About Me

Tara Prakash is one of four finalists for the 2025 National Youth Poet Laureate title (TBA April) and the 9th South Regional Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. She also holds the titles of inaugural Maryland Youth Poet Laureate and 2024 Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate and is the author of Memory Map (Finishing Line Press). A three-time National YoungArts winner and two-time Scholastic Art & Writing National Gold and Silver Medalist (as well as an American Voices Medalist), her work has been recognized by the New York Times, Princeton University, and Narrative Magazine. Her poem was chosen as a finalist out of over 630 entries in Hollins University’s Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest. She also earned the First Class Distinction Award by the National Council of Teachers of English. Her work has appeared in Best American High School Writing, Blue Marble Review, and The Daphne Review, among others. She has performed at The Kennedy Center, the National Press Club, and other venues.

 

A 12th-grader at Sidwell Friends School, Tara has attended the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop, and the Kelly Writers House Summer Workshop. As the founder of nonprofit Write to Right, which teaches writing to underserved communities, and the founder of an international social justice journal, Between the Lines, Tara loves sharing her passion for creative writing with others.

 

In her free time, she can be found camping with her Scouts troop, playing ping-pong with her brother, or hiking with her dog Nala.