The Program in Creative Writing is pleased to announce the winners of the 2012 - 13 Leonard Milberg '53 Secondary School Poetry Prize. The jury consisted of members of the Princeton University Creative Writing faculty.

2013 Winning Poems

First Prize: $500
Second Prize: $250
Third Prize: $100

2013 Recipients:

First Place:         
Hanel Baveja, When Coldstone Creamery first opened
Ann Arbor, MI

Second Place:        
Yasmin Belkhyr, Rust
Astoria, NY

Third Place:        
Ian Burnette, Bridges of Pittsburgh
Greenville, SC

2012 Honorable Mention:

Chloe Barran, Moose
Cambridge, MA

Kelsey Fischer, Squirrels
Highland, MI

Lauren Harris, America at Midnight: Black Unity
Bessemer, AL

Emma Herr, birthday and twin(ed)
Hoover, AL

Joshua Kimelman, Tik-Tak
Millburn, NJ

Beni Snow, A thunderhead of birds
Newton, MA

Irvin Tang, Winter Wonderland
Rego Park, NY

Kathleen Toppins, Regardez-moi
Tuscaloosa, AL

The Creative Writing Faculty at Princeton University 2011-12
Susan Wheeler, Director Susan Choi Michael Dickman Mark Doty* Jeffrey Eugenides A.M. Homes Sheila M. Kohler	Christina Lazaridi Chang-rae Lee Patricia Marx Susanna Moore Paul Muldoon  Joyce Carol Oates Meghan O’Rourke	James Richardson David Rosenberg** Brenda Shaughnessy Tracy K. Smith Edmund White Colson Whitehead C.K. Williams
* Theodore H. Holmes '51 Visiting Lecturer ** Class of 1932 Visiting Lecturer

Past winners who have gone on to become Princeton University students include:

Daisy Bassen ’98 - "Winning the prize made me aware of the Creative Writing program at Princeton and showed me how warm and encouraging it is to young poets."

Caitlin Crounse ’99 - “It confirmed my most cherished, outlandish suspicion: that I might actually be a poet.”

Jon Queally ’00 - “Winning this prize meant that there was the possibility that I had something of value to say.”

Efe Balikcioglu ’10 - “Receiving the prize encouraged me to pursue improving my talent in every aspect here at Princeton.”

Kat Kulke '17 - "Winning the prize gave me a new faith in myself as a writer and opened my eyes to the vibrant writing community at Princeton."