Loudoun Community Press

Jasmine Arisandy has been named the 2026 Loudoun Youth Poet Laureate for the 2026 Loudoun Youth Poet Laureate Program (LYPL). Additionally, the Loudoun Youth Poet Ambassadors include: Amanda-Pearl
Omoigui, Gia Mehta, Rebecca King, Pranavi Chilukuri, Nishant Varala, and Tvisha Seelam.

The winner of the 2026 Loudoun Youth Poet Laureate Program received a $1,000 scholarship and publication of their poetry with the National Youth Poet Laureate Program. Arlington Poet Laureate Emerita Holly Karaptakova hosted the commencement and served as a judge. Virginia Senator Kannan Srinivasan, Supervisor Laura TeKrony, and Margaret Banks of the Virginia Poetry Society served as program judges and made remarks at the commencement.

The Loudoun Youth Poet Laureate Program, sponsored by Loudoun Community Press and the National Youth Poet Laureate Program, is excited to introduce its 2026 Panel of Judges. Next, we introduce Margaret Banks is a lifelong poetry lover and writer from North Carolina. Her poetry has placed in the Virginia Poetry Society annual contests, including publication in the 2023 anthology. She graduated with Honors in English and Creative Writing at UNC Chapel Hill. She has worked as a technical writer, technical editor, and afterschool teacher, and currently works in nonprofit science education. She loves astronomy, trees, and science fiction. We thank Margaret for serving our region as a Loudoun Youth Poet Laureate Judge!

The Loudoun Youth Poet Laureate Program, sponsored by Loudoun Community Press and the National Youth Poet Laureate Program, is excited to introduce its 2026 Panel of Judges. Next, we introduce Holly Karapetkova, who is Poet Laureate Emerita of Arlington County and the recipient of a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. She is the author of two books of poetry, Words We Might One Day Say, winner of the 2010 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Poetry Award, and Towline, winner of the 2016 Vern Rutsala Poetry Contest from Cloudbank Books. Her third book, Dear Empire, was recently selected as co-winner of the 2024 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Gunpowder Press. She is also the author of over 20 books for children. She serves on the board of Washington Writers’ Publishing House, the oldest continually operating nonprofit cooperative press in the United States, and is an editor at Mid-Atlantic Review. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in English and Comparative Literature and teaches at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. We thank Holly for serving our region as a Loudoun Youth Poet Laureate Judge!