'A Different Part of My Soul': Student Poetry on the News

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The Pulitzer Center Celebrates National Poetry Month

What is the relationship between journalism and poetry? The Pulitzer Center’s Education team started asking this question eight years ago. Since then, thousands of primary and secondary school students have answered in their own way through their entries in the Fighting Words Poetry Contest.

Poems can forefront the personal in big global issues, like 2024 contest winner Charisma Holly’s ode to the healing power of Black-led sustainable agriculture. They can bear witness, like Lily Scheckner’s poem honoring the women who work toward peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Poems can express the difficult emotions we feel in response to the news, like Angelina Soto Pavia’s poem demanding humane treatment for immigrant workers in the U.S.

The Fighting Words contest invites students to write poetry inspired by Pulitzer Center-supported news stories every year because we have seen how the writing process can facilitate close reading, expanded empathy, and self-expression. An Oregon high school teacher told us, “Fighting Words provided the opportunity for a creative, different, and deeper form of assessment. Students enjoyed not only expressing themselves, but as one student expressed in my class, 'I found a different part of my soul.'”

At the same time, the students’ poems form new and significant entry points into our focus areas, informed by, but distinct from, the journalism that inspires them. This year, we’re excited that WBEZ Chicago, one of the most prominent public media stations in the country, will air segments featuring poetry readings and conversations with two local contest winners in mid-April.

Will you join us in celebrating National Poetry Month? We encourage you to share the contest opportunity with the young people in your life: Give them an outlet to share their perspectives on local and global issues. The 2025 contest is now open to K-12 students anywhere in the world. Entries are due on May 11.

We also invite you to explore the relationship between journalism and poetry for yourself. Read poems by the 2024 contest winners, and the stories they responded to. Consider contributing a short poem of your own that responds to health science news through our Ode to Healthy Futures project. Or simply explore Pulitzer Center-supported stories in the way Fighting Words contest entrants do: reading closely, reflecting on the feelings that arise for you, and listening for moments that surprise, move, or even delight you. As we navigate an onslaught of difficult news cycles, a poetic perspective can help ground us, remind us of our personal stake in global issues, and keep our hearts open to the power of stories.

With care,

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Impact

Our reporting continues to drive impact in Africa: 

• In Chad, REFA International Tchad (African Women's Entrepreneurial Network) highlighted how insights from a Pulitzer Center-supported roundtable in N’Djamena on women’s needs in flood disaster camps are driving change. Inspired by reporting on Turkana herders adapting to drought, REFA is using the roundtable’s findings to advocate for women’s economic empowerment and climate resilience. Read the investigation that prompted the conversation. 
• In Kenya, after a transnational investigation into G4S, a global security firm whose guards are accused of attacking villagers, the National Land Commission has launched an inquiry into disputed land in Denyenye. For years, local communities’ claims of human rights violations and stolen land were ignored. Now, thanks to Pulitzer Center-supported reporting, their voices are being heard. Read the full investigation.

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This message first appeared in the April 4, 2025, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.

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