Ten talented student poets from Arlington Public Schools have been chosen as winners of the Moving Words Student Competition in 2024!
Out of 415 submissions from 266 students, these standout poems will soon be seen by thousands of Arlington commuters as they grace ART buses across the county from October 2024 through March 2025.
Open to students of all ages, the competition invited submissions of short poems, 10 lines or fewer. Juror Simon Shieh handpicked the winners, whose poems will brighten the daily commutes with vibrant placards featured aboard local buses. The winning works will also be showcased on ArlingtonArts.org and archived on Arlington County’s CommuterPage.com.
This annual event, held each spring, is a collaboration between Arlington Cultural Affairs and the Arlington Public Schools Humanities Project, with support from Arlington Transit. The competition aligns with the Humanities Project’s Pick A Poet program, where professional poets visit APS classrooms to inspire students.
These visiting poets spark creativity, ignite intellectual curiosity, and encourage students to explore their own voices through poetry — culminating in the chance to be part of the Moving Words competition and have their work displayed all around the county.
This is a celebration of local creativity and a unique way to make poetry a part of everyday life in Arlington! The main Moving Words Poetry Competition will be open for submissions during the month of November, with the winning poems installed from April through September. Bookmark the Moving Words page on the ArlingtonArts website and follow us on social media to get the latest updates!
Read the 2024 winning poems and honorable mentions.
2024 Moving Words Student Competition Winners
- “A Deer in Spring” by Hattie Montague (2nd Grade, Montessori Public School of Arlington)
- “Untitled” by Dhalia (5th Grade, Arlington Traditional School)
- “Untitled” by Juliette Ponteuf Warner (2nd Grade, Glebe Elementary School)
- “Untitled” by Lillian Brinkman (5th Grade, Arlington Traditional School)
- “Untitled” by Jimmy Daley (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “Untitled” by Nina Jaeckel (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “please leave a message after the tone” by Blue (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “Untitled” by Ambika S. (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “For the postponed” by Julian Osmanov-Fitzgerald (12th Grade, Wakefield High School)
- “Public Transit” by Samantha Phipps (10th Grade, Wakefield High School)
2024 Moving Words Student Competition Honorable Mentions
- “London” by Alina Ahmad (2nd Grade, Campbell Elementary School)
- “Summer Stream” by Liana Mitchell (2nd Grade, Montessori Public School of Arlington)
- “Untitled” by Lucas Young (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “Untitled” by Susannah Holt (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “Untitled” by Marwa Marhrim (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “Untitled” by Ella Schaufelberger (8th Grade, Dorothy Hamm Middle School)
- “Untitled” by Kira Kettler (10th Grade, Washington-Liberty High School)
- “Untitled” by Julian Osmanov-Fitzgerald (12th Grade, Wakefield High School)
- “Untitled” by Mauro Fonseca Urrutia (10th Grade, Wakefield High School)
About Juror Simon Shieh
Simon Shieh is a poet, writer, and educator, and the author of Master (Sarabande Books, 2023). His poems and essays are published in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Best New Poets, Guernica, and The Yale Review, among others, and have been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts Literature fellowship and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.
About Arlington Cultural Affairs
Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of Arlington Economic Development, delivers public activities and programs as Arlington Arts. The division’s mission is to create, support, and promote the arts, connecting artists and community to reflect the diversity of Arlington.
Cultural Affairs provides material support to artists and arts organizations in the form of grants, facilities and theater technology; integrates award-winning public art into the County’s built environment; and presents high-quality performing, literary, visual and new media programs across the County.
