North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green hosted a reception with First Lady of North Carolina Anna Stein in attendance at the Executive Mansion on May 13 to celebrate the 2025-26 Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools high school poet laureates. They also honored the first North Carolina Youth Poet Laureate, Rishi Janakiraman of Raleigh. The runners-up for the North Carolina Youth Poet Laureate were Vanessa Hunter and Kenna Zhang of Cary.
Julia Tudorica, Jaki Shelton Green, Aaliyah Mendoza, Danielle Jones,
Lola King, Lesley Miranda Silva Corro
This article originally appeared in the September 2025 issue of WALTER magazine.
