The Beverly Public Library offers an annual poetry contest for middle and high school students who live, or attend school, in Beverly.
Congratulations to this year’s finalists! Their poems are published in a booklet that is distributed at the ceremony, as well as kept in the library’s permanent collection.
Middle School Division
Emma Jae Colotti for “Only One Is Banned” (Saints Academy)
Hope Dobkowski for “The River and the Pond” (Beverly Middle School)
Abraham Finn for “The Zooming Goat” (Waring School)
Sophia Gurung for “the end” (Beverly Middle School)
Wren for “Into the Reef” (Waring School)
Nayeli Lohnes for “Deportation Desperation” (Beverly Middle School)
Scarlett Maxwell for “On a boat on a lake on a warm summer day” (Waring School)
Connor McGrane for “The Year the world shut down” (Beverly Middle School)
Salma Reda for “Ode to Microphones” (Waring School)
Meara Reeder for “Freedom’s Call” and “Still Standing” (Glen Urquhart School)
Bear for “The Backyard” (Glen Urquhart School)
Camille Schwartz for “Blissful Escape” (Saints Academy)
High School Division
Lauren Conant for “Ice Cream and Heels” (Beverly High School)
Lillian.A.Counts for “I have long hair” (Landmark School)
Magdelyn Dalton for “Just a Rumor” (Beverly High School)
Jessalyn Enamorado for “Ode to the Warm Lamp in the Corner of My Room” (Beverly High School)
Alaina Evers for “Where I’m From” (Northshore Recovery High School)
Lucy Falk for “Newton (101 Madison)” (Waring School)
River Lawrence Gauthier for “The Endless Night” (Landmark School)
Arlo Kinsey for “Summer” (Waring School)
Yishine Shi for “Déjà vu” (Waring School)
Hazel Streb for “Family Dinner” (Waring School)
Caleb Sylvester for “A Photograph of Me – 2013” (Waring School)
Ella Wanstall for “bringer of death” (Waring School)
Eliana S. Wright for “Too Good For Their Jokes” (Beverly High School)
Gwen Zappasodi for “Cutting Carrots” (Waring School)
Finalists will be invited to read their poems and winners will be announced at the Teen Poetry Reading and Awards Ceremony Thursday, April 30, 2026. Cash prizes will be awarded in two age categories, grades 6-8 and grades 9-12. All finalists receive cash prizes, in varying levels based on their placement of Honorable Mention, Third, Second, and First Prize.
For more information, contact Katie Nelson at 978-921-6062 or knelson@noblenet.org.
Thanks to the Friends of the Beverly Public Library and Joan Nelson whose generosity makes this contest possible.