Haiku Poetry Awards Emerging Winner - Grace Yu

Grace Yu is a writer and poet based in New York City whose poems explore the beauty of the natural world, overlapping identities and cultural experiences. She is passionate about health and educational disparities, and has been recognized by the Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers and shortlisted for the 2024 Alpine Fellowship, among others. Her poem “my student, age 7, describes gentrification” is inspired by the children she volunteers with, and written in protest against the humanitarian crises that are killing so many children around the world. She stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine against the state of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

my student, age 7, describes gentrification by Grace Yu

“we had to move cuz

they made it so poor people

can’t live here no more.”