NEW YORK -- Five high school students, residing far from each other while sharing visions of community and self-expression, have been named National Student Poets.

Each poet will represent a different region of the country. Robert Gao of University Laboratory High School in Champaign, Illinois, will represent the Midwest. Marcus Burns of Vermont's St. Johnsbury Academy will represent the Northeast. Nadia Wright of Murrah High School in Jackson, Mississippi, will be the poet for the Southeast. Sofia Kamal of Rancho Solano Preparatory School in Phoenix, Arizona, is the student poet for the Southwest and the West's regional poet is Anya Melchinger of Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu.

The National Student Poets Program (NSPP) is a collaborative effort between the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, which oversees the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, whose winners contributed to the pool of student poet finalists. The poets, each of whom will receive $5,000, will dedicate the next year to engaging with young people through readings, workshops and other initiatives.

“We proudly recognize the Class of 2024 NSPP poets, whose exceptional talent and artistry will illuminate their year of service, inspiring communities across the nation,” IMLS Acting Director Cyndee Landrum stated on Thursday. “We celebrate the collective energy of libraries, museums, schools and communities, working together to create safe havens where young artists can flourish and thrive.”

In their own creations, the students draw upon family heritage, the natural world and the struggles they have faced.

In Burns' “Yiping's Asian Market,” he recollects the hardships endured by his grandmother and how “Her sacrifices paved our way to America, a reason to be grateful,” while Gao's “Risky Hand” evokes “our father, his face marked by the residue of his work, his clothes worn and rough, and his hands stained with the smoke of cigarettes.”

Kamal, in the poem “Gas Station,” observes the moon and sees in it “a shape like desire, unfulfilled, its edges dulled by centuries of gaze.” In Melchinger's “sometimes i wonder how we sleep,” she portrays a house “where the earth breathes beneath us, dark soil expanding/and contracting with the rain, causing cracks in the foundation, shaking/our fragile walls.”

Wright's “Where I'm going” is a tribute to her homeland and her “sweet and sour” upbringing in the American South. She dreams of “long embraces from strong women/who never rest/whose spirits never falter” and relishes “rich German chocolate cake/sweet, sweet homemade lemonade/Oh, just the thought of it/makes my mouth water.”