership and Higher Education from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
Arden Eli Hill
Despite being from Lafayette, Louisiana, Arden Eli Hill has never wrestled an alligator, only a kangaroo. Arden holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln with a specialization in Women and Gender Studies and an MFA from Hollins University.
Arden has published in places such as Willow Springs, Western Humanities Review, Kaleidoscope, Wordgathering, Breath and Shadow, the Lambda Literary award - winning anthology First Person Queer, its sequel, Second Person Queer and others.
y surrounded with thorns
Tanya Bachu (2022-23 YPL)
ossoming tulip is a memory
e smelled, awoke, and remembered
rself to shove the memory down her throat
she doesn’t like the slightest bit of that memory
not really a beautiful tulip, but more of a thorny, dying rose
she once used to be pure but now she’s shameful
could she ever be normal again?
no, because the sharp memory has already wedged itself deep into
her skin just like a thorn
Named the Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate in 2022, Tanya Bachu is an avid writer who takes her knowledge
to different perspectives. Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 2007, Tanya has never lived anywhere else, but even
though the city she lives in is small, her dreams have
always been big. She is continuously writing poetr and
has been a featured performer at the
Slam, the MAHA music festival main
Women's Fund Lead the Chang
civic mentor
pronouns: she/her/hers
Noni Williams is a poet, storyteller, mathematician, and a data professional with a background in nonprofit data
analysis in Omaha, Nebraska.
From 2022-2023, Noni served
as the community engagement
mentor for the Nebraska Youth
Poet Laureate, Tanya Bachu.
Noni finds purpose in using
mathematical concepts to
explore the perceived world
around her and fostering the
joy of that exploration in others.
She believes that everyone can
be a math person, even you!
"
Laureate program is
important so that other
students can see an
example of what is
possible, giving each
poet the opportunity to
make it their own, to find their voice the way
that they want to, and to
engage in the way that
they want to. "
The Youth Poet
"There's a lot of value in
having that creative mind
and being able to talk to
people and connect with
people and use your words
to reach other people's hearts and minds."
creative mentor
pronouns: he/him/his
Ryan Boyland is a writer, wanderer, doctor, and amateur
astronomer currently based out of Omaha, Nebraska. From
2022-2023, Ryan served as the
creative mentor for the
Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate,
Tanya Bachu. Ryan and his
work have been featured on
Button Poetry, Poets and
Writers, Nebraska Public
Media, with the Nebraska
Poetry Society, and Larksong
Writers Place, as well as in
Rattle, Omaha Magazine, and
The Cookout Literary Journal.
Recordings and performances can be found on Facebook and YouTube.
SUPPORT CHANGE-MAKERS, LEADERS, AND YOUNG WRITERS
ACROSS THE STATE OF NEBRASKA.
GIVE TO THE NEBRASKA WRITERS COLLECTIVE TODAY.
