2022 Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award winners announced

Kaitlin Jacobson's poem "crooked smile"” won the 23rd annual Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award at Augustana.

Jacobson is a junior from Sycamore, Ill., majoring in creative writing and multimedia journalism and mass communication.

There was a tie for second place between "An Anthem for the Kids who Flinch" by Jessica Zabala, and "From the Child on the Battlefield" by Moreen Akomea-Ampeh.

Zabala is a junior from Moline, Ill., majoring in Classics and pre-medicine.

Akomea-Ampeh is a senior from Accra, Ghana, majoring in chemistry.

Judges were Lucas Street, director of the Reading and Writing Center, and Associate Professor Farah Marklevits, assistant director.

The award is sponsored by Dr. Jeanneth Vázquez, professor of Spanish. Winners receive a small monetary award and a certificate of recognition. The award is named in honor of two educators, the late Honorato Vazquez and the late Angelica Valarezo, writers who worked in the field of education in Ecuador for 35 years. In addition to recognizing excellence, the award is designed to encourage student poets to submit their work for consideration.