Santa Cruz County youth poet laureates create community through shared love of poetry

Earlier this year, San Lorenzo Valley High School junior Finn Maxwell, 16, didn’t think he had the slightest chance to become the second Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate. But, he applied anyway.

He knew about the other “amazing” and talented finalists. Noemi Romero of Pajaro Valley High School writes beautiful poems, some in Spanish, Maxwell said, and he knew Mason Leopold, also of San Lorenzo Valley High, writes excellent poetry about the environment: “It’s literally like he’s part of the Earth, bro. He writes beautiful naturalist poetry.” 

So Maxwell was “bamboozled” when his name was called as the winner for the one-year term at the program’s second annual celebration at Cabrillo College on April 17. 

Maxwell, along with Romero and Leopold, was among the finalists for the honor, including Sylvi Kayser of Aptos High School and Xander Shulman of Santa Cruz High School. They each submitted five poems and read them in front of five judges, who announced their selection at the celebration, hosted by Farnaz Fatemi, the 2023-25 Santa Cruz County poet laureate. Fatemi launched the youth poet laureate program as part of her tenure as the adult poet laureate after she heard that youth in the community had long called for one. 

Santa Cruz Public Libraries hosts the youth poet laureate program in partnership with Urban Word, a youth literary arts organization, with headquarters in New York City and Los Angeles. Last year, the program selected its first Santa Cruz County youth poet laureate, Dina Lusztig Noyes, 18, a senior at Pacific Collegiate School on Santa Cruz’s Westside. 

Fatemi said she’s just getting to know Maxwell but said she’s “blown away” by how good of a poet he is already. And after having worked with Lusztig Noyes for the past year, Fatemi said she was impressed with how “intelligent [she is] in so many ways.” 

“One of the most inspiring things about Dina is how interested and confident from the beginning in writing poetry, and identifying as a poet,” she said. “But at the same time how much they’ve let themselves learn how to be in community and how to interact with other poets multigenerationally and got so much satisfaction out of that process.” 

As Lusztig Noyes did for the past year, Maxwell will act as an advocate and county ambassador for poetry and civic engagement by hosting poetry workshops and performing poetry readings at events throughout the year across the county. Maxwell and Lusztig Noyes said perhaps their favorite part of the program is that it emphasizes the communal aspect of poetry, as finalists from last year, and this year, continue to be a team throughout the program. 

“The best part about writing is the community part – when you’re engaging with other people about it,” said Maxwell. “That’s why I really wanted to do this. I like the fact that there’s a cohort, and it’s not just like one person, like a cohort of people that you work with.” 

Lusztig Noyes said as part of her term as poet laureate, she and the finalists, as well as other local youth poets, compiled an anthology of their poems, featuring the voices of 20 authors, that will be published later in September. By that time, she’ll be starting her first year at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. 

“It’s really cool,” said Lusztig Noyes about the anthology. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done.”

Lusztig Noyes describes her writing as being influenced by ancient civilizations and politics. 

“I feel like my subconscious goal is a Shakespearian sonnet but imagine if it was written 2,000 years earlier,” she said, adding she often writes about her gender transition and mental health.  

Maxwell said his poetry often revolves around his upbringing and his Boulder Creek home. He is fascinated by the challenge of trying to pour as much emotion into every single word. 

“I try to write about a lot of really diverse things, but it all comes down to nostalgia,” he said, adding it tends to come from his childhood memories. 

As part of Maxwell’s term, he’ll work with Fatemi and Santa Cruz Public Libraries librarians to begin organizing poetry events for teens and the public at the local libraries, such as poetry performances and workshops on topics such as using multiple languages in poems. They haven’t decided yet, but maybe they’ll do another anthology. 

Last year, Fatemi and Lusztig Noyes organized 12 events, such as workshops hosted by four of the finalists including Lusztig Noyes. 

“The teens have been finding each other, and that’s what it’s all about,” said Fatemi. 

For youth interested in the program, eligibility requirements for next year include being a resident in Santa Cruz County, being between the ages of 13 and 18 by the application deadline and being available to serve locally as the laureate from April 2026 to April 2027. 

The application requires that interested candidates submit a portfolio of five original poems as well as a résumé or description of their leadership and social justice experience. 

The current youth poet laureate will be one of the five judges, as Lusztig Noyes was this past cycle. This year, other judges included Fatemi and San Lorenzo Valley High School English teacher Jennifer Ruby, Santa Cruz Public Libraries librarian Jacqueline Danziger and former executive director of the Young Writers Program Julia Chiapella. 

“En Plein Air,” by Finn Maxwell

Lately, I’ve been yearning to obtain
the graceful sorrow of La Pietà in my painting.
The marble shone like a tear.
I have been believing in other myths…
If you look up through the windchime’s’ wooden tunnels,
you will hear the ocean
and the little boy who steals buckets from it.
And dashes away. And hides.
When I am in the open air,
waves come down upon the shore and mold
into the hands of prayer. The nails,
the pale wrinkles of the tide,
dig into wet sand and beg for penance.
My paint is dried before I can lay it. The ocean
chases the boy. My strokes are messy, and
the painting is muddled into a single shape
that melts from the canvas like an old candle
long abandoned in the good night.

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